With it being 2017, and The Civil Rights Act happening fifty-three years ago, sometimes it is easy to feel "out of touch" as we were not direct witnesses, and sometimes the progress we have made overshadows our past struggles. Often, we get not-so-friendly reminders from TV shows, politicians, movies and viral police brutality videos that tell us we might not have made as much headway as we think. The movie, Hidden Figures also reminded me that our past struggles are still relevant today.
Hidden Figures instantly touched a place in my heart regarding diversity in the workplace or lack thereof. The film is about three African-American women that outsmarted segregation laws in the state of Virginia, by literally working their way to the top of the reputable company, NASA. These three women contributed to putting the noble astronaut, John Glenn, into orbit. When one of the characters, Katherine, was moved to a different department, she walked in as the only black woman in a room full of white men. Unfortunately, this scene is a reality for many black women in corporate America.
Katherine, one of the three main characters, tries not let her feeling of being outnumbered overpower her abilities to compete in the workplace amongst people that doubt her skills and competency. If you think that doesn't exist today, pay close attention to the signs that there is still a lack of diversity in corporate America. You see this every day in the office. We all sit together at lunch, we get excited when a new black face gets hired, and hell, we get excited when we see that one of us is coming in for an interview. We find a safe place in others that can relate to us. Anyone that feels outnumbered is bound to feel intimidated, whether the active element of the larger group is race or not. There was even a scene in the movie where Katherine, played by Taraji P. Henson, grew so tired of holding in her emotions, and she exploded with truth. Sometimes in corporate America, this inadvertently gets us labeled as 'the angry black woman.'
Hidden Figures shows us that we are not so far removed from the days when segregation was in full effect. We have definitely made great strides and overcame various adversities, but we still have a long way to go before the scale balances out, especially at work. Even though minorities have increased significantly in population, the workplace is still a platform that seems to be in slow motion with increasing diversity.
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