Shy Averett

Everybody can’t be Stacey Abrams. We don’t need a million Stacey’s. We need a million individuals, different people, doing different things. It’s, like, your body. You need your hands, right? But if your whole body were made of hands, you would not be functional. We all play our part. People turn down stuff and walk away from stuff because they don’t get it. But if you get agitated, you’re supposed to do something about it. I spend as much time talking to our people about inclusion, diversity, and equity as talking to people who want to be allies. I could have said I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want to, and they should be getting it right. Think about when you didn’t know something. Somebody tapped you on the shoulder and informed you in a way where you could receive it respectfully. Everything is not meant for us to jump up with an Afro, a pick and our hands up with our all-Black outfit on and tear down stuff. That is not how you get everything done, depending on your environment. Don’t get it twisted. I will come in with my Black jacket and shake this up when it’s time. But on step one, I know how to walk in a room like, ‘No, we need to do it this way.‘ This is another thing that I love about my Pastor. He talked about how when it comes down to change, you have to educate, not manipulate. It was so powerful to me because you have so many people who manipulate. They make people feel bad. That’s not changing. That means I’m responding to something you’re giving me quickly because I feel bad and don’t want to look bad. But when you turn away, I haven’t changed. So for me, it’s all about slowing down. If you have a perspective on something, educate people. You shouldn’t get mad because they don’t know. But guess what? There’s stuff that we don’t know, and not until somebody stopped us and made us pause and educated us. One of the biggest things I learned is that I thought I was the most inclusive when it came to taking care of everybody and not leaving anybody out. It was not until Mother’s Day in Seattle that I I went to this Mother’s Day program. Slides were showing all the mothers who they were honoring. They had these slides honoring different mothers, and an empty stool at the end and the slide went dark. The slide then stated how this day isn’t a happy one for everybody. For some of you, this may be sad. It could have been that you could have lost a mother. You could have lost a child, whatever it is. I cried during the rest of the program because I realized that every person I interacted with took my experience, my thoughts, and I made it everybody else’s. I say Happy Mother’s Day because that’s all we’ve been taught. That’s all I knew. It shook me because that woman could have just lost a child. She could have just lost her mother. So it’s not a Happy Mother’s Day. But I took my experiences, and that’s what everybody does. I meant no harm. I meant no ill will. I think we want people to get what we get without taking the time to educate them and make them feel what we feel. We just want to make them feel bad and respond. So for everybody, whether you are in corporate, nonprofit, or whatever it is, we have to do our part. That may not look like everybody else’s. It may just be opening up and sharing your experiences and not expecting people to get it right the first time because we don’t get it right the first time. The same grace we want people to give us and understand that we’re not familiar with is the same grace we should get for other people, and some don’t want to get it. So you will recognize it. But let’s not say everybody doesn’t want to get it because if I had done that at work, we wouldn’t have a Black History Month program. We wouldn’t have MANCODE, and we wouldn’t have the Legacy Project. All of these programs would have never been created if I said, ‘Oh, they’re not doing it,

and they should be. So I’m done.‘ Instead, I realized they aren’t doing it because they don’t realize how important it is. So let me slide in here and show them. Now it is the most intricate part of our organization. And greater Microsoft, our staff, pushes out everywhere. It wasn’t that way before because I made people come along on the journey. I didn’t try to manipulate people and make people feel bad or make them feel guilty. I educate people on why this is important. Let me explain to you why and let’s talk about it. I’m going to let you go on your journey and get there when you get there. But they’re getting there. You can’t be mad at progress, even if it’s not as fast as you want it to be.

UPTOWN: I’ve heard a lot about the wonderful work of a program you started called MANCODE. Tell us about the program and why specifically target minority boys?

AVERETT: Yes, it is my favorite topic to talk about. It took that one moment where one little boy said he never used a computer as a third-grader, and I thought I was just going to do something for him. Let’s do something for little Brian and his classmates because they don’t have computers. Then in the middle of the night, it was midnight, and I wondered what the statistics are for Black boys in tech? My wonder-twin Sander, with whom I do all of my community stuff no matter where I am, started digging. I finally found the Department of Labor and some other people. I did some stats, and for Black and Brown underrepresented mine then in 2017, it was 2.2%. And I’m like, okay, well, pause because women at that point were like, at 28, so I get why we focus on limited tech because it’s 28 out of 100. But when we say men dominate technology, that’s fact. But it’s not the full truth. It’s like when you drill down another layer, and we missed something because we just went off what everybody told us and operated off of that. No, we’re not doing that. So once I figured that out, we did the first MANCODE in Detroit, and we’ve been going. I think we just hit a quarter million boys who have been through the program since 2017, and it’s beautiful. It’s intentional. I don’t allow anybody to teach unless they are a minority male. All the programs we’ve done, I created them. I’ve never gotten up in front of a group ever. Sometimes the teachers will tell the children, and I’ll say, ‘Don’t tell them.‘ They’re all brothers who are in the front. They are teaching the class. They open it up, feed them, talk to them, and mentor them. If there are ladies there, we may be working on registration. That’s about as much as I will allow the women to do. They need to see people who look like them in leadership positions. Everything about the program is super intentional. We’ve had some speakers like Jeff Johnson, who is with BET, Nick Cannon, Chris Paul, and Dwyane Wade. Those are just some of the brothers who have come through to just love on our kids, talk to them, empower them, and educate them. These brothers have come in on their own time because they believe in our kids. If I could do it every day and just go around the country and help our Black boys I would because we’re not talking about it enough. We talk about it when we see them on TV and when there’s a bad police interaction, and one of them has gotten killed or something else. But they need help, and not because it’s so bad. But our Black boys are so dope and so important. And in that way, they are everything. You want to talk about strengthening the Black community, like Black women. Yes, we will hold it down all day. But the deficit and the issues we are seeing in the Black community are because of our Black men. [MANCODE] will stay forever, it doesn’t even matter where I am. That program will live on because it is important and because of the stuff that we’ve seen come out of it. It’s never about the fact we had 1300 Black boys in Atlanta. That was great. But what comes out of it? One of the last meetings we did was in Seattle, where a 16-year-old young boy went to high school. He was driving and got pulled over by six police officers, with guns drawn from a mistaken identity. That was about the extent of it, pulling him over. The teacher told us that the young man called him afterwards to let them know where he was and why he was late. The teacher called me, and I wanted to make sure he was ok. I didn’t know what we could do. He told his teacher he still wanted to attend. So the police finally let him go. He was about an hour and a half late. But every single time, there’s one breakthrough story during a session. When he went to his session, I told Galen Duncan, the director of player development, who has worked with NBA and NFL teams, ‘Hey, you got a young boy who’s coming in who just got pulled over. Just watch him, make sure he’s good,‘ because that one session is all about love. We put just one strong brother in the room, and they can just love on them and talk about life because I’m like, ‘coding is cool,‘ but the stuff you all go through every day is equally important for you to have a space. He saw him and could tell that he was struggling. So he went back and said, ‘Do you want to share with everybody what happened, or do we want to leave it alone?‘ He said, ‘Man, I want to talk about it.‘ So he talked about it. It prompted other brothers in a room to talk about how they got there. Next thing we know, the class is over because every session is an hour-long, and they rotate throughout the day. I knew on that day nobody was coming out of that room. They were hugging and crying in groups. They were there for the rest of the day and there was no way I was going to stop that. Afterwards, the child’s mother came up to us in the most sincere way. She told us, ‘I am so grateful that this happened today because his father isn’t in his life.‘ She continued, ‘I don’t know what I would have to deal with knowing that he knew he got pulled over because he was a Black man and I’m a Caucasian woman. There’s no way I could have helped him.‘ That’s why we did it. That’s why when we had to change the date three weeks ago, this was supposed to happen so that we could help him. One, this is a gift. Two, we’re supposed to be doing it because I can tell you about every single in-person event. There’s always one boy, there’s always one. So I’m going to stop because I could talk about this subject for the next 12 hours.

UPTOWN: A lot of young people want to make change but don’t always know where to begin. What are ways they can get involved and help bring about real change in their communities?

AVERETT: Part of it is that there’s something you can’t look away from. It’s back to that education. There’s something that bothers you more than it bothers everybody else. Or there’s something when my pastor says, when you walk into a room, and everybody else is good, but you see something that bothers you, you’re agitated that that teacher speaks to kids that way. Or you’re agitated when you look in, and I’m going to go from soft to hard. You could be agitated. And you know, man, when we eat lunch, all they give us is, like, burgers and pizza. That’s bad for us. We should eat healthy meals. If that agitates you, and nobody else cares, that’s your thing. It doesn’t have to be that way all of the time. We just miss all the pieces of the puzzle. The picture is beautiful because a thousand pieces play their parts. It doesn’t matter what it is. But there’s something that bothers you. Do you want to know why you’re asking yourself why? Because you’re supposed to be part of the solution! The minute the question comes, it is up to you to figure out what part you play in the solution. People think it has to be something so strong, political, and hard. It doesn’t matter what it is. We have this workshop that we created that we do after the Legacy Project every time, where it asks students, ‘What is your legacy going to be?‘ And part of it is that we ask them, ‘What are you good at?‘ ‘What are you passionate about?’ If you’re passionate about helping people in need, then that’s your passion. I’m good at numbers, but I’m not an accountant. What is that? Okay, well, go do tax services in the community for free. If people don’t know how to merge, the reason why I’m in the position I’m in right now has nothing to do with me. I knew my passion. I knew what my gift was. I married my passion. That would be my big message to young people. I came up with a really good idea, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, kids are going to love this.‘ I spent the rest of the day in the best space ever. That’s what I was thankful for. I was thankful that that idea came to me and that it would happen. We get to help more people. But for kids, students, young people, and even, honestly, older folks, because it’s older folks who are miserable right now who have not figured out how they’re miserable and feel like they just went to work. What is your passion? What is that one thing that if you could only do one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? What’s our gift? What’s the one thing you’re good at? I have a friend who swore they would go to the NBA. He loves basketball more than anything else in life. That is his passion. But it is not his gift. But here’s the thing: That man can cook better than anybody. Do you know what he’s doing right now? He is the personal chef for NBA players. So he gets to sit in the space, go to the arenas, go to the games, travel with them. He’s around basketball all day, but he’s using his gift, and he tied it with his passion. Now he’s walking in his purpose. So whatever that is, you’ve got to figure that out. Then help others along the way. If you don’t leave people better than when they came to your presence, then you’re not living. It’s not even about purpose. If we leave this conversation, learn something, or think about something different that

I’m doing. I do not allow people to come into my presence without making sure I’ve left a positive impression. For young people out there, what is it? It’s something you’re supposed to be doing. I think the first step is finding your passion. What’s that one thing that just drives you? Use your talents to help someone else. It’s not for you. It’s for others.

UPTOWN: The Legacy Project is a powerful virtual Black History experience that you created. Tell us about the project. Do you believe we are doing enough as a country to tap into the power and potential of virtual education?

AVERETT:It’s probably the second thing that just brings me the most joy. It kicked off because we were virtualizing real Black History Month museums. Every day, I go online and see great moments like Princeton graduating its first Black valedictorian. I need kids to know that Black history is alive and well; it’s being made every day and that they should be playing a part. That’s why we do that workshop afterwards to say, ‘What is your legacy going to be? So that was like the heart and the passion behind that project, which was virtualizing all of these other incredible, real Black History Month museums. I knew folks might not ever make it into the museum, so why not just create this virtual space? That is where kids can learn and engage in a cool way. We wanted to make it engaging and interactive. I’ll say this, just like the one: stay tuned. There are eleven galleries for this one. So it is probably 20 times the size [of last year’s], with different galleries, different rooms, different floors from the history of Africa. We have a historical side now where we’re telling kids and let them learn about Black folks at the start of slavery. But on the other hand, there’s a Black and Tech gallery in one room by itself. There are Blacks in sports. Some of the people, like Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade, have their social change fund honoring them. It’s Black and entertainment, the people we have who have signed up and agreed. So everybody from John Legend to Michael B. Jordan to Laurence Fishburne, they all want the kids to learn about them. I’m so excited this year. To answer the second part of your question, If we’re in a virtual space, who knows how long we will be in it? But even afterwards, the one thing that I love about it, even the virtual Black history museums that we’re doing, is that it’s one thing about us being in a pandemic, and they can’t go. But the reality is that many of our kids will not be able to go to California, Tulsa, Florida and Atlanta to visit all of these museums. So just the exposure to putting something virtually online that can expose millions of students, adults, and communities to history and culture can enlighten them, empower them, and show them what they can be and what other people have done like that. I think everybody should be tapping more into the virtual space, not just because we’re in a pandemic, but because of the reach, the fact that somebody can go on their cell phone. You don’t need a computer. We try to make everything as accessible as possible. It’s always about who we are leaving out, who can’t participate. So if we only say we’re taking 500 kids to the Civil Rights Museum in Atlanta, who can’t participate? The other 2 million kids we should be touching. But now we can’t say that if you’ve got a phone, a TV, a tablet, or a computer, if you can go to your local library, you can visit a Legacy Project. That, to me, is how everybody should think as we empower, educate, and support our kids. If we’re leaving a whole bunch of folks out, we need to do it another way.

UPTOWN: What are some other initiatives you’re working on now? Anything you can share at this time?

AVERETT: I hate to say it, not really. We’re ramping up everything that we’re doing. We’re going harder. We’re going deeper into the community. Just so it’s clear, we have an ongoing catalog of about 90 workshops that are free to any school, any community organization, or any parent who wants their kids to participate. They fill out a form that might say, I want my kids to do coding and have a teacher teach A, B, and C [at a specific time and date.] We’ll set it up. We’ll be in a team room just like this. It’ll be free. It’ll be private. So we do that every day that the program exists. Every month we’re constantly figuring out what other initiatives and programs we need to add. Next week, we will be in Tulsa with the three remaining Tulsa Massacre survivors. We’re going to get a chance to sit down with them and interview them, solely because I want the kids to hear it. I think they should hear from the legends. For MLK Day. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be our keynote speaker. So he’s going to talk about how he interviewed Dr. King as a kid, marched with him and some social justice stuff he’s doing today. So whether it’s bringing in speakers to expose them and let them see things from a different angle, or taking a Legacy Project where we honor 30 people. We’re constantly just trying to figure out what we can do to support, but we’re in a space where we’re just listening. Once a month, we have focus groups with people from the community. We find out what they want us to do. I think everybody could take a lesson from that, like, quit being so arrogant to believe that whatever you got is so good that you don’t need to stop and listen and hear what the community needs. That’s all we’re doing. We started doing those museums. That wasn’t my idea. The community came, and said, ‘We can’t take our kids to museums. We have no clue what to do for Black History Month because that’s the best curriculum. Can you help?‘ I thought, well, since they can’t go to the museums, why don’t we take the museums with us? It was an answer. That’s all we’re trying to do, is being an answer to whatever it is that we can be. That’s what’s coming next: more answers.

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