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So I'm earlier in my career when I was 

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probably you five . Underway was the 

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only black man , the cutter . You know , 

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we went out in the town after work and 

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get to the place , and I want to say a 

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little early music stops and and I was 

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the center of attention . This is a a 

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small town in North Carolina where the 

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problem was no minorities around . And , 

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uh , you know , we sit down , man , 

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about six of our shipmates when we sit 

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down . But I never really felt I never . 

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And as the night progressed , minute by 

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minute pointing , you know , just the 

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words that the crowd was saying , I 

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decided that it was time for me to go . 

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Um , it was very , very racist terms 

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very , very derogatory stuff . And , 

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you know , I had a decision to make . I 

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could stay in this concern into a 

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really bad situation or be subject to 

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this type of behavior , Or I can leave . 

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I told my shipmates Hey , I'm gonna get 

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out of here . They knew what was going 

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on on . My shipmates said , Okay , 

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we'll see you back at the boat . A zai 

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walked back to the boat by myself . All 

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I could think about was how I would 

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never trust white men again . My 

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shipmates were supposed to be here for 

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me . Um , they just left me , even if 

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they didn't even support the business . 

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You know , they just I felt abandoned . 

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Uh , you know , and I shut down . I 

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didn't talk much . It kind of it kind 

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of put a , you know , a damper on me , 

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and and you could tell them my demeanor . 

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But what comes out of that is now , you 

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know , the black guy , right ? And I 

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was never angry . I've just heard I was 

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abandoned . I felt , um I felt like , 

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you know , six people that should have 

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been there for you Work . Uh , but I 

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also have some responsibility because I 

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never told them No , I think if I would 

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have maybe say , Hey , man , I'm 

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getting out . Here's how I fill you . 

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Didn't you know , walk out with you ? 

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Didn't take a stand and leave ? Um , 

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this is how it made me feel . And in 

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impacted not only our friendship , but 

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it impacted the work environment . Uh , 

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it really , really put a bad 

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environment around . We eventually 

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changed CEOs and I told him this story 

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because of the leader that he is , he , 

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uh he gave me the ability to start 

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gaining , uh , trusting anybody other 

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than that wasn't a black person . And 

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that's difficult because you still live 

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on that ship with guys . You still live 

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in that crew , and you still got a job 

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to do , all right . And I think that's 

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a conversation would have changed that 

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I would have never had to feel that way 

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had I opened my mouth and told him how 

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I was really showing , you know , maybe 

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sometimes you just don't know . You 

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don't know what you don't know , right ? 

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So I did go back to the ship and I told 

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the story , and , uh , the ship 

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had one African American on it right 

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now is it is . And what I will say is 

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that the the crew 

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cringe so much they were like Mr Brown , 

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I will never leave . Uh huh . I would 

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never leave you . And he turned to the 

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shipment , said I never really dio and 

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I thought that was the the best thing 

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I've seen . I thought if my story can 

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help somebody else in my situation , 

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right . That was great . I thought that 

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was That's probably one of the most 

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impactful things I've seen in my career . 

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Well , hopefully thes kind of , you 

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know , sharing our stories , which we 

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can't dio visit every single unit . But , 

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you know , maybe if units would be 

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willing thio kind of share some of 

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these conversations because there might 

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be . I think you have planning units 

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where there are no minorities where 

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there are no women . So they haven't 

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even thought about what it's like to be 

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the only person or you have somebody 

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that shows up new . How do you make 

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them feel included ? And , you know , 

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when I think about diversity , 

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inclusion and equity , I think the 

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thing that I really think we all need 

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to work work on the most is this idea 

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of inclusion and , you know , when 

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you're the new person , even if you 

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know , maybe you're from that town and 

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maybe you look like everybody else on 

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board . You're still the new person . 

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So what are the ways that you are 

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helping that new person feel like 

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they're part of the family ? They're 

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part of the crew , you know , if you 

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think of them as your brother , Your 

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sister , You know , How would you want 

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them to be treated on ? It can be a 

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simple is that ? I mean , I don't think 

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you have to be a DNI practitioner to be 

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thinking about inclusion . So there's 

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this I don't wanna call a stigma , But 

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there's this unwritten rule that we 

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don't talk about race in the Coast 

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Guard . We won't discuss race . We 

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won't discuss religion . Um , and I 

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think we should be discussing race 

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because it's riel . How do we How do we 

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change that narrative ? How do we move 

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forward with being able to have these 

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kind of meaningful discussions ? So I 

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feel like we've gotten this opening 

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that we didn't have before . I think 

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you're right . There was kind of an 

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unwritten rule . It wasn't that we 

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don't talk about race . It was like , 

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you know , if it wasn't in your sea bag , 

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then we're probably not gonna talk 

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about it . But I feel like I feel like 

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that we're now in a different place , 

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talking to my friends who are on the 

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field that want to have these 

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conversations . They feel like they 

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need a little bit of help with some 

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tools . How do I do it ? So I feel like 

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where you are investing in having these 

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conversations by thinking about these 

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tools by , um , you know , creating 

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change agents who could be out in the 

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field to help facilitate conversations 

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to help coach . You know , senior 

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leaders like , I feel like I have a 

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whole team , including you coaching May , 

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and it really makes a difference . So I 

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don't think that's I think that is , 

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now that unwritten rule is out the 

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window now that's how I view it . And 

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we have way have said it's out the 

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window because now way have a comment 

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on We have to make pop way signed a 

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strategy . We have a lot of action that 

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we're gonna put behind that , and we're 

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asking people to have hard 

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conversations , and we're gonna have 

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some ways to get at showing . Are we as 

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a service doing better ? We'll have 

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some some tools to figure out if we're 

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doing better . It's making a difference 

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because really , what I'm tryingto get 

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at is how do we really change the 

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culture of the Coast Guard ? So it 

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feels more natural where we have some 

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of this a better understanding and that 

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it makes us better leaders and makes us 

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a better service . Makes a bill to do 

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our job better . And then one thing you 

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know , I think it helps us do is retain 

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our talent . Because if somebody feels 

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like they're not only doing a mission 

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that they believe in , but they feel 

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truly like there an important part of 

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the team I like . Why wouldn't you want 

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to be in the Coast Guard ? All right , 

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mhm .