What if we examined every headline—every political fight, cultural flashpoint, corporate scandal, and policy shift—not just for what’s said but for what’s unsaid?
This daily newsletter will explore news and policy changes at the intersection of race, power, and history. Anchored by the ideas in my book Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work, we’ll trace today’s stories back to their systemic roots and ask hard questions about what equity, inclusion, and justice really look like.
This is not a think-piece factory. It’s a guided, historical unpacking of why things are the way they are— to help us see our present and how it could be different.
This will be a full-throated defense, pushing back hard against those who seek to undermine and destroy diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces and society. Qualified is a rallying cry, a roadmap, and a message.
You’re not imagining it. The attacks are coordinated. The language is recycled. And the battleground—whether it’s a courtroom, a classroom, or a boardroom—is familiar.
Across America, the fight to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (which frequently acts as a stand-in for “Black”) is accelerating. Politicians, media figures, and corporate leaders are cloaking their agendas in phrases like “colorblind hiring,” “states’ rights,” and “return to merit”—when what they mean is: recenter whiteness, silence dissent, and disqualify those who challenge the system.
This is why we must center the impact of race on our history, present, and future to find the answers we are looking for now. Other publications may never connect the racial dots or add it as an aside. This newsletter centers on race's impact on everything happening because it is the only way we will stand a chance to change the narrative and direction.
“If we are to address what holds Black people and people of color back in the workplace, let alone rectify the issue, we must first understand that the issue has never been about actual incompetence but a deep fear and suspicion of Black competence and success.” Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work.
That’s why I created this space.
This is Qualified: At the Intersection, a daily newsletter and video/audio newsletter that cuts through the noise and reveals what’s really happening underneath the headlines. We are rooting every episode in my book, Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work—a battle cry, a roadmap, and a full-throated defense of diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces and communities.
This newsletter isn’t passive. It isn’t performative. And it sure as hell isn’t neutral.
🎯 What Is Competency Checking?
It’s the hidden script behind so many decisions that look “objective” on the surface.
Competency checking is the ongoing, often unconscious, demand that Black people, other people of color, and women continually prove they’re smart enough, experienced enough, or polished enough to be where they are. It’s what happens when a Black executive is second-guessed in every meeting while the work of her peers is accepted at face value.
Competency checking is about power. About fear. And about who gets to belong without question—and who doesn’t.
In this space, we will name it.
We will track it.
We will fight it.
🔮 What You Can Expect
Every weekday, I’ll drop a short, sharp newsletter—sometimes with a video/audio—linking a news story, policy shift, or cultural moment to the deeper pattern of race and power in this country. And I’ll always ground it in the framework of Qualified.
We’ll talk about:
The return of “states’ rights” rhetoric and its Civil War roots
Attacks on the judiciary as modern-day resistance to equity
DEI backlash in corporate America
The double standards in leadership evaluations
And the false narratives used to disqualify entire communities
📌 Why This Matters Now
Because this is not just about “work.” This is about who gets to lead, who gets to speak, and who gets to stay in the room.
You’re here because you know the stakes.
So stay with me. Subscribe. Share.
And meet me at the intersection—every day.
📕 Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work is available now.
This newsletter is where the book comes to life—in real-time, in real language, and in real resistance.
Thank you there is much "actionable" content here and more to come!
Thank you. Context in these times is so important. Erasure of people cannot be tolerated.