Mediocrity Is Not the Standard

Lisa   

Where’s Miles? I thought he said he could be here at six.  

Damon  

He said he got held up, but he’s on his way now.   

Lisa   

Weird. He’s always on time.  

Damon   

Yeah.   

(To Miles) Whoa, what’s up with you?  

Miles   

You will not believe the day I just had.   

Lisa   

Today was that implicit bias training with that care center, right?  

Miles   

Oh, yeah. 

Damon 

What happened?  

Miles   

So you know how I got called in after an incident with the head nun?  

Lisa   

Yep. Good old Sister Maureen.  

Miles   

Right. So, I get there, and the entire management team is there. All white, mostly graying. And right next to them is the new head of HR who called me. This young Black woman. 

Damon   

Poor woman.  

Miles   

It gets worse. So, I’m taking this rapid COVID test, and I’m waiting for my results when all of a sudden, this blur of black and white goes rushing past me and out the door! It was Sister Maureen running out the door in full habit. She decided to do an Irish goodbye to the implicit bias training.  

Damon   

Wow. It’s the flying habit that really seals it. 

Lisa   

How symbolic. She couldn’t break her habit. 

Miles   

She was 75. She was retiring in two weeks. She was just like, “Oh, I’m too old for this. If I haven’t changed now, how am I supposed to change in two weeks?” It’s like retirement is home base and she’s trying to slide in before she gets tagged out? 

Lisa   

Right. It’s like she’s trying to get home safe before the rest of the world wakes up to white mediocrity and raises the standard. 

Miles   

Exactly. Why change when the end is in sight? 

Damon   

The fact that she literally ran out the door! That kind of panic is spreading now. White people are learning that people of color are raising the standard. And they don’t even know how to begin to meet it. 

Lisa   

Oh my god, that reminds me of this interview I had last year. They kept calling me back in for interview after interview. And each time they called in more and more members of the hiring team and board. But my fourth interview, I was sitting in front of a panel of 10 people.  

Miles   

Whoa.  

Lisa   

Yeah. And then finally, at the end of the day, they said, “We don’t understand. Can you just tell us, are you practical or are you visionary? We just don’t understand how you can do it all.” And I just said sorry, guys, you’re just gonna have to accept that I’m just really damn good.  

Damon   

Good response. Did you get the job?  

Lisa   

No. But at that point, I was like, fuck y’all, you know? But the fact that they made me jump through all those hoops and I still didn’t get the job—because what? They couldn’t make sense of the fact that I didn’t fit into their paradigm? Because I could do all these things and they couldn’t understand it? 

Damon   

If you were just one, just visionary, just practical, you probably would have gotten the job.  

Lisa   

Exactly. When the people in charge have such a small frame, no real change ever happens.  

Miles   

And now people of color are bursting open the frames and letting the light in, and they are literally running for the hills!