Identity 101: An Introduction

An IG Live Series around Identity and Meaning

How do I define what my identity is? How do I know if I have ‘privilege’? What does it mean to be seen?

Linet & Brenda broadcast a series of laid back conversations where they explored the waters of identity, privilege, and anti-oppression work. These open discussions led audiences through an exploration of themselves, their relationships, and how they move through the world, culminating in a call to engage in anti-oppression through acknowledging the challenges, realities, and hope of our place in the world. 

Free to the public, this series of open conversations on Instagram offered a prism of thought, feeling, and learning to lead audiences through an exploration of themselves.

Follow the whole series:

ID 101 Part 1 video - Privilege and Identity

ID 101 Part 2 video - Identity: Known, Unknown, Spoken, Silent

ID 101 Part 3 video - Latina, Latinx, Latine, none of the above?

Brenda, she/her(s), is a full-time Anti-Oppression Consultant & Facilitator. Born in Mexico City, but partially raised in India, traveled the world, middle school in South Carolina, high school in Wales, and college in Massachusetts, Brenda identifies as a queer transnational woman of color. After Hampshire College, Brenda experienced diverse roles in advocacy as a youth program coordinator at a refugee resettlement organization, later as a bilingual counselor for survivors and victims of intimate partner violence, and finally as peer recovery coach. Brenda built In.Visible Paradigms to support white allies in their connection to the work, community, and movement of anti-oppression. Her goal is to go beyond the basics and facilitate transformative spaces for white allies to move forward in the journey of turning silence into language and action (Audre Lorde). Brenda is also involved with the Anti-Racism Collaborative and the Equity Consultants of Colorado.

Linet (she/her) is the Co-Executive Director of the Unconscious Bias Project (UBP). Linet was born in Bogotá, Colombia and grew up in Nigeria, France, Venezuela, and completed her education in the US. She is a PhD scientist turned diversity, equity and inclusion professional. Throughout life, she witnessed and experienced the harm caused by toxic workplaces, discrimination, and bullying. This fueled her passion to grow more inclusive and equitable spaces including co-founding the Texas A&M University Language Learning Institute, co-developing the first annual diversity workshop for UC San Francisco’s graduate division, and advocating for childcare grants for graduate student parents. Her passion became her career when she co-founded UBP, where she now works with her co-ED, volunteers, advisors, and community members to bring creative, accessible, and evidence-based programs to reduce bias and unconscious bias to workplaces and classrooms centering empowerment and sustainable action.

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Transcript

Brenda: Hola, my name is Brenda Herrera Moreno, she/ella pronouns, and I'm the founder of Invisible Paradigms I'm hopping on here really quickly. It looks like we lost connection a moment ago, but we're going to restart our live, just pick up where we left off. So we're here, waiting on Linet to join. Go check out UBP_stem. (Hi, Sara!), we're going to be waiting for Linet to come on in and announce a little bit of what we've been working on. We are joining forces to share a series of IG lives that we've curated all centered around identity. 

What does it mean when we have privilege and oppression happening simultaneously? How does that inform the ways that we are seeing an unseen - unseen, unnoticed - and as well as talk about for her and myself, talking about being Latina, and other dynamics that - how that shapes things. So I've sent an invitation for Linet to join... Thank you so much for everyone joining in right now.

Linet: Can you see me okay?

Brenda: I can see you fine. So good to see you. 

Linet: It's good to see you, Brenda. I know, it’s like Classic 2020, Classic 2021. Everything goes bust.

Brenda: Well we're here. Oh, looks like…. All right. So Linet, I was just telling some folks about some of the series that we're going to be doing, but I'd love just to introduce you and the work that you're doing with Unconscious Bias Project, take it away.

Linet: Hi everybody. My name is Linet, pronouns she/her, I'm the co-executive director of the Unconscious Bias Project. And you, Brenda, just like you said earlier, we’re at Instagram at, @UBP_Stem. And what we are is a nonprofit dedicated to providing accessible creative evidence-based programs to reduce bias and unconscious bias and workplaces in classrooms.

And we do this really centering the motto of like, 100% empowerment. Like we want people to really engage in this really difficult, heavy stuff, but come out of it, being like, “you know what? I can change, you know what? I can push forward. This seemingly difficult, you know, for example, like pay equity. I can advocate for that. All it takes is me saying, ‘Hey, I need this.’ You know, all it takes for me to intervene. You know, when I see something happen to say like, ‘Hey, hold on a second.’ Like ‘this isn't right.’” That's what we really want people to come out of our programs with. And I'm just so excited to have met you, Brenda, and hear about the incredible work that you're doing at Invisible Paradigms. And I'm really excited for this collaboration. 

Brenda: Amazing. I think that's so important. And what you're doing with that, with your platform at UBP is to make it feel like people do have a role in this. Like there is a space for them. This work can feel really overwhelming because it is so complex, but because... I almost draw a parallel, sometimes between life and anti-oppression work.

And they have a lot of similarities. This work, DEI work, is about people, about relationships, about justice, about community, and it's as complicated as life and histories that get intertwined with that narrative. So I really want to celebrate you for the work that you're doing and making folks feel like there is a space and that they have a way to enter that and move things forward as a collective, as much as possible. 

So shout out to Unconscious Bias Project and Linet. She is a co-executive director and we're joining... both of us are joining on live here today. I'll reintroduce myself and then state a little bit of the purpose. So my name is Benda Rey Moreno. I also use she/her pronouns and I'm the founder of Invisible Paradigms and yeah, a little bit about our history together: Linet, we met last year, yeah? Earlier this year?

Linet: You know what I was going to do like a dive. I have my, our like thread together pulled up and I was trying to figure out what was the first message we exchanged. And that was earlier this year, like in February. And I think we were connecting over…  I don't know if I posted something or you posted something. 

Okay. So backtrack for folks joining us. Um, Brenda and I in this amazing program called the coaching fellowship, which is meant to provide like executive level life coach, you know, like really big, you know, powerful support, mental, emotional, you know, for strategy for business, for women at earlier stages in this, in their careers.

So like, you know, huge CEOs and people, you know, saving the world and curing AIDS. Like all of these folks are doing amazing things often have like their own crew that are backing them up. And the idea behind the coaching fellowship was - why don't we start building that crew of like really powerful, knowledgeable wise people to support women that are making impact, that are wanting to teach the world, earlier. Why not give them access to coaching and that like community earlier? So that's how we met.

Brenda: Yeah. Another great place to plug into. If that resonates with you, it's a great community. Obviously there's great people in there to get connected with.

Great. So yeah, in February we started to talk about opportunities to collaborate. I've been on this search for community in this work. Sometimes it feels isolating or lonely or hard to reach out and and sort of disrupt some of the silos that unfortunately take place also in anti-oppression and DEI work for reasons we can definitely do a seminar on, but for now we'll cut it brief to say that it's really intentional that our connection and what we're going to announce today - there's so much intention behind it. And, we started to percolate ideas, started percolating visions, and I really want to also celebrate Linet for this very sharp and intelligent vision of how to leverage both of our platforms. And so today we're announcing, a series of ID lives that we're starting, May 7, 4:00 PM Eastern standard time, 1:00 PM Pacific standard time. And these are for - I'll speak personally about what this means to me, and I'll pass it over to you, Linet, to share, but I...  in our earlier attempt to Instagram live, I was just talking about how unusual it is to talk about myself, me, and myself and I, Brenda Rey Moreno, in Invisible Paradigms. And I don't often do that for a variety of reasons, but it's starting to unfold that it's really important for me to share a little bit more about how I'm coming into this work and how really internalized conversations are showing up in decisions that I take on this, on this platform.

And as I was born in Mexico, grew up in India, lived in the United States a really long time now. But this conversation that we're going to kick off on May 7th is around exploring identity and privilege. And to me it sets the stage for further nuanced and more like dynamic conversations about our work together in this space. And I'm really looking forward to those. For everyone watching, please do join in. It'll feel like, you know, sitting in a big living room and, and hearing two friends talking and you can definitely participate via chat. So that's kind of what it means to me. Linet - go ahead and share it. Anything that you want to add to that?

Linet: Yeah, I think… I love what you said… and taking a tiny, tiny pause here. I was blown away by your work when I first got to get to know you, about how specialized you were and how deep you were going with people into the emotions and the challenges of starting to get into this work, with an identity that is being like, a white woman, like that is, that is its own identity.

And you know, in our work we really focus on, you know, what, what is the, what are the practical tools we give some self-reflection. But we're not asking people to like, okay, go confront your hurt right now and see that for what it is now. That's really deep. That's really powerful and amazing. And so anyway, so when, when we started coming around this idea, I just, it just, it was really clear to me, like, you know, these are the kinds of conversations we want to be having with people.

You know, like, yeah, we can talk about the structures of white supremacy. We can talk about, you know, policies that build equity. We can talk about like the justice system and, and how it needs to be changed or broken and remade and all of these different sort of like building pieces. But there is exploration in and of itself that's missing. 

And to put it into context, this Identity 101 exploration series that we're trying out is part of this broader outreach program that I started designing in the Unconscious Bias Project with other folks in our community that are either doing similar work or maybe they run a podcast or you know, they do a BIPOC stories for kids, you know, all these different partners and just.

Well, it's hard to stay connected. It's you know, I know there's this huge article that everybody's talking about, the languishing idea and what that makes you feel. It's like - we need to be more connected. We need to connect more with our community. We need to keep having these conversations, keep feeding ourselves with, you know, the light, the energy, the thinking, the soul, really of each other, even if we can't be in person, which is so powerful. And much the same as you did, as you said, I don't really talk about myself all that much in my work, because I'm facilitating for other people. 

So I bring myself into the conversation when I have an example, but I'm not really like, you know, here's my personal story. This is how I worked through it. I want people to bring in their stories and think of how they would work through it. And it's something that we learned recently, and I'm sure is the case with your work and your folks that go through your programs.

Is that the facilitator, who is facilitating, who is speaking to them, who is connecting with them, who's helping them hold space to be vulnerable, right? Like - that individual, that person, their history, their identities, their experiences, everything that they bring is important for it being able to hold that space.

So that was sort of like, the excitement is like, once we started getting talking, it was like, Oh my gosh, we could talk forever!

Brenda: We should record these! We should share!

Linet: Exciting for the folks that go to our programs that come to our, like community outreach events and yeah, just a different dynamic space. 

Brenda: Yeah, we're really looking forward to that. So, hi again, to folks that are joining in, you're joining a short announcement from Linet and I, from the Unconscious Bias Project, that's where Linet is from, and Invisible Paradigms, the platform that I manage, manage? the organization that I founded.

And we're sharing that on May 7th. We're going to have our firs..., we're going to kick off the series on identity and privilege. Mostly just the identity is going to be the broad umbrella, and underneath that, or within that, we're going to unpack some really nuanced and important pieces of how ourselves and humans have interacted with social powers, constructed social powers, but also hopefully along the way engage with you and hear from you as well. Like how have you experienced identity privilege, marginalization, difficult conversations, parts that have felt unseen and validated? This is a space that should feel like a coffee conversation. So please do, please do join. And we would love to have, to connect with you all there.

I'm just looking down my list to see if there's anything that we missed.

Linet: It's one of three, that's the other piece. It's one of three. So you can join us three times in May, and we'll do our best to record them or keep, capture the video somehow. So, you know, you can come back to it another time. What time on the seventh? It is, 4:00 PM Eastern time, 1:00 PM Pacific time. Good question, Sara.

Brenda: Great. And we have another question right there. It's to you. Nice to meet you. Do you focus on STEM? 

Linet: That's a great question. So that is a, that's part of our, our, like my organization's history, my organization's identity. Is that we are co-founded - I'm one of the co-founders - by scientists. So people in STEM, and we started Unconscious Bias Project actually, because people in STEM are in all of the different fields of work, some of the most resistant to acknowledging that there are issues. Why? Because they're like, O”h, you know, it's just. How well you do, it's a meritocracy, right? Like your, your mind is what's really important here. Like not really who you are. We don't see color. We don't see gender.” Bullshit.

It started there anyways, and then since then we've expanded because, slowly but surely more people wanted to work with us that weren't in STEM, that really liked our approach. And so we've expanded beyond that. So yeah, that's, that's the answer. 

Brenda: Great. Hopefully that was useful too. And thank you so much for the questions, both from Sarah and Andrea. Hi to everyone else. We're excited that you're here. Anything else that we want to share? 

Linet: I do want to say that although these Instagram live conversations will be between Brenda and myself, just like Brenda said, like we will have, we will, we hope that you will be engaged and we do plan to have a little bit of activities that you could do along with us.

So, you know, bring a pen and paper, like, you know, this is: grab your coffee, grab your tea, you know, like this is the time for you to engage a little bit. And it should be really fun. It's very low key and it'll be really fun. 

Brenda: Yeah. Perfect. Perfect. That's it. Once again, thank you so much, Linet, for hopping onto Invisible Paradigms.

Please check them out. We're gonna be having a series of three conversations starting May 7. And actually, do you want to talk a little bit about what is taking place right now with Breaking Bread and Bias? 

Linet: Oh my gosh. Yes, of course. So I'll say a little bit again about Breaking Bias.

So Breaking Bread and Bias is the Unconscious Bias Project’s outreach campaign this year, it started on March 31st with Trans Day of Visibility. My partner, my Co-ED , Alexis Krohn, had an Ask Me Anything session with our entire community. Just really open herself up for people to ask her questions about.

We followed that up with... just today, we had a panel event with our awesome friends at Tamarindo podcast, you can go check them out at tamarindopodcast.com. And the Bag Ladiez, uh, which are also a podcast, and Queen Victoria from FLUX. And we had a panel event about, um, how to break through imposter syndrome, recognizing that those feelings of not belonging really comes from like that systemic racism, socio-economic inequities and like the real, like history, historical impacts of policies that have really made us not belong when we really should. So that's one. And then after this series with Brenda, we'll have a whole other series aroundBIPOC and queer stories for kids that actually feature, um, queer and BIPOC kids and like all their different wonderfulness, as well as a resource for parents on how to figure out if a book that's diverse is actually good, as opposed to, you know, continuing to perpetuate stereotypes. And then we’re capping it off in June with an event that we're still planning around resources like a hackathon, around the sort of, the overt violence that we're seeing towards the Asian and Asian American Pacific Islander community, in the States and around the world. So it's, it's a lot of really exciting stuff and much like this conversation with Brenda, that we're gonna, you know, evolve over a few different sessions.

You can actually support us in this work. You can actually sponsor our collaboration together. And if you're interested in sponsoring, you can sponsor at any level. Of course, you can give at any level to help us cover the costs of the time and the investment that we're doing in developing these resources.

So just reach out to me at, at UBP_Stem, or reach out to Brenda. Brenda also has this information. Yeah. 

Brenda: Amazing. And they can find that on your Instagram or on your website, correct? 

Linet: Yes. They just DM us or go to our website ubproject.org. We just launched a new website actually. You could email us or submit contact information to learn more about how to sponsor this event that we're having right now. 

Brenda: Excellent. Well, I think. This has been a great point of connection with each other and with each other folks that are also listening, but also, as always with Linet, thank you so much for today.

Anything else you want to say before we wrap up? 

Linet: No, I'm sending you big hugs. 

Brenda: I'm so excited. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining. We'll see you all. May 7th, go ahead and check Unconscious Bias Project. Uh, they are UBP_Stem on Instagram. All right. Bye everyone. See you all soon. Happy Friday.