speaking of gendered racism

the lovespeaks series

Episode 3 / Season 2
Speaking of Gendered Racism
Guest: Jill Frank – Head of of Creative Agency Operations at Allstate

On this episode I sit down with my friend Jill Frank, Head of Creative Agency Operations at Allstate, to talk about gendered racism. Jill recently spoke at The 3% Conference; whose mission is to increase the number of creative directors who are women of color. Currently, only 3% of creative directors are women and even less are people of color. Jill shares how the double stressor of being a black woman in advertising feels and then offers her “75 and sunny, living in LA” metaphor for what racism is in America. It’s the most simple way to explain racism to anyone who doesn’t grasp the concept.

Listening notes:
2:29 The 3% Conference
3:00 Jill’s talk on Gendered Racism
4:06 Defining Gendered Racism
7:26 A double stressor
10:21 White women will ask “What is Gendered Racism?”
11:06 “Diversity = Profitability”
11:42 “If there’s not one black female CEO in the Fortune 500 something is going on.”
12:50 Doing the internal work
13:07 Microaggressions
16:42 The strong black woman schema
17:49 Jill’s camping moment
19:57 “The system isn’t working for us collectively.”
21:05 Jill’s vision board – the powerful lady retreat group
23:32 The Ripple Effect
26:00 “The world is not yours to fix.”
28:00 “Working for Oprah, a dream job – a very female, black and brown environment.”
29:42 Oprah quote “Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.”
30:19 Jill’s megawatt smile
31:06 “A PhD in creating magic and experiences.”
32:00 “I had a voice, I had agency and I had power, and my opinion mattered.”
32:38 “I have an added perspective of how difficult it might be for someone, a black woman, a person of color, a woman starting out in a white male dominated industry.”
33:06 “When you break the glass ceiling or make a milestone, you leave the hole big enough to bring two people with you.”
33:20 Jill’s 6-year-old daughter Clarke
34:32 “I’m an early Kamala super fan!”
35:14 “We’ve always talked about race. Fortunately, she has a beautiful cornucopia of people she is able to interact with.”

37:17 “You can still be a well-meaning inclusive non-racist person and still contribute to a system that is discriminatory.”
38:26 Jill’s theory --- living in LA – we go off track, but we come back to this!
38:50 Jill’s first jobs
39:39 Jill’s Price is Right moment when she won a Lord of the Rings pinball machine
40:39 Getting the Oprah job
42:08 My Temp Agency tip
43:04 Everything is figure-out-able
44:09 Jill’s shout outs to the women who pulled her in at Harpo
47:20 It doesn’t matter the size of your audience, it matters they showed up for you.
48:36 We are back to the “living in LA” theory: “75 and sunny.”
49:24 “This is what racism is to black people in this country we live in Chicago, the weather is constantly changing on us so we need to check every day with every room that we walk in - what’s the situation, do I feel safe, can I share, can I not share? Is this a place I want to be?”
50:19 “Grab your umbrella cause it’s getting real rough out here.”
52:50 Quaker Oats retiring the Aunt Jemima brand
55:17 Chadwick Bozeman
56:11 “If there’s a seat at the table take it. Get in the room.”
57:21 “The Aunt Jemima brand is a microaggression.”
58:08 How does being a black woman speak to you?
59:29 “I always thought growing up those micro-aggressions and those issues I would encounter were a result of my blackness. I think I know in my wise old age, my 30’s, that it’s the whiteness that’s the problem.”
1:00:20 Tom Burrell’s book Brainwashed
1:02:06 “That’s your ability to be in LA and not worried about the weather.”

Connect with Jill:
Jill on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankjill/

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/jill_frank/

Resources:
Tom Burrell’s Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority
https://www.amazon.com/Brainwashed-Challenging-Myth-Black-Inferiority/dp/1401925928