What I wish was different
While I enjoyed working alongside my team with Texas Rising, I can't say our leaders had the best interest of us and the community at heart. I think hiring people from outside of the community to represent us was a poor choice on TFN's end. Many times, my RFO would make small statements that proved that our city wasn't important to her, nor did she stand true to the values of lifting up the voices of minorities and marginalized groups, which was the goal of Texas Rising to begin with. Local community gatherings such as the trade center were called "ghetto", and we were only given permission to canvas areas and events that catered to upper-class residents. Our RFO had a habit of talking poorly about their employees behind our backs, and attempting to pit us against each other using promises and threats. Despite being a cis, straight, and white, they made many innapropriate jokes about being the diversity hire, as well as making sly comments toward the pronouns of their employees. They would also talk poorly about other non-profits in the area, making our goals driven by competition to win rather than actually making a difference. Despite this, our team did an incredible job and registered well over a thousand residents, which our RFO did not even congratulate us for. Instead, they attempted to corner an employee at a work-sponsored event, where it was revealed HR had turned against the employees and revealed who had reported our RFO to them. While I'm sure Texas Rising has the potential to grow to be something great that all can benefit from, I am incredibly disappointed in the immature leadership. I want to see young Texans be inspired and thrive, but instead, we were put in a hostile environment where nothing was ever enough for our RFO. Performative activism does nothing to help the communities of Texas.
