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My White Colleagues Forced Me To Become An Extrovert

I had no other choice if I wanted to survive

Zuri Stevens
Index
5 min readAug 31, 2021

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Photo: AllGo/Unsplash

Those that have known me since I was a child, know that I am an introvert. But if you ask the people that I work with, they’ll tell you the complete opposite. They’ll say that I am an extrovert. Why? Do I have a multiple personality disorder? No. The fact is, I realized years ago that being a Black introvert in a corporation would ruin my career.

So I forced myself to become an extrovert because that was what was expected and demanded of me.

I’d recently started a new job at a multinational company whose HR manager preached diversity and inclusion day in day out. I had actually joined the company because I trusted them when they spoke about their different programs to respect and embrace differences.

As a young, Black introverted female, what better place for me to be.

I should have noticed at my first meeting with the entirely white team that my boss kept looking over to me to comment whenever areas that touched on my expertise came up in the discussion. I’m an introvert, I need to observe and process — sometimes for days before I give my opinion on something.

I kept quiet and listened. I also picked up on the politics and the power dynamics in the room…

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Index
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Published in Index

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Zuri Stevens
Zuri Stevens

Written by Zuri Stevens

I write about racism, but there are so many other things I would like to write about instead. Help me dismantle racism so that I can get to that.

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