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Where does Amanda Gorman's unity message fit in a whiplash of news?

Amanda Gorman delivers an original poem at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. She read another original poem at the Feb. 7 Super Bowl to honor the game's honorary captains: a veteran, an educator, and a nurse.

Erin Schaff/The New York Times/AP

February 9, 2021

I am being whipsawed by too many conflicting currents driving culture, politics, business, and history in America. What鈥檚 enduring? What鈥檚 barely a blip? Do I cheer or hide under the covers?

That鈥檚 what I asked myself one week after President Joe Biden鈥檚聽inauguration. It was also three weeks聽after rioters threatened the lives of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence.聽Although the riot failed to derail the transition of presidential power, five people were killed, including a Capitol policeman. Here鈥檚 a partial list of news and conversations I witnessed at the time, all within just 48 hours:

  • The Department of Homeland Security issued a聽, suggesting that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol may embolden 鈥渉omegrown violent extremists鈥 to commit additional anti-government attacks.
  • The U.S. Institute of Peace (on whose聽 I sit) marked the 30th anniversary of the reunification of Germany. Although 380,000 well-trained Soviet troops were stationed in East Germany at the time, not one bullet was shot during the transition. The remarkable, and remarkably fast, final dismantling of the Cold War was driven, on the American side, by a diverse team of smart, compassionate, and effective Republican politicians and diplomats. Chief among them were President George H.W. Bush, Secretary of State James Baker III, national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, and his deputy, future Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.聽
  • Leaders of the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump PAC of former GOP political strategists,聽predicted a bitter six-to-eight-year war against the so-called sedition caucus for the future of American democracy. During a recent online hosted by 92Y, Reed Galen, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, said, 鈥淒emocracy can鈥檛 be the kinder, gentler side in this fight. We have to turn away from the darkness together!鈥
  • After a five-year drought, there will again be a Black woman leading a Fortune 100 company. Rosalind Brewer has been named CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the nearly $140 billion retailer and pharmacy ranked No. 19. When she takes the helm on March 15, Ms. Brewer will be one of only 40 women running a Fortune 500 company, as well as the only Black woman 鈥 and only the third in history. The first was Ursula Burns, who stepped down as CEO of Xerox at the end of 2016.
  • And the聽 that Amanda Gorman, the first聽National Youth Poet Laureate, would perform an original poem at the Super Bowl!
Rosalind Brewer asks a question during a panel discussion at the Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Summit in Orlando, Florida, on Aug. 22, 2013. At the time, she was serving as Sam's Club president and CEO. On March 15, she takes over the helm of Walgreens Boots Alliance, a Fortune 100 company.
Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP/File

Of all the news in this 48-hour period, the Gorman-NFL collaboration was the most unexpected. Football holds an outsize place in the largely male American cultural imagination, and the NFL has coped inconsistently, at best, with incidents 鈥 on and off the field 鈥 involving racism, domestic violence, and police violence. Yet the league chose this 22-year-old, female avatar of Black brilliance to present an original poem at its biggest game of the year.

Why We Wrote This

In this jangly cultural moment, with good and bad news bombarding us, our columnist found in Amanda Gorman鈥檚 Super Bowl appearance the hope of a future as inclusive and mission-driven as this Gen Zer鈥檚 poetry.

Setting the tone with a poem

Ms. Gorman is the first to recite a poem at a Super Bowl, and she may also be one of the few Black women to perform there without incident. Remember the聽 over Beyonc茅鈥檚 halftime performance, which a former Republican congressman complained was 鈥減ro-Black Panther and anti-cop.鈥 Before that was the聽 over Janet Jackson鈥檚 鈥渨ardrobe malfunction,鈥 which damaged her reputation but not that of her white, male co-star, Justin Timberlake, despite his role in the incident.

From the start, Ms. Gorman鈥檚 appearance has been altogether different. The NFL promoted her not as a halftime entertainer but as a pregame tone-setter. And her subject didn鈥檛 involve singing and dancing. Instead, she celebrated (on videotape) the ordinary people 鈥 a nurse, an educator, and a veteran 鈥 chosen by the NFL as honorary Super Bowl captains because of their community service during the pandemic.

Lesotho makes Trump鈥檚 polo shirts. He could destroy their garment industry.

In the aftermath of 2020 鈥 with the election of Kamala Harris as vice president, recognition of the pivotal role Black female voters played in sending a Democrat to the White House, and the frightening ramp-up of white supremacist groups 鈥 the NFL鈥檚 invitation to Ms. Gorman acknowledges the importance and appeal of young, gifted, Black women and their words.

Reading Ms. Gorman鈥檚 interview in聽, I was reminded of the biblical reference to 鈥渁 little child鈥 leading. 鈥淚 have to interweave my poetry with purpose,鈥 she says. 鈥淔or me, that purpose is to help people, and to shed a light on issues that have far too long been in the darkness.鈥澛 聽聽

With her uplifting, expansive vision and mission, Ms. Gorman represents the best of Gen Z.

Forming alliances across generations

In our book, 鈥,鈥 my co-author, Bonita Stewart, and I describe a new phenomenon: 鈥済enerational diversity.鈥 Our 2019 proprietary research examined the views of 4,005 American female 鈥渄esk workers鈥 of four races (Black, Latina, Asian, and white) and four generations (boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z). Our data found that Black women and Latinas, especially younger Gen Zers and millennials, are more innovative and more likely to be first adopters of new technology. They are mission-driven and say that their work contributes to the social good to a far greater degree than their white and Asian counterparts. They are also supremely confident that they will control their careers. And large majorities, across all four races, say that 鈥渟isterhood鈥 will be important to them at work.

These findings tell us that a new era of leadership is, in many cases, already dawning. Perhaps the NFL is a forerunner in the call for more inclusive leaders fueled by their understanding of cultural differences, leaders who are eager to activate diversity 鈥 including generational diversity 鈥 as a competitive advantage.聽

Other nations had a pandemic reckoning. Why hasn鈥檛 the US?

I鈥檓 also encouraged by the ascendancy of the 58-year-old Ms. Brewer, the incoming Walgreens CEO. Another theme in our book is 鈥済enerational alliances.鈥 When we team up, younger women can provide energy just as older ones provide wisdom.

Maybe that鈥檚 the ultimate message from and for this jangly cultural moment. Find your allies and #TeamUp to save our institutions!