For today's episode, discover the inspiring story of Graci Harkema, a brave advocate for diversity and inclusion. Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amidst civil unrest, she was adopted by an American family and moved to the United States for a new life.
Experience her early struggles of grappling with her identity in a predominantly white area, her journey of self-discovery within the LGBTQ community, and an unforgettable job interview that reshaped her perspective on diversity.
Gracie’s story takes an unexpected turn when her decision to resign from her position at a Brewery due to the company's lack of commitment to addressing racism, sexual harassment, and discrimination, turned into a high profile national medial storm.
This experience for Graci later paved the way for her to establish her own firm, extending her advocacy beyond borders. She now works with clients across the world promoting diversity and inclusion and is also the proud author of the book, ‘Rising: From a Mud Hut to the Boardroom and Back Again’.
This episode isn't just a talk, it's a revelation of courage and determination that redefines the power of diversity and inclusion.
Work with Graci here.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
For today's episode, discover the inspiring story of Graci Harkema, a brave advocate for diversity and inclusion. Born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amidst civil unrest, she was adopted by an American family and moved to the United States for a new life.
Experience her early struggles of grappling with her identity in a predominantly white area, her journey of self-discovery within the LGBTQ community, and an unforgettable job interview that reshaped her perspective on diversity.
Gracie’s story takes an unexpected turn when her decision to resign from her position at a Brewery due to the company's lack of commitment to addressing racism, sexual harassment, and discrimination, turned into a high profile national medial storm.
This experience for Graci later paved the way for her to establish her own firm, extending her advocacy beyond borders. She now works with clients across the world promoting diversity and inclusion and is also the proud author of the book, ‘Rising: From a Mud Hut to the Boardroom and Back Again’.
This episode isn't just a talk, it's a revelation of courage and determination that redefines the power of diversity and inclusion.
Work with Graci here.
The Culture Ministry exists to create inclusive, accessible environments so that people and businesses can thrive.
Combining a big picture, balanced approach with real-world experience, we help organisations understand their diversity and inclusion shortcomings – and identify practical, measurable actions to move them forward.
Go to https://www.thecultureministry.com/ to learn more
If you enjoyed this episode and maybe learnt something please share with your friends on social media, give a 5 star rating on Apple podcasts and leave a comment. This makes it easier for others to find A Dog Called Diversity.
A Dog Called Diversity is proud to be featured on Feedspot's 20 Best Diversity And Inclusion Podcasts
Thanks for listening. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
I'm really honoured this week to have such an incredible person and an incredible person with some incredible stories, and that's always my aim on this podcast to share people's stories, to build kindness and empathy, and I've got a really interesting one for you today. So welcome to the podcast, gracie Harkema. Great to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Lisa. I'm so excited to be here with you today.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Now, where are you located in the world?
Speaker 2:I am located in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the United States.
Speaker 1:Nice. And how cool is it that we get to talk to people all over the world. It's just amazing.
Speaker 2:Yes, literally, and for those of you familiar with Chicago, where that's located. So I'm halfway between Chicago and Detroit.
Speaker 1:Great, I want to, I guess, start with a bit about your upbringing, and I was listening to a podcast this morning actually, when I was walking the dogs and the host asked this question in such an articulate way and I'm not going to do such a good job but he was talking about how important it is to understand the context of where we come from and what shapes our early lives and that then leads us to what we do later in life. So tell us a bit about your early life.
Speaker 2:So my early life began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa. I was born in Amadha amidst civil unrest, and was born to a young mother who didn't have a chance of life herself and wanted me to have an opportunity that she wasn't able to provide for me. So at a young age of one week old, she had me brought to a nearby orphanage for a chance of care. And after I arrived to the orphanage, two hours later an American family who was visiting the orphanage at the time happened to see me and brought me home into their family, and that's how my adoption process began.
Speaker 1:So from an age of I don't know, maybe a couple of weeks old, you were in the United States.
Speaker 2:Oh sorry, my adoptive family was living in the Congo at the time, so then we moved to the oh yes. So I could be enrolled in school. We moved when I was almost four years old.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, Sorry, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Tell me a bit about that family, because to be living in the Congo I guess at that time was unusual. Yeah, and they were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, tell me about them. So my parents were missionaries at the time. They were doing a lot of faith-based nonprofit work in the Congo and that's what brought them there. They were already living in the Congo prior to finding me, but then I'm the only one adopted in my family. They had four biological children who are older than me and they had graduated from school and they wanted me to have an opportunity that I wouldn't have had in the Congo, especially as it comes to healthcare and education. So they were living in Michigan prior to them living in the Congo. So we moved back to the area that they were living in before and where my siblings were born.
Speaker 1:Were they a white family or a black family?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, my parents, my whole family is white. I'm the only one who is black. So we grew up in an area that had a high-rated school system but from an educational standpoint, but was very low in the diversity standpoint, especially as it came to ethnic diversity. So in my high school I had a graduating class of 500 students and of the 500 students I was the only black female Wow. So I felt like I stuck out. I felt like I didn't belong, I felt like I didn't fit in, but I also kept it a secret. I didn't think that my family would understand, so I didn't talk about it with anyone. I just kept it to myself. And on top of that, because I already felt so different from looking like everyone else, I was keeping it a secret from everyone that I identify in the LGBTQ community and I didn't want there to be another thing that made me different from everyone. So I kept it a secret and pretended to be straight and lived my life for the expectations of others.
Speaker 1:Wow, pretty tough. Did you go on then to university?
Speaker 2:I did, yes, definitely. I wish I was out when I was in university. I think it would have been a more fun experience.
Speaker 1:But yes, I did.
Speaker 2:It was much more diverse than the area that I grew up in, which was nice, but still I think there was the shock of, you know, I couldn't wait to be with more diverse students, but then I was going to school with students who were black, who were raised by black families, who had a much different cultural upbringing than I did, and so I still had a really hard time of connecting with folks. And then, with the international students, I had a really hard time connecting with the African students because I moved to the United States at such a young age. So I again felt like I didn't have a place. I felt like I didn't have the longing trying to fit in with other people. So I went pretty much my whole college experience, you know pretending to be somebody that I wasn't just to fit in.
Speaker 1:When was the turning point that you felt like you could be yourself or that you felt like you fit it in somewhere?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the turning point came when I was 28 years old. I was in a job interview for a global technology firm and the interview was with a stranger who was the director of the company. And in the interview he asked me a question of when did you overcome adversity? And when he asked that question, I thought oh, what an easy question. I immediately thought about being adopted and moving across the Atlantic and growing up in this homogenous area and feeling like I couldn't be myself. But I didn't feel like that was overcoming adversity. I felt like that was a cop out because I wasn't overcoming adversity. I was just assimilating to the roles and the expectations that everyone else had of me. I was playing the part. I didn't feel like I was overcoming anything to be myself. And in that interview I told him I'm overcoming adversity right now by telling you that I'm gay and that I had been coming to work, annual Christmas parties and work events bringing fake boyfriends trying to pretend like I was fitting in with my colleagues and with my bosses. But none of that was true, that I didn't have a boyfriend, and his response to me was the turning point that changed my life. His response to me was that he wanted anyone that came to work to feel like they could show up as their authentic self and that he didn't want anyone to come to work pretending to be anyone else, and that really transformed me for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:So then, after that experience, I came out to my friends and to my family and to everyone else in my life and no longer saw my identities as my shame, as being something different.
Speaker 2:I saw my identities as my superpowered, as my strength, and that I was able to then leverage my blackness and my queerness and being an immigrant to help in so many areas, especially as it pertained to my professional life. So that position I interviewed for was in the human resources as a recruiter and being able to be confident in my background and confident in the identities especially the intersectionality of the identities that I have made me a stronger asset at work, where then I transitioned my focus to diversity recruiting and to building inclusion training programs for other organizations. And how can we? I knew what it felt like to feel like I wasn't included, so it was really impactful and empowering to then build the programs about inclusion and ensuring that not everyone, not just that everyone has a seat at the table, but also that we're leveraging everyone's voices and experiences and backgrounds to make our corporations and to make our customer service and the value of the output of our work even better and stronger for our target audiences.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, so you got that job, didn't you? I got the job. Yes, I have to ask.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got that job for several years. It was amazing. It was an incredible experience where I learned so much about the foundations of diversity and inclusion and I had the opportunity in that position where I worked with global companies, fortune 100 companies all over the world, and that career that I had there then became the catalyst of me being a public speaker, where it gave me all of that experience to be able to work with executives all over the world about the importance of inclusion and belonging.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. I wanted to talk a little bit about your experiences, you know, leading diversity and inclusion efforts for companies, because I've been in those roles and I can remember being, you know, feeling so excited to be doing such an important role and feeling like I was going to change the world or at least change that organization. And the reality is something quite different and you know I'm speaking from being a pretty privileged white person. What's been your experience leading those efforts within the organizations you worked in?
Speaker 2:I've seen it across the gamut. I've seen it where it has been empowering and amazing, where the companies do want to make those changes. And I've also seen it at the opposite, where companies want to give lip service or they don't really care and they're just hired you as a token or a figure for the organization.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you had one very interesting experience where you were so brave and so courageous and I wonder whether that first moment of telling someone in an interview where it's very exposing to say that you're gay and that you've been hiding yourself, you know that was, I guess, the first nugget of being so brave and courageous. But you did something you know later. D&i role. Will you talk a bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yes, I will. In the moment it certainly did not feel courageous. It was terrifying. But I was hired with a global brewery and my role was to be the diversity and inclusion director, where they said all the right things. With that, they wanted to make a more inclusive environment. They had a poor reputation for not being inclusive and also was previously sued for racial discrimination and had a lot of attacks against them and the LGBTQ community for other things and missteps that they had in their communication and the way that they responded to certain incidences.
Speaker 2:So I was initially very excited about the role and as time went on and as this lawsuit continued the lawsuit was ongoing as I was hired and court transcripts had been released about not only that the company wasn't intentionally being inclusive, but they were also supporting racism and supporting discriminatory behavior, even under oath, and I realized that you know, I've worked so hard in my personal life to be able to be my authentic self and to be empowered of who I am, with all my identities, that I couldn't support a company that wasn't empowering their own employees and, at the same token, that was supporting discrimination of many employees. And so I knew and felt convicted and I was like well, if this is my career, if this is my choice, I need to speak against it. And so I had several conversations with the leadership about how we needed to have the racial discrimination lawsuit, and they did not want to take my advice and and, as a result, I really wanted to do something different, unapologetically to support discriminatory behaviors, and so, as a result of that, then I resigned publicly from the position, which was terrifying. I initially was not planning to publicly resign, but I had a public relations firm that gave me the advice of, you know, owning the narrative and making sure that I was transparent about why I was resigning, so that the company didn't discredit me, which was terrifying, and especially at the time I was 33 years this 33 year old single black female executive with a global company.
Speaker 2:So it was. It was really scary to have to do that, but I also had to lean on the words of Martin Luther King Jr and I thought that the right thing to do is always the right thing to do, and so in my resignation, I thought it would be a big deal in my city, but I didn't know it would then hit national news and then stem into international news, so that was wild.
Speaker 1:Could you talk a little bit about what public resignation look like for us? Yes, I would.
Speaker 2:So I resigned initially by email with the leadership team and then I posted my resignation letter on all of my social media channels, so on and everything Facebook, instagram, twitter, linkedin.
Speaker 1:What did you say?
Speaker 2:I don't know if I can pull it up. It was very. I was very upfront about hey, this is why I'm resigning. And it was terrifying. It certainly was terrifying. I can pull it up in just a moment here. But what I realized then was how powerful it was for not just individuals of marginalized identities but also for other corporations to then take diversity more seriously and the inclusion more seriously into not just say we have an equity statement, but to actually follow through with policy and doing the work of creating an inclusive environment, even when it's challenging.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I definitely think. I mean there's a lot of organizations who are not, you know, are at the very start of their work in this space. But if you're out in the world being honest about that, saying we've got a lot of work to do, saying we're working on it, you know, here's our progress, then I think people forgive that. But they don't forgive if you're in court and you're still doing the wrong thing. So have you found your resignation?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, brilliant. So it's stated October 25th 2019. Dear Brewery leadership team, diversity is everything we bring to the table. Inclusion is ensuring we have a seat and a voice at the table.
Speaker 2:I knew what I signed up for regarding the lawsuit when I joined the Brewery. I've supported the Brewery each step of the way. I also know I signed up to represent an organization that believes in its people, an organization that believes its people are family. I believe the Brewery with everything that I have. I believed in the Brewery to the extent of sacrificing my personal life, my safety, my friends, my relationships with several community partners and my health.
Speaker 2:The case study I created in the interview process in which I was hired upon drew specific measures to increase the Brewery's reputation in diversity and inclusion and regain the trust of LGBTQ plus people and people of color communities. During my course of employment since January 2019, I've repeatedly suggested, I have repeatedly given suggestions on how to build upon our reputation. Listen to our employees who have been on the front lines this week alone. I've repeatedly given explicit feedback on how to increase our reputation and increase our narrative, media representation and morale with employees. The feedback that I have been given was also the exact same feedback that credible public relations firms have given, which you blatantly disagreed with. In every conversation and in every action, you've been most concerned with winning the lawsuit.
Speaker 2:You are most concerned with the ego of winning than you are about the loss of customers, the loss of reputation and the loss of employees' well-being. That does not exemplify the Brewery's principles of family, community, authenticity, dedication, humility, positivity, purposeful progress, diversity and inclusion. We, as a company, didn't have to be at the place we're at now. If the voice of a diversity inclusion director was heard, front lines would have read. Headlines would have read much differently. We had the opportunity to be the hero in how we address the situation. Instead, we have lost the trust of our community, many of our accounts and many of our own employees.
Speaker 2:The prioritization of diversity and inclusion begins at the top. We are not experiencing a staff issue. We are experiencing a leadership issue. Inclusion is ensuring we have a seat and a voice at the table. Your actions have explicitly shown you are more interested in the optics of my voice. Your actions have explicitly shown you are more interested in the optics of my face than the impact of my voice. I've dedicated myself to a life and career of equity, ethics, integrity and morals. I cannot represent a company that does not stand for the same. People in greed will destroy an organization's bread and reputation. This is my two-leaked resignation as the brewery's diversity and inclusion director, my last day with the brewery will be Friday, november 8, 2019. I wish you all the best, Gracie Harkoma.
Speaker 1:That was so articulate and so well written. Did you put that on LinkedIn Instagram?
Speaker 2:Where did you put?
Speaker 1:it.
Speaker 2:Every social media outlet. So, yes, linkedin, instagram, twitter and Facebook. Not knowing it was then going to be picked up by the Detroit Free Press and the Chicago Tribune and USA Today within hours. The ironic thing of it was after I resigned directly with the leadership team, they created a statement their own statement that they sent out internally, stating that I resigned from the position because I was too stressed out in the role and couldn't handle it. But within an hour, the Detroit Free Press had already covered the news story and posted my resignation publicly. So the public relations firm was right that they definitely were trying to discredit me and, as terrifying as it was to post my resignation letter, it proved that they were trying to silence me and cover up their inability to address discrimination.
Speaker 1:What impact has that had now? So we're, you know, I guess, four years down the track. What impact has it had, I guess, on that company, but also for you and your career?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So for me it has changed my life drastically. It was probably the single, one of the most single days outside of coming out. You know, that really propelled me in my career and it shouldn't say propelled me, but it set me apart where it's really easy in life to stand up for what you think is right, when you feel like everyone is standing with you. But it is much different to feel like you're standing up for something that's right when you feel like you're alone. And that's how I felt prior to it.
Speaker 2:You know, when I wrote I wrote the resignation letter that morning I had made the decision that day that I was going to resign over some incidents that happened the night before. And so in those moments, you know, I felt so siloed and it was so scary to leave, also being single and black and have climbing, have climbed the corporate ladder at such a young age. It was terrifying to then leave a six figure job without having another job at the age of 33. And then when I saw the headlines, when I saw how the news was responding to a local news, not regional news and national news, when I saw how many people were responding that then for the company they had several boycotts. They lost millions of dollars. They ended up selling part of the company to another, another brewery that was international.
Speaker 2:Many of the people left, some of the leaders that I worked with also resigned, and I think it especially in the beer industry it created this awakening of we're taking this seriously.
Speaker 2:We're not playing around anymore. You know, the racism and sexual harassment and discrimination used to be okay in terms of companies is sweeping things under the rug, but no longer. We were no longer going to stand for that, and so to see how the media responded favorably to me was so empowering to realize the impact of your voice. You know, sometimes, especially as females, especially if we're women of color, we feel like we don't have a voice, we feel like we're silenced, we feel like people aren't hearing us. But it's so important to understand and to know the impact of your voice and the impact of your actions that sometimes all it takes is one person, one person to stand up for what is right, to create a wave. And then, since, out of the outpouring of support that I received from folks all over the world, I then started my own company. I had no ambitions or intentions to be an entrepreneur ever. I had no idea what job.
Speaker 2:I was ever going to do. And after I resigned, I was in my head making a list of companies that were inclusive, that I wanted to work for, and it dawned on me like a light bulb why do I have to wait for another company to be that savior, to have another company to say we're inclusive, you can work here. Why don't I create that company? And so I then made another when I saw that the power that social media had and how many media outlets were paying attention to what I was saying on social media, and so I then made another post two weeks after my resignation, stating that I had created my own company, I created an LLC, and that I was going to start my own business focusing on doing training and public speaking for these organizations to help build more inclusive spaces. And so my company will be about it's almost four years old. It's be four years old in November and now I have clients across all industries. So I started in beer and now I'm working across all industries marketing, financial services, construction, logistics All over the United States and throughout different parts of the world. I believe now I'm doing work out of with clients out of six different countries. So it's been exciting. I mean it's been really hard, but, yeah, it's been exciting to know the impact.
Speaker 2:You know, if you asked me four years ago, where would I imagine now? I went to the magic, this at all. And so the company, my company, was booming. However, keep in mind that was the end of 2019. And I was doing public speaking, whereas speaking and stages all over the world, and then we had a global pandemic. So every day I, my business, skyrocketed and then it came crashing down at the start of coven, where the conferences that I was scheduled to speak at, the seminars, the events, everything was canceled. So then I went to zero income again and that was terrifying. Yeah, and you know, make comments to me like, oh, don't you wish you were still at the brewery? At least you would have had, you could have kept your insurance or you could have, you know, and so I had all the time in the world, and I then decided to write a book.
Speaker 2:I knew that I couldn't. I couldn't be on stages to invest in this work of belonging and inclusion, but I knew I had to still focus on doing the work. So I did a lot of research and a lot of writing and then, in 2021, I got a book deal and things then were crazy. Things were getting, they were picking back up, companies were coming to work, conferences were being rescheduled and then also, in the wake of George Floyd's murder, I then had demands from many clients who had said we don't have budget for diversity training, then said oh, we need training, we need it, we need it. Yet we found the budget Exactly, exactly. So it's been a whirlwind, and my book now was it's a memoir, it's called Rising from a mud hut to the boardroom and back again. It was recently published and so, yeah, yeah, it's been a whirlwind for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I want to talk more about your book because I am as everyone who listens to my podcast. I always go it's so cool, you write a book, I want to write a book. But your book, from what I understand, it's not just the story of you, I guess, being, you know, born in a mud hut, being adopted by a white family and eventually moving to the US and then and then dealing with all you know, not feeling like you belong and trying to find yourself, or I guess part of that. You went to go try and find your mum, your original, your biological mum. Will you tell us a bit about that, because that's in the book, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so it's called rising mud huts in the boardroom and back again. So that again refers to discovering. My biological mother was alive when I was 30 years old, thinking that she was dead my whole life, and I knew that she was alive. However, she was living in a mud hut without access to phone or internet.
Speaker 1:But how did you even find that? Like, how did you find out?
Speaker 2:Random. It was so crazy, it was word of mouth. You know, I was talking to somebody about her and then that person was telling me, or that person was telling somebody else one of their friends about me, and that friend, who was in the Congo, happened to say I just saw Mari Johnny, my biological mother, and she was asking about her daughter in America. But I don't have a clue. So I knew she was asking about me. She didn't know that. I knew she was alive because she didn't have access to phone or internet.
Speaker 2:So I told my adoptive parents that I wanted to meet my biological mother and say thank you to her for giving me up and giving me life, and also, furthermore, that I wanted my mom and dad to be there with me so that my biological mother could see the opportunity of life that my mom and dad had given me and see how much they loved me.
Speaker 2:And so the three of us my mom, dad and I went on the trip, and word of mouth spread when we were there, by the fourth day that we were in my hometown. We were then able to find my biological mother and my biological brothers I have two of them which I didn't know and meet them for the first time and it was so incredible and so overwhelmingly incredible that actually that's how I started writing my book, because I couldn't articulate verbally how amazing but also complex the experience was. I couldn't talk about how excited I was to meet my biological mother without reflecting upon identity and authenticity and belonging for the 30 years of my life. So the first thing that my biological mother said to me when we met was my child, my child, my child, which I have the tattoo of her voice as a sound wave tattooed on my arm as a reminder, a daily reminder, that she is part of me and I am part of her.
Speaker 1:And what's the relationship you now have with your biological mom?
Speaker 2:It's fantastic. Thank you to my mom and dad. So my parents are so incredible and selfless and so loving. And when we were in the Congo, this was in 2015. When we saw specifically when they saw the needs of the people, specifically the women who've been survivors of abuse and rape and sex trafficking similar to my biological mother and I can't imagine I don't know the extent of all of the trauma that she had survived, but my mom and dad have a heart for those women and for the people there, especially the women that have been kicked out of their families, who now are single mothers trying to survive.
Speaker 2:And so, seven years ago, my parents moved to the Congo where they started a faith based nonprofit and they lived there half of the year helping to take care of my biological mother and other women in the city who've just survived. So it's amazing this past year, this past Christmas, my parents were in the Congo and I then surprised my biological mother. I flew back to see her and it was so amazing. This time I hired a film crew that recorded me surprising her, and the audio of that surprise is a bonus chapter in the audio of my audio book.
Speaker 1:That is so cool. Okay, where can people get your book? Tell us more about that.
Speaker 2:Everywhere in my book. So my book is available in hardcover, ebook and audio book. I narrated the audio book. You can order it through Amazon or your local book retailer. If they don't have it on shelves, request them to order it for you. It is available all over the world. The book is in English. I'm so excited to share a story that I was once ashamed of and now share it with the world to help inspire and impact people to know that they're not alone and also to know that the world is better for all the things that we've had to live through, that even through those adversities and through our journeys, that we have the power within us to rise.
Speaker 1:Before we jumped on the recording, Gracie was telling me that the book is now available on Amazon in Australia and New Zealand. So for all my listeners in this part of the world, you can grab a copy of her book and I will find the link and put it in the show notes. If people want to work with you, Gracie, how can they find you?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, lisa. You can go to my website, gracieharkamacom. Gracie is spelled G-R-A-C-I, harkama is H-A-R-K-E-M-A. Also, you can text me on Instagram. My Instagram handle is at the Gracie Harkama.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. I'll put all those links in the show notes as well so people can find you if they'd like to work with you. And thank you so much for coming on A Dog Called Diversity. It's been an absolute honour to hear your story and to share it with my listeners.
Speaker 2:Lisa, thank you so much for having me. It's great to connect with you and have this time together.