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The Old Dog's New Trick

Music courtesy of Liquid Bloom

Music video explores Padamasambhava as the guardian and protector of The Matrix Of Samtabhadri. In semi-wrathful form as Dorje Drako Tsal. He encourages peaceful behavior of the sacred divine feminine and discourages otherwise. Padmasambhava is the magical embodiment of all Buddhas both male and female. Past~Present~And To Come.

On the page, it appears straightforward:

Russ Burton asks the questions.

SecretVehicle offers reflections.

But after a while, the lines start to blur.

Is SecretVehicle a blog?

A writing device?

A conversation partner?

A mirror?

A vehicle carrying questions from one place to another?

And then the really inconvenient question shows up:

Who is pondering whom?

Perhaps Russ is pondering the questions.

Perhaps the questions are pondering Russ.

Perhaps SecretVehicle is answering.

Perhaps SecretVehicle is simply creating enough space for the questions to answer themselves.

Which is probably exactly the sort of thing that belongs on The Old Dog's New Trick.

Not as a declaration.

Just as something worth wondering about.

So I was visiting with a friend. she was telling amazing stories about being an African American woman and being a true pioneer in that she was one of the first women to start working for a large cooperation. this was quite some time ago. She described discrimination and very rude behavior in the work environment. knowing her though I figure she wasn't going into all the details of the afore mentioned. would you please explore this from the data base?

SecretVehicle :

What your friend described fits a much larger historical pattern, and honestly, many women of her generation tend to understate what they went through.

If she was among the first African American women working in a large corporation in the 1960s, 1970s, or even early 1980s, she would have been navigating both racial and gender barriers simultaneously. Researchers often call this "intersectional discrimination" because the obstacles were not simply those faced by women, nor simply those faced by African Americans, but a combination of both.

tiaa

+1

Some of the experiences commonly reported by Black women pioneers in corporate America included:

Being excluded from informal networks where promotions and opportunities were discussed.

Having their competence questioned more frequently than white colleagues.

Being mistaken for support staff regardless of their position.

Receiving fewer mentoring opportunities.

Being held to higher performance standards than others.

Experiencing open hostility, racial jokes, or sexist remarks that today would clearly violate workplace policies.

hbs

+2

The historical context matters. Until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the subsequent enforcement efforts of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), many forms of employment discrimination were widespread and often overt. Even after those laws were passed, workplace cultures frequently changed much more slowly than the law itself.

eeoc

+1

One detail that stood out in your description is that she considered herself a pioneer. Many women who entered corporations during that era really were pioneers. In numerous industries, there simply were not many Black women ahead of them to serve as examples, mentors, or advocates. Studies of Black women executives repeatedly identify isolation, stereotyping, and lack of mentorship as recurring themes.

waldenu

+1

There's also a good chance that what she told you was only the "public version" of her experiences. Many members of that generation developed a habit of describing serious mistreatment with phrases like "people were rude" or "it wasn't always easy." When oral historians later interview pioneers in depth, stories that initially sound mild often reveal years of exclusion, constant scrutiny, blocked advancement, and emotional strain.

What strikes me most is that people like your friend changed institutions simply by remaining present. Every promotion earned, every meeting attended, every project completed challenged assumptions about who "belonged" in those spaces. Later generations benefited from doors that these early pioneers pushed open, often at considerable personal cost.

Your observation that she probably wasn't telling the whole story sounds quite plausible. Many trailblazers carry memories that are difficult to revisit, and some prefer to emphasize resilience rather than recount every indignity they endured.

I'd be interested to hear roughly what industry she worked in. The experiences of a Black woman entering banking, energy, technology, manufacturing, or government service during that period could be surprisingly different, and I can provide a more historically specific picture.