As a former military officer, there is a roadmap for navigating success that requires bold, assertive leadership. This strategically appropriate roadmap for military leaders often brings challenges for women, especially Black women, because of historical stereotypes.
As I moved from military service to business, and now as a CU regent, I have learned that women in business and politics suffer extreme pressure, unfair criticism, harassment, and bullying.
So, when two articles questioning a Denver mayoral candidate and Colorado State Representative Leslie Herod’s “leadership style” came out in separate Denver media outlets last week, it neither surprised nor shocked me. But it did infuriate me.
Progressive women of color face an institutionalized double standard normalized by journalists who write “bad boss” hit pieces like these. It creates a climate I have been all too familiar with throughout my life. It must end, but it will not if journalists ignore the racial disparity in their writing. Journalists who fail to understand this worldview are lured in by unhinged social media posts that aid and abet these caricatures, false stereotypes, and tropes meant to demean and put women in their place.
I have been personally affected by this double standard over the course of my entire professional life. I am a former military officer, a current CEO, and an elected official. I understand what it’s like to be a Black woman in a powerful leadership position. And I have been a target of attacks like these.
The “angry Black woman” trope is rooted in a long history of racism that continues to infect our highest institutions to this day. Any driven, passionate Black woman who pushes herself and her staff to achieve results is subject to increased scrutiny and criticism compared to that of her white counterparts, especially when compared to her white male counterparts.
Look no further than the vice president of the United States. In a recent column in the New York Times, Donna Brazile, an accomplished Black woman in her own right, felt compelled to call out the unfair treatment of Vice President Kamala Harris (and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, for that matter). As Brazile noted, the “clothes and shoes she wears .. the role of her spouse, the way she sometimes laughs, her cooking skills and staff turnover in her office have all drawn greater attention than her predecessors experienced.”
That is exactly what is happening to Leslie Herod.
A political operative with an axe to grind against Leslie made several posts on Twitter, followed by several people making public allegations about Leslie’s leadership style. The story pitch, either directly made or inferred, was that Leslie was “hard” to work for in the legislature.
And two reporters bought it.
One story relies solely on this biased source and anonymous interviews. The other story adds only one on-the-record source — who appeared online at one time to support Herod’s bid for mayor but changed her position for unexplained reasons. Those should all be red flags, but they weren’t.
The crux of these stories focuses on aides asked to perform services such as getting food or coffee for Leslie while she worked on the legislative floor and verbal exchanges former staff felt was demeaning or degrading. However, the only on-the-record source claimed that Leslie asked her, “why can’t you hear me?” and felt mocked because she has a hearing impairment. But the article didn’t get into what the two were talking about and whether Leslie may have been concerned about an honest communication error between the two. Instead, it took the sensationalist approach to create a clickbait story.
Of course, the same on-the-record aide used the term “servitude” to describe her time working for Leslie, and the reporter did not bat an eye. That a white aide would make that word choice to describe a Black woman, and a white reporter would use it without noting the problematic nature, is in equal parts appalling and revealing. In a country still struggling with the aftereffects of hundreds of years of enslaved Black people, turning that type of language on Leslie for asking aides to get coffee and food is patently offensive to every Black woman, much less Leslie herself.
The political operative who sparked these stories had ample reason to believe that the institutional culture of bias against progressive women of color in leadership positions runs so deep that the story would get picked up. This political operative could rightly assume that the sensational claims against a Black woman running for mayor would spark interest despite conflict and credibility concerns undermining her motive.
These reporters helped to perpetuate a racist trope that has plagued — and continues to plague — progressive women of color. From Vice President Harris to Mayor Karen Bass to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and countless others. And now Leslie Herod.
This will only change if society deems this behavior as abhorrent as all racist tropes levied against other demographics, religions and genders, and journalists are too ashamed to print it. They must stop subjecting progressive women of color to an increased level of scrutiny than their white peers and male colleagues.
Wanda James is a former Naval Officer, former Fortune 100 executive, CEO of Simply Pure Dispensary in Denver, and a current CU Regent.
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