I’ve never been good at networking (just ask my mentor!). Back in the day (pre-pandemic) when the world was full of in-person networking events, I was always the guy who was in the back of the room or near the bar, nursing his drink and waiting for everyone else to come up to me.
Part of the reason is that I’m generally a shy person but another part of it was that being a person of color (POC) you were always the one who stood out in a crowd. Everyone else looks the same, dresses the same and is usually the same color, but a POC is always going to stick out.
When it got to the point where I would meet someone, the inevitable dreaded introduction would come. As an ethnic POC who isn’t named Jim, Sue or Bob, this usually means that when introducing myself, I get an uncomfortable pause or weird looks. Now, I obviously know what my name is but telling someone who you just met what that name is almost always results in a “what’s that again?” or “how do you pronounce that?”.
I get it. It’s different from Bob or Pat but sometimes I wish I could just meet someone who just accepted the name and moved on the conversation. Unfortunately, the next typical question asked within the first few minutes is “where are you from?” Now, most White people get to answer that by saying “I’m from Des Moines” or a simple “back East” and get to move on. No, not with POC’s. We typically get this question and they don’t care or believe me if I say “I’m from Los Angeles” or “Phoenix” or anywhere in the continental USA or Canada. What they’re really asking is “where did you come from?”, “what’s your ethnicity” or “you don’t look like someone from Des Moines”.
So no you see why sometimes it’s more difficult for some POC’s to network——we don’t always get the same normal questions non-POC’s get.
