Vernā Myers Quotes

Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.

After musicians started auditioning for orchestras from behind curtains, "the number of women in top U.S. orchestras increased five-fold.

We want the straightest gay people, and the whitest black people. We want that first-generation immigrant to act like they've been chilling in this place forever.

When you look at another person [of the same race or ethnic group], you see your future success in them, but you don't see the same possibilities in those who are different.

It would be nice to be [treated by the majority group like] an individual, and not the spokesperson or cultural resource for your people.

Privilege: Once you see it, you can use it to help other people. Interrupt bias on behalf of someone else.

Don't allow colleagues to say offensive things without interrupting them. Intervene and be an ally. Don't laugh at offensive jokes. Be responsible for the success of at least one or maybe two people.

We have so many ways to favor those in the "in group" while excluding those who aren't, including keeping them in their place with subtle but often intentional "micro inequities." Regardless of the intention, the pain and the impact is the same.

I will be returning to my consulting company working across global organizations and industries, while continuing to advise Netflix.

Go somewhere where you're the minority. Go to the 'black gay women with disabilities film festival, because this is where you can confront your biases.

This is quite frankly about people being in denial. The biggest barrier is that we're in denial about our unconscious bias,"This investment in our self-image as good people is preventing us from moving forward. We don't need any more good people; we need real, authentic people.

What we learned after Michael Brown was shot is that police officers are deeply ingrained with erroneous ideas about who's dangerous. Looking at pictures of black kids, they're adding four years to their age, and are told that 'black people are crazy strong and have crazy [levels of] pain tolerance.

Biases are the stories we make up about people before we learn who they are. They are especially apparent when things are high-risk, or you have to make quick decisions.

I think you've already said the wrong thing by not saying anything.

We can’t have a conversation about that in 2021 without talking about what happened in 2020, and the tragedy of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and whole bunch of people before and after them. What I think we have – and let’s hope we can hold on to it– is the understanding that this stuff is systemic. That it is built in, that there was a social hierarchy established a long time ago that hopefully most of us don’t believe in but is nonetheless alive and well and on automatic every day selecting the same people, positioning the same folks and disadvantaging the same folks over and over again. So the awareness around systems I think has been powerful.