Walking While Black: A Deeper Conversation

I'm reintroducing Walking While Black - not as a replacement for The Performance Architect, but as an addition to it. But this brand represents something deeper than you might initially think.

The Origin Story

This brand was born from a simple, authentic moment. During a fun front yard interview as I was headed out for my daily walk (part of my program to control diabetes through diet and exercise), we did what I'll call a "bag check" - a playful spoof of The Tennis Channel spots where they sit players down on the lawn and have them go through their tennis bags. Instead, we were going through what I carry in my walking backpack.

When we reached my wallet, I made the comment: "...and of course my wallet, because in a neighborhood like this you need to have your ID when walking while black."

That moment of truth sparked something bigger.

The Deeper Meaning

As someone who believes the role race plays in American society is important but believes the conversations around it should be examined under the broader context of "we see things as we are, not as it is," I naturally saw what I believe to be a deeper meaning to Walking While Black.

It's a metaphor - and it's minimally about race.

Walking While Black is fundamentally about how our minds filter reality. We see what our mind wants us to see. Have you ever purchased a new car and all of a sudden you see the same model what seems like everywhere? That's not coincidence - that's your mind now primed to notice something that was always there.

But just as your mind can be primed to see what was always there, it can also create what AI does when it hallucinates - it can create things which aren't really there. Put one way, "when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail." So it can be with racism, bigotry, and other perceived slights.

We all walk through life with our own mental filters - and there can be more than one - shaped by our race, our experiences, our backgrounds, our fears, our hopes, our recent purchases, our current concerns, our latest interests. But here's what's crucial: these filters act as a set of blinders or blinkers on a racehorse, both blacking out what we could possibly see while simultaneously highlighting what our mind wants us to notice, and sometimes creating interpretations that may not actually exist.

My reality of needing ID while walking in certain neighborhoods as a Black man is one lens that blocks out other possibilities. The mother who clutches her purse tighter when she sees me walking has her lens that blacks out who I actually am. The neighbor who waves and smiles has theirs that might block out the complexity of the situation. The police officer who might stop me has his that prevents him from seeing the full picture.

None of us are seeing the situation "as it is" - we're all seeing it "as we are," but more importantly, we're NOT seeing vast portions of what's actually there because our lenses are blocking our vision.

The Broader Conversation

Walking While Black isn't primarily about race - it's about recognition. Recognition that we all carry invisible mental filters that determine not only what we notice and what we ignore, but sometimes what we create that isn't actually there.

We all walk through life "while" being something - while being afraid, while being hopeful, while being wounded, while being privileged, while being disadvantaged, while being focused on a particular goal, while being concerned about a specific issue. And each of these states creates mental filters that cause us to see some things clearly, black out vast portions of what's actually there, and sometimes manufacture interpretations that exist more in our minds than in reality.

The question isn't whether we have these filters - we all do. The question is: are we aware of how much they're controlling what we see AND what we think we see? Are we willing to examine not just what we're missing, but what we might be creating? Are we open to understanding that others are walking with different mental filters that are highlighting, blocking, and potentially creating entirely different versions of the same reality?

The Personal Evolution

This brand represents more than just a philosophical concept - it's part of my own evolution. I had promised myself not to fall back into the trap of "or" which caused me to lose myself in the process of doing what I felt was necessary to become a role model for children.

I recently took my own advice and acknowledged how my own life would be more fulfilling if I applied my own philosophy about "the power of 'and'." It was a moment I realized I had been walking while black - living with my own blinders on - and am now on a path to add light to that area.

Sometimes the most profound insights come when we recognize we've been giving advice we haven't fully taken ourselves.

The Power of 'And'

This connects directly to why Walking While Black exists alongside The Performance Architect. Both brands share the same driving force: my intensive desire to aid others. But they serve different aspects of that mission.

The Performance Architect helps people optimize their systems and achieve their goals. Walking While Black helps people examine their perspectives and understand their lenses.

Both are needed. Both create transformation. Both honor the complexity of human experience.

When we embrace the power of 'and,' we expand our ability to create positive change across multiple dimensions of the human experience.

The Invitation

Walking While Black is an invitation to examine how our mental filters determine what we see and what we miss. It's about recognizing that we're all walking through life with our minds primed to notice certain things while completely overlooking others.

It's an invitation to walk more consciously, more aware of what our mental filters are highlighting and what they're causing us to miss, while remaining curious about what others' filters are causing them to see or ignore.

It's an invitation to recognize that everyone is walking "while" being something - and that those identities, experiences, and mental states are creating different filters that highlight and black out different aspects of the same reality. Understanding this changes everything.

Both brands. Both purposes. Both needed.

#WalkingWhileBlack #ThePerformanceArchitect #PowerOfAnd #PerspectiveMatters #ConsciousWalking