MLK’s Influence on My World View
Shakti Harris, Head of Inclusion & Diversity, Bayer U.S.
Today we’re celebrating the life and long-lasting contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As I began reflecting for this blog, I considered Dr. King’s life and legacy and how it’s shaped my own life. One reason I am who I am today is because of Dr. King. The heroic work he did to push policy change, fight for equal rights, and inspire peaceful change has long guided where I focused my energy and how I live my life.
Memories of Becoming American
My U.S. journey starts as the daughter of Indian immigrants. My father moved to the US to study at Columbia University followed a year and half later by my mother, my sister and me. I vaguely remember learning about U.S. customs such as trick-or-treating during Halloween and my mother guiding us through the apartment complex for this ritual wearing her sari with my sister and me wearing Indian attire. It wasn’t until later that we donned more traditional costumes and became witches, ghosts, and movie characters.
At a very early age, I questioned when the world did not seem to function as I thought it should. My mother remembers me asking why Santa Claus had given so many presents to several children who always misbehaved at school and none to my sister and me. Seeing how Christmas was celebrated in the community around us, my parents started celebrating the following year, so we did not feel excluded during the holiday season. And we continued to celebrate several Indian festivals with the local Indian community, including Durga Puja which has special significance for me as I was named after the goddess Shakti because I was born on Durga Puja, Durga being another name for Shakti. Interestingly, I don’t recall learning about the Indian festival of Diwali, which seems to be more widely known in the U.S., until my cousin moved to the U.S. during my college years.
Although I didn’t have the precise language of “social injustice” to express my concerns as a child, the concept and those who fight for equality always intrigued and inspired me. For an elementary school writing assignment, I remember selecting Phillis Wheatley, the first known African American published author, and learning about how she influenced George Washington. I hardly understood the horrific nature of slavery at the time but realized that a freed slave meeting a future President was important. She began her life free, then was enslaved and taken from her homeland, then used her voice to not only become one of our country’s best-known poets but helped fuel the anti-slavery movement with her writings inspiring abolitionists and challenging society decades after her death.
In high school, I led the school’s Amnesty International student group, organized a community event in support of Veterans, and selected Dr. King as the focus for my entry into the state-wide contest for National History Day. I spent hours engrossed watching the Eyes on the Prize documentary and learning as much as possible about the Civil Rights Movement. I appreciated that Dr. King drew from the teachings of Gandhi, writing “While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of non-violent social change.” Perhaps, this allowed me to feel a connection to India which I had visited only twice at the time since immigrating to the U.S. It was remarkable and inspiring that Dr. King’s activism centered on his six principles of nonviolence and the power to make a peaceful and positive change in the world. I learned more about all of the things he and his contemporaries in the civil rights movement made possible: advancing civil rights, voting rights, and setting the foundation for many of the freedoms we all enjoy today.
Living Bigger Than Your Life
Upon entering the corporate world, I was fortunate to be able to continue honoring Dr. King at my company’s annual Dr. King celebrations for multiple years in various roles eventually having the privilege of co-chairing the full day event for 4000 employees, their family members, and community members. During my co-chair experience, my exuberance for the community celebration for a revered leader collided with the sentiments of those who had a different perspective of Dr. King. I encouraged all my colleagues to attend and bring their families. One colleague returned and advised that his wife told him that the event “was not for them.” I was mystified by this statement since Dr. King was a global leader who ignited a transformation in our country and inspired profound change in other parts of the world. Likewise, I encouraged members at my gym to attend the event. One older man informed me that his memory of Dr. King was connected to the riots in town after Dr. King was assassinated and he did not celebrate Dr. King. That was ironic since Dr. King espoused nonviolence and would have had no control of events following his death.
These experiences strengthened my belief that we must continue to commemorate Dr. King and encourage dialogues embracing his philosophies. They also led me to realize my passion for advancing inclusion and diversity — helping build sustainable inclusive cultures where all are welcome and respected, and all voices are heard — and inspired a career shift to inclusion and diversity. I’ve worked to demonstrate the importance of respect and the value of our unique identities — whether that encompasses our race, gender, gender identity, abilities or more and the intersections of all those aspects that make each of us who we are.
I recently learned an important aspect about my identity as an immigrant and how Dr. King and the civil rights movement opened the doors for immigrants. My family might not have been able to immigrate to the U.S. without The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which would not have passed without the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which was driven by the work of Dr. King. And so, Dr. King’s influence on my life began before I was even born.
And in my most important role as a mother to a daughter, I feel responsible and accountable for working to create a world where she can succeed and will not face the barriers of the past. I continue my work to drive equity, but I also place a tremendous focus on helping her understand the importance of living your life in a way that makes a big impact. While she is still young, we spend a lot of time talking about social justice and how to drive and model behaviors that show we all are accountable and responsible for being advocates for what we believe is right. Our freedoms are not a given and we must all act to preserve them. Almost since she could walk, she has assisted me with serving others, handing out reusable bags at a Dr. King celebration. She even has thought about her legacy and how to “live bigger than your life” in the spirit of Dr. King serving others. We can all choose to include and serve.
We are living in extraordinary times — managing through a global pandemic and navigating current events and a heightened awareness of existing inequities. As we find the best way to stay inspired during these challenging days, I think about Dr. King and his legacy. His words inspire me to keep fighting against injustice and his words fill me with hope. And above all, he reminds me of the power of one person taking a stand and how voices can multiply to make a huge difference in our world.
