Welcome to Changing Lenses for Justice, Equity, Decolonization and Inclusion (JEDI)

Welcome! My name is Rosie Yeung, and I’m here to help people with privilege dismantle systemic inequity, while helping people without privilege survive it.

This isn’t just a podcast about JEDI, which stands for Justice, Equity, Decolonization and Inclusion. Changing Lenses was inspired by Rene August, a decolonization educator from South Africa. She describes bias and worldview using this analogy:

“If I looked at a drop of water through a microscope and magnified it by 100, I would see something completely different to what I see in my hand. But I would still be looking at a drop of water! Our lens determines what we see, not just what we’re looking at.”

Our mission in Changing Lenses is to envision a more JEDI way to work and do business by seeing from diverse worldviews. Because in our capitalistic Western societies, companies look at people through a business lens. But if employers sincerely want to be equitable, diverse and inclusive, I believe they need to see people as human beings, not human resources.

In this podcast trailer, you’ll learn how Changing Lenses started, and why I went from being a corporate executive upholding systemic inequity to JEDI coach, keynote speaker, and warrior.

You can find free JEDI resources and ways to get in touch on my website, changinglenses.ca; and on Instagram @rosieyeung_jedi.

Land Acknowledgement

Each episode is hosted on colonized land that was taken from many Indigenous nations, including the Anishinaabe, the Huron-Wendat, the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Today it is still the home of many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, with whom I seek to reconcile by learning the true history of colonization, including things that seemed legal and honourable – like treaties – but were often marked by fraud and coercion.

I’m Changing my Lens by learning to see land, creation, even business and economy through Indigenous worldviews. And I’m making new friends and building relationships with Indigenous neighbours, cousins, aunties and uncles, in a genuine desire to know, love, and honour them, and live together in peace.

This podcast is one way I’m sharing what I learn to help settler-immigrant folks decolonize our thinking, and respond to the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Miigwetch, 多謝, 謝謝, Merci, and Thank You.

Full transcript is available here.

References and resources in this episode:

"Dare to Lead" official glossary: https://daretolead.brenebrown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Glossary-of-Key-Language-Skills-and-Tools-from-DTL.pdf

Quote from "Dare to Lead" on Perspective Taking: https://connectonline.blog/2020/06/20/perspective-taking/

Transcript

Please note: the transcripts attempt to stay true to the essence of each conversation, while maintaining clarity and readability. As a result, certain "filler" words, and nuances of tone, emotion and emphasis will be missing.

If you're able, you're strongly encouraged to listen to the audio podcast. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human editors, and may contain errors.

Changing Lenses Trailer

[intro music plays]

Rosie: 

Welcome! My name is Rosie Yeung, and I’m here to help people with privilege dismantle systemic inequity, while helping people without privilege survive it.

This isn’t just a podcast about JEDI, which stands for Justice, Equity, Decolonization and Inclusion. Our mission in Changing Lenses is to envision a more JEDI way to work and do business by seeing from diverse worldviews.

You’ll hear a variety of acronyms for corporate diversity & inclusion work, such as DEI, EDI, D&I, etc. But I intentionally use JEDI, first because I’m total Star Wars fan-girl, and second because I believe social justice is a business issue too.

But wait, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me go back and tell you my story.

[intro music ends]

I started Changing Lenses in 2020, after I lost my job, my self-belief, and any sense of stability or security.

One thing I didn’t lose was my passion for social justice. My life goal is to reduce social inequity and discrimination, especially in wealth, race, and gender. I just didn’t know how to do that as an unemployed professional accountant and HR executive with no field experience in social work or anti-racism.

How I got from one of the lowest and scariest points in my life, to now one of the most exciting and fulfilling, is a long story – much longer than I can cover in a single episode, let alone one trailer. So you’ll hear parts of my story spread out through the seasons, especially in the “Real Talk with Rosie” episodes.

Meanwhile, here’s what you should know as an intro.

As I mentioned, my name is Rosie, and I’m the founder and solo-SHE-EO of Changing Lenses. I’m not just a podcaster; I’m also a keynote speaker and JEDI coach for companies and people on both sides of the privilege barrier. 

Here are some of my identities that matter for this podcast. I’m a cis-gendered, straight, middle-aged single woman without the benefits of a nuclear family. I emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada when I was a baby, and I have invisible and episodic disabilities in the form of depression, anxiety, and other chronic health issues. 

There are a lot of things that fuel my fight for social change, and my lived experiences as those identities are some of them. There are also a lot of experiences I’ve seen and heard happen to other people – people without my privileges of being a middle-class, light-skinned, well-educated, fluent English speaker. People like George Floyd, Breona Taylor, and the Indigenous survivors of Canada’s residential schools.

But it’s not just the big, public incidents of racism and discrimination that I’m fighting. In my 20 years of corporate work experience, discrimination in the workplace usually isn’t obvious. Unless they’re trying to get fired, no one is declaring that they’re racist or sexist or whatever-ist. These “Otherwise Good People”, as my guest Shanaaz Gokool describes them in Episode 108, would 100% support the statement that “Black Lives Matter”, while simultaneously enforcing and promoting the business practices keeping Black professionals out of the C-suite.

I know this because I’m one of them. And so are you. Western business culture is based on normalized best-practices which uphold capitalism, white supremacy culture and colonial values. If we’re educated in Western universities, and trained in Western workplaces, then this same Western business culture is ingrained in us, whether or not we’re aware of it.

And that’s why we need to change our lens.

I got the idea for Changing Lenses from René August, a decolonization educator from South Africa. She describes bias and worldview using this analogy, and I quote:

“If I looked at a drop of water through a microscope and magnified it by 100, I would see something completely different to what I see in my hand. But I would still be looking at a drop of water! Our lens determines what we see, not just what we’re looking at.” – end quote

Our lens determines what we see, not just what we’re looking at.

So what lens do you wear? How does what you see compare to what you’re actually looking at?

In our capitalistic Western societies, companies look at people through a business lens. Through this lens, when we look at people, we see assets or liabilities – literally, human resources. This is true even for not-for-profits, who along with for-profits need a business case for JEDI, usually meaning a financial benefit.

If we sincerely want to employers to be more equitable, diverse and inclusive, in a meaningful and long-lasting way, I believe they need to see people as human beings, not human resources. So how do we begin changing lenses?

In her book Dare to Lead, Dr. Brené Brown refers to Teresa Wiseman’s four attributes of empathy, where Perspective Taking is the first attribute. Dr. Brown describes Perspective Taking like this (and I quote):

“The more your perspective is in line with the dominant culture, the less you were probably taught about perspective taking. We all see the world in a different way, based upon our information, insight and experiences. Among other things, this takes into account our age, sexual orientation, physical ability, gender, race, ethnicity, and spirituality.

We can’t take off the lens from which we see the world.

Perspective taking is listening to the truth as other people experience it and acknowledging it as the truth. What you see is as true, real and honest as what I see, so let me be quiet for a minute, listen and learn about what you see. Let me get curious about what you see. Let me ask questions about what you see.” End quote

When I started my own JEDI journey – my perspective was definitely in line with the dominant culture. I thought I knew about racism because I’ve been called a “Chink” and had other racist slurs thrown at me. But I knew nothing about how Black folks live in real danger of being killed by the police just for being Black. (To be honest, I was one of those people who clutched my bag or crossed the street if a Black man came too close to me.)

I thought I knew about gender discrimination because I’ve sat in HR meetings deploring the higher percentage of men being promoted over women. But I knew nothing about how Black women are subject to unwanted touching of their hair – and that’s if they’re lucky enough to get a job without being forced to cut or change their hair.  

I thought I knew about bias against immigrants, foreign workers and people who speak English with a quote-unquote accent. Meanwhile, I was clueless about the rights and freedoms taken from Indigenous peoples by colonists and settlers like myself who believe I “own” my land just because I paid for it.

What changed my lens is hearing the stories and experiences of people living in inequity and fighting against it. There’s the housing rights advocate who taught me homelessness stems more from corporate greed and financialization than from individual poverty. There’s the speech therapist whose Black clients ask for help “sounding less Black”, because they need to code-switch to be accepted as professionals. There’s the Indigenous CEO who refuses to lower his prices just to compete, because it’s more important to him to pay his staff a living wage. 

And there are the many, many more brave guests who courageously share their personal stories of trauma, racism and colonization and raise awareness on systemic inequity.

Out of these stories, this podcast, and my new life’s work, was born. I went from being a risk averse, toe-the-line, corporate executive who ignorantly upheld systemic discrimination in Western business culture, to a self-employed JEDI coach, keynote speaker, and podcaster. 

That does not mean that I now know everything about JEDI. Far from it. It’s tempting to position myself as some kind of JEDI expert, because that’s much more marketable. But the people who know JEDI best would never make that claim.

JEDI is a journey, and we’re all at different starting points, travelling at different paces.

Wherever you are on your JEDI journey, you are most welcome here. We are all JEDIs-in-training, including me. As we change our lens, we increase our JEDI powers from JEDI Follower, to JEDI Visionary, towards JEDI Warrior.

If you’d like to be part of a community fighting the good fight for social change, I’m here to support and walk with you on your JEDI journey.

And if you want to help this community grow and thrive, please leave a review on Apple or Spotify, and forward your favourite episodes to a friend or coworker to grow your JEDI impact!

[outro music plays]

Friend, welcome to Changing Lenses.

Land Acknowledgment

Before you go, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the land and community I live in and podcast from.

Each episode is hosted on colonized land that was taken from many Indigenous nations, including the Anishinaabe, the Huron-Wendat, the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Today it is still the home of many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis people, with whom I seek to reconcile by learning the true history of colonization, including things that seemed legal and honourable – like treaties – but were often marked by fraud and coercion. I’m Changing my Lens by learning to see land, creation, even business and economy through Indigenous worldviews. And I’m making new friends and building relationships with Indigenous neighbours, cousins, aunties and uncles, in a genuine desire to know, love, and honour them, and live together in peace.

This podcast is one way I’m sharing what I learn to help settler-immigrant folks decolonize our thinking, and respond to the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Miigwetch, 多謝, 謝謝, Merci, and Thank You.

[outro music ends]