Meet Timothy Parent - Harvard Graduate Leverages Concept of Otherness to Lift Asian Designers, Queer Communities, and Create Skilled Jobs in Africa
Timothy transforms the practice of radical inclusion into creating coalitions of diverse and marginalized groups, so-called "minority groups", that are really the global majority if we choose to see ourselves as a connected whole. As GlobalMindED is committed to sharing DEI strategies, we are honored to share Timothy Parent's story. Growing up as an Asian American and queer, Timothy felt and understood "otherness" and has come to value radical diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through his work at Meaningful Gigs, he is dedicated to creating well-paid, skilled jobs for Africans, economically empowering individuals and their communities. He serves as a role model for those who have felt marginalized, and those who want to change the world.
Timothy, what is your personal narrative? What key moments in your life led you to where you are?
My Mom immigrated to the US in the late 60s and experienced a lot of racism growing up, so she wanted her children to be as "American" as possible (my Dad is a white American). I was whitewashed and assimilated, but I never really felt like I fit in. One of my escapes was through swimming, which I was pretty successful at. At the age of 14 I was ranked first in the US, and I wanted to go to the Olympics and escape the small town that I always felt so "Other" in. I moved to Florida without my parents when I was 14 to follow my swim coach and pursue my dream of going to the Olympics. I didn't make it, but swimming did help me get into Harvard. I think I finally found Others that loved themselves for their differences at Harvard, and they also loved me for mine. That was really the beginning of self-acceptance and self-love for me, which has been a tumultuous road. In addition to being mixed and never feeling like I belonged anywhere, I knew I was queer from a young age and was always bullied for who I was. At Harvard I was celebrated for being different, and I finally found a group of friends that really loved and supported me.
At Harvard I studied East Asian Studies because I didn't know much about my Asian side at all, but I was specifically interested in Asian fashion. Being interested in fashion at the least "fashionable" school in the country was another form of Otherness, but I reveled in it. I loved having my own lane and something I could do well in, as everyone at Harvard was better than me in everything else (including swimming). That was probably the most important life lesson I had from college, as it was incredibly humbling and motivating at the same time. I am constantly in awe of the power and potential of people, and I felt empowered to make my future my own.
I started a charity fashion show in college featuring Asian designers, and I also wrote my thesis on fashion and style in China. My thesis advisor told me to quit because I would fail, but I had never quit something in my life and I wasn't about to start then. I persisted and ended up getting a Magna Cum Laude (2nd highest honors), which encouraged me to pursue my subject matter further. I also graduated during the financial crisis in 2009 when it was glaringly apparent, and so there were no traditional jobs available to me despite having $104,000 in student loan debt. China seemed like a good market to pursue, and I wanted to continue researching how fashion and style manifest in different cultures (which was the subject of my thesis). Over the course of 10 years in China I took 100,000 photos of everyday people and what they wore as field research for my thesis, and I even distilled these new learnings into a book - yet to be published.
Starting in 2009 I began to promote Chinese designers as the next wave of creativity, after researching and promoting Asian designers of all backgrounds in college. Global biases had pigeonholed China into being a manufacturing hub of primarily cheap goods, and once the country was economically successful brands saw it as the next market for consumers. I knew in 2009, and even before then, that China had the potential to contribute to the global creative economy. I was able to introduce over a dozen designers to Franca Sozzani, the late Chief Editor of Italian Vogue. I also worked with major international retailers like Lane Crawford and Opening Ceremony to bring high-end Chinese designers to larger audiences. I ended up spending a decade in China to dismantle the concept of "made in China" and now the country is one of the top destinations in the world for contemporary fashion.
I eventually repatriated in 2019, and wanted the next stage of my career to continue to create design systems that are globally inclusive.
How did your time in China prepare you for the work you are doing now? What did learn from this experience living in a different country?
I can't really illustrate just how much China taught me, but I learned things about China and the US as well. When I had only been to the US, I had no frame of reference or anything to compare the US to. How things were done was simply the way things were done. I never questioned the American way until I understood that there was a completely different way to do virtually anything.
China really prepared me for what I'm doing now at Meaningful Gigs. The scale is similar (over 1 billion people), and both places are incredibly diverse despite being perceived as monoliths. In China I was working primarily in fashion design, but for Meaningful Gigs I get to work in Africa across many different digital design disciplines. By working with and living in a different culture, I believe I'm better equipped to communicate and empathize with other people. Empathy is incredibly important even when working in the US, but it becomes invaluable when working with drastically different cultures. I learned that I need to unlearn a lot and just generally be open.
Tell us about your work at Meaningful Gigs? How does this company create sustainable wealth for local communities in Africa?
A lot of money has been thrown at charities and other organizations that provide aid to Africa to alleviate poverty, but aid and government expenditure has been proven to only help in the short-term. We've spent at least $1 trillion USD in aid over the past 60 years, but it actually hasn't improved anything. By creating well-paid, skilled jobs for Africans, Meaningful Gigs is able to economically empower individuals and their communities. These designers have been able to improve their resumes and get more jobs, invest in other business in Africa, create generational wealth by buying land and homes, and so much more. However, we don't ask businesses to help us provide jobs in Africa as a favor. We are actually serving a business need and driving business value. By having a more diverse team companies can drive business value in a myriad of ways. At the end of the day no one is doing charity work, and the recipients are not passive. We've aligned incentives on both sides, and so we know that this will be a sustainable model for wealth creation in Africa. We hope to create 100,000 skilled jobs for Africans by 2028, and we're already well on our way!
You co-founded two organizations for Harvard alums: Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment and Harvard Alumni for Fashion, Luxury, and Retail. How do these advocate for critical issues such as racial justice and the environment?
Racism is everywhere, and environmental racism is one of the greatest systemic threats to the BIPOC community. It may be a bit more distant than some people realize, but it's incredibly important that, as we undergo a paradigm shift towards a cleaner future, that we simultaneously address systemic inequities. We address this issue by educating and connecting people that are interested in the subject area, and we hope to create even more interest in the subject matter. HACE has grown to over 1700 members in 1.5 years, and we know that there is a lot of power within the Harvard community. However, I'm primarily leveraging the Harvard brand to create more general awareness of the issue, as Harvard alums cannot address this issue alone. Every individual can have some sort of positive impact.
For the fashion, luxury, and retail group, I really wanted to use these industries as a lens to understand gender, social, racial, environmental, and economic justice issues. Fashion is a great, visual medium for storytelling that can really engage people, and everyone participates in the fashion industry (whether willingly or not). Understanding where our clothes come from is just one example of how we can illustrate issues of racial justice and the need for racial and gender equity. We have events to educate people, networking sessions to cultivate community, and activations around charities and other organizations that are doing important work, such as addressing human trafficking and modern slavery in these sectors.
What advice would you give to future Inclusive Inspirational Leaders?
Inclusion is not just inclusion of the visably diverse. Diversity comes in many forms, and a lot of those forms are not always apparent (i.e. diversity of thought, religious diversity, invisible disabilities, etc.) I think the key for me is in creating coalitions of diverse and marginalized groups, as so-called "minority groups" are really the global majority if we choose to see ourselves as a connected whole. I don't only work for queer or Asian people, because queer people or Asian people alone will not be enough to change the world and I hope that when I personally need support that it isn't only people from my assumed communities that will show up.
Virtually, everyone is an "Other" and bringing Others together is important in understanding solidarity, collective power, and what humanity can become. However, not all people have to be marginalized in order to be accepted as part of this cohesive whole, and often allies are not as included as the people they are trying to help because they don't fit a certain profile. That is, by definition, not inclusive, so we really need to understand allyship and how to change people who we may traditionally shun as racist, biased, x-phobic to people that will support Others. Putting people on blast and cancelling them is not the most constructive way to actually convert someone from being a part of the problem into becoming a part of the solution. DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging) is really for and about EVERYONE, so be expansive with how you approach the concept of (radical) inclusivity!
