We caught up with the brilliant and insightful TIFFANY ROBERTSON a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

TIFFANY, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Sometimes, the idea finds you and it feels like and becomes more than just an idea. It’s you walking into your divine purpose with your eyes wide closed. It’s the intersection of fear and faith. That’s the orgin story of Touchy Topics Tuesday. Personal. Prolific. Passionate. Purposeful.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

In August 2014, Mike Brown was killed within 15 miles of my home In October 2014, Von Derrit Meyers was killed less than 2 blocks from my home.
On November 24 at approximated 8:24 p.m. Darren Wilson, the officer who had shot Michael Brown was acquitted…
That same night, immediately after the verdict was read, my then 14-year-old freshman daughter pierced the silence of our home with an unforgettable scream of denial, rage, fear, uncertainty, and brokenness. There was no verbal consolation from my husband or me for my daughter that night; we let her wholly feel the exposure of what would inevitably become her reality.
By 9:00, there was silence again, but this time my husband and I were on our knees praying for a personal response to help our daughter, our family, and our region.
Touchy Topics Tuesday would become the realization of that prayer…the longest most difficult answer God had ever given me…and one that is still unfolding.
In hindsight, everything about November 24 seems like a harbinger toward this moment; one that I had obliviously started preparing for the day I gave God an unconditional yes to His will, purpose, and plan for my life…a response that still causes me to tremble when I remember the occasion.
Pray It Forward…that was all I heard God say to me as I moved feverishly on the elliptical at the local YMCA the summer of 2014. I had recently committed to integrating a healthier lifestyle with my personal prayer time, so my daily routine of going to the Y also comprised my spiritual supplications.
This day, the response from whatever the beseeching was expressed bold and clear. PRAY IT FORWARD. In fact, it was such an audible response, I immediately looked around to see if anyone else heard it. Of course, it was only heard in my spirit, but I stopped the machine and excitedly found my husband, Lionell in the gym and told him what had happened. He inquired what it meant and that’s when I realized that I didn’t know either…lol…it was definitely a “slow blink” response to his question.
The successive details were eventually revealed through church sermons and ongoing personal prayer, and Lionell assisted me with making a prayer baton that I would walk up and down each block in my community reciting the enclosed prayer. This is how I started meeting a few of the white people who would eventually join me in the of prelude of TTT.

We met on a Tuesday Nov. 18, 2014, at a local coffee shop, Restituo. I was not familiar with the physical space and established power dynamics of being the only Black person about to enter a discussion around current and past racially instigated incidents. Thanks to my many years in Corporate America, I was fully prepared and accustomed to make them feel comfortable through incremental delivery of my blackness, though I had told myself repeatedly leading up to that moment that I would not shrink myself.

We started the convo with very polite introductions and pleasantries. I remember receiving gifts from one or more of the people who had been invited and feeling bad that I hadn’t thought to bring anything. One of them remarked that I brought the gift of courage and connection.

After repeatedly not advancing to the subject and enduring more than one awkward silence, I said “Well, let’s get into the reason we are all here.” That was the first and last time I had the courage to take the lead for the rest of the conversation; I actually started strong in my personal convictions and experience toward the situations, but somewhere along the line got consumed in the opposing and rationalized view of how I was supposed to see the circumstances of the lost black lives.

It didn’t take long to be aptly reminded of the lens of whiteness that demanded black existence be governed and justified by law and order. At some point after my yielding, two of the participants left…only myself and one other person remained. By this time, my armpits were sweaty, and I couldn’t move. I nervously ranted about nonsense to fruitlessly mask my anxiety, hurt and disappointment. The person touched my hand and thanked me for coming; said that she sometimes gets chatty in uncomfortable situations, then asked if she and I could continue to meet and have these discussions.

I was so desperate yet, hopeful of getting some semblance of an explanation to help restore my daughter’s innocence and inexperience with race that contrary to what actually happened during that inaugural meeting, my soul and sole purpose in agreeing to attend was to ask one question; What is it about my black skin that offends you?? In recalling this story so many times, I know that I did at some point ask this directly, but it was probably not here as I may have verbally expressed or inferred previously. I repent for misleading anyone who may have heard this previously recollected.

This was the day that TTT was born.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I am a firm believer that there is a no other qualifier for resilience besides living this thing called life and trying to do it with as much dignity as your personal capacity allows. My personal resilince is highlighted daily thorughout every aspect of my existence. Sometimes, it manifests as me making loving myself a priortiy; other days, its revelaed when I sacrifice a potentially lucrative meeting to just be present with my family. Life is for the living and demands resilience as the bare minimum to sustain it.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of many lessons that I learned about myself came from a particular TTT session that I will never forget. One of the white patricpant’s came into the space that a.m. noticeably aggravated. It wasn’t unusual since the times we met were early and she was retired and I wasn’t the friendliest morning person either, so I duly noted her disposition and proceeded with getting us started.

After a little time had passed and we were all more acclimated, this particpant inhaled long and reflectively as if she had finally made up her mind to disclose what may have been on her mind all morning…then she looked directly at me and pleasantly exhaled “Tiffany, you’re a credit to your race; where did you get your middle-class values?”

Before the fog from that inquiry had a chance to dissapate, another White particpant apparently misreading the my whole silent vibe, reached over, grabbed my hand and continued to further white-splain the question. I can’t recall the quote verbatim, but paraphrased, it went something like what was it about me that made me different…from other presentations of blackness.

Now here is the intersection of trauma and truth: Inherently, I knew what was being asked was racist and hurtful, but I also felt privileged to be considered and named a credit to my race.

Need a moment to chew ot over with Twix?? Don’t worry, I’ll wait…

So if all my life up to and including this exact moment that I am writing this, I have been systemically conditioned to abate and abort EVERY.SINGLE.ASPECT of my black identity; if I have been simultaneously molded against and scolded for it, why wouldn’t I feel some kind of relief to have someone who represented the most powerful race in the world tell me that I had successfully achieved a standard of their assimilation requirements?

This moment produced a paradigm shift of my relationship with racial power dynamics within two major contexts: the awareness of ignorance of my own internalized inferiority and the lesser emphasized and anaylzed ignorance of their internalized superiority.

The conversations would never be the same.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.touchytopicstuesday.com
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Image Credits
Pinixit Photography Christian Science Monitor Benn Mudd Photography Kita Quinn