RISING

Consultant, speaker, and author Harkema offers a memoir of coming to grips with her personal and professional identity.

The author resigned from her position as diversity and inclusion director at an unnamed global craft brewery in 2019, after a lawsuit revealed her employer’s problematic behavior involving issues of race and sexual orientation. After company leadership ignored her advice, she made her resignation letter public: “I have dedicated myself to a life and career of equity, ethics, integrity, and morals,” she wrote. “I cannot represent a company that doesn’t stand for the same.” This book tells the rest of her story, beginning with her birth in the Congo and her adoption by an American family. Harkema describes a generally happy childhood, complicated by the challenge of growing up Black in a mostly White Michigan city. She also writes about knowing from a young age that she was a lesbian and the difficulties she faced knowing that her deeply religious family was unlikely to approve. The book follows Harkema through high school, where she played on the boys’ varsity football team, and college, where she supported herself working multiple jobs. The author chronicles her career path, including her later decision to go into business for herself. The book also tracks personal-life developments, including returning to the Congo to meet her birth mother. Harkema is a confident author who shows a solid sense of self in these pages, and her story comes across as clear and engaging. The book addresses some dark topics, including childhood sexual abuse and a suicide attempt, and the author addresses her traumas with thoughtfulness and sensitivity, showing how they’ve shaped but haven’t defined her life. Her discussions of transracial adoption, mental health, and workplace inclusivity are informative but not didactic, and she includes resources for further reading on the topic. The writing is well-organized throughout, with a conversational tone that makes the pages turn quickly.

A solid remembrance that offers the engaging perspective of a diversity and inclusion expert.