It's time for a cultural reset.

I recently went to the dentist, having missed my scheduled appointment several months ago while the office was shut down. After getting me checked in, the hygienist sat me down and asked how I was doing. I immediately blurted out, “Please don’t judge me – it’s been months and I haven’t been flossing at all.” She laughed and said, “It’s ok. Consider today a reset.” 

That word stuck with me: reset. At a time when COVID-19 has stripped away so much of the known, the familiar, the routine — while revealing the raw truth, the pure good and the painful, the beautiful and the unbecoming nature about our world — and challenging new ways of thinking and being, it is high time for a reset. And in particular, it’s time for an organizational and societal cultural reset.

When the incidents of George Floyd’s, Ahmaud Arbery’s, and Breonna Taylor’s racially-motivated and senseless deaths hit the news, many Black and Indigenous People Of Color (BIPOC) were wholly enraged and deeply shaken, but not surprised. For far too long, America’s history has been steeped in the degradation of Black and brown bodies. As author and activist Kimberly Jones passionately and succinctly in her video, “How Can We Win?” points out, the wealth and success of many of our country’s leading institutions is predicated on the economic devaluation of Black people and other marginalized communities.

In light of the growing sentiment around #BlackLivesMatter and diversity, equity and inclusion awareness, some organizations and institutions began to write and distribute their statements of support. A number of large retail and tech companies provided financial backing to the movement to combat racism. Still others made BIPOC scratch their heads, like Walmart and Gap, who made sizeable contributions towards these efforts now, in 2020, and yet have been historically known for bad labor practices towards poor people and working people of color. (Read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/business/walmart-workers-sick-days.html and https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/05/female-garment-workers-gap-hm-south-asia.)

Layered on top of all of this, is the societal shift all have had to make to prevent the spread of the virus — wearing masks, socially distancing and in some cases completely isolating from friends and loved ones, and learning how to work from home and facilitate distance learning or figure out childcare while under the mental and emotional pressures of being trapped in place during a global pandemic.

So what now? I’d argue that the awareness around disparity and the need to push for a “new normal” is higher than it’s been in a very long time — at least in my lifetime — and the collective desire for change is palpable. But change doesn’t magically happen. It doesn’t arrive when you press “send” on a carefully crafted statement, nor does it appear after a great post or speech. Frankly, while even a financial contribution to the movement goes far, Iʻm still not convinced it goes far enough to address the root causes of the need for that donation in the first place.

In my dentist visit, my patient hygienist had her hands full, helping to scrape out the buildup from months of poor attention. She ended my session by saying, “Okay, it looks good now, but the rest is up to you.”

Yes, we’ve done a good job undoing some of the layers of old sludge in the inequitable culture we’ve inherited, allowed to fester, and in some cases, cultivated. But the rest is up to us. It’s been just about half a year since we’ve lived in quarantine. We’ve experienced what it’s like to question outdated practices — to wonder whether we really need the old paper files and documents we’ve held onto, or whether we can go digital. To confront old stereotypes and myths about people and say those are no longer acceptable. We’ve learned how to unmute ourselves when we have something to say, and also how to speak up when we need to ensure our voices are being heard.

In doing this work, I look for guidance from the late and beloved poet Maya Angelou, who said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” We must become the better versions of our old selves. We need to continue to question, to push, to challenge — and not for the sake just of “change”, but of bringing about true equity for our society and community. We need to ask ourselves why certain institutions, policies, and systemic practices exist, and whether they should continue to exist. We need to ask, “Who isn’t here but should be?” and “What am I benefiting from that needs to stop?” In every interaction, in every behavior, in every word spoken, we need to keep doing the work.

A reset seems simple – a push of a button, perhaps. So let’s assume that that button has been pushed. Now the work to actualize what the reset version of our culture looks like begins, and it starts with us.