It can feel like there’s semantic creep around the word “racism”

That’s a hard thing to even say, because instantly a bunch of people will come back at you and say “Well, you’re probably a racist.” I’m actually not. “I voted for Obama … twice!” (That’s a joke.) But ultimately, words do need to mean something to have impact. One of the reasons why work has become such a travesty for so many millions of human beings is that words used by corporate leaders essentially mean nothing; you almost have to suspend disbelief, like you’re watching a bad Netflix show, in order to work for some of these guys. It’s all double talk.

We have the same issue in a lot of social spheres, including diversity, where the language gets so confusing that most execs just ignore it until something blows up. A lot of words seem to have taken on semantic creep these days. Like, 40 years ago, the only “engagement” that executives thought about was when their first-born Brooke got engaged to David from the country club — and they only thought about that because they had to pay for the wedding. (I wanted a boy so badly!) Now we constantly talk about “engagement” to mean better comp, better bennies, foosball, tacos, prayer circles, guitar circles, etc. The words have changed meaning, and that confuses the old guard. It puts a lot of tension around “the existing world” vs. “the encroaching world.”