Oprah taught me this lesson

There’s something that’s been bugging me about the coaching industry, and it wasn’t until I recalled an episode of Oprah that I realized that it was.
In this episode, Oprah brings on a financial coach to give financial advice to families. One family was an African-American family, and the coach told the mother, Mrs. Bradley, that her weekly salon visits were a luxury that should be cut out, in order to save money.
Mrs. Bradley immediately responded that salon visits to her are not a luxury, and Oprah agreed. Oprah explained that going to the hair salon for a black woman isn’t a luxury. It is a necessity that must be factored into every black woman’s budget.
So this is my problem — traditional coaching models don’t take into consideration the lived experience of people of color, and therefore cannot coach them well.
Culturally, people of color (and by POC I mean black, brown, asian, multiracial, and all who identify as people of color) have needs and considerations that just aren’t factore…
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