Race Reflections AT WORK launched on Monday March 1st 2021.

Race Reflections’ AT WORK brings the same engaging, stimulating, and supportive content in audible form. AT WORK as the name suggests,  focuses on Inequality, Injustice, and Oppression AT WORK and is solution-focused.

You can find Race Reflections AT WORK wherever you get your podcasts.

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If you would like to find out more about Race Reflections’ AT WORK,  or propose topics or dilemmas for the podcast please use the form below.

AT WORK EPISODE 60: CONSENT

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on consent, in relation to her research on whiteness, her lived experience, and the implications of this issue within the workplace

She begins with a basic definition of consent, then she details some experiences related to going out dancing that she recently experienced, and links them to the wider issues that her research explores. Part of the theme that has come up again and again in her data is patients talking about experience of whiteness in the clinic where therapists appear to be breaching boundaries, oversharing, dismissing experiences of racism, using gaslighting tactics, and engaging in the politics of denialism. She links all this to her concept of epistemic homeless and names these behaviours as acts of occupying the epistemic space of the other.

She considers how trauma is generally centered on some kind breach of boundary and how whiteness can be seen as colonial violence performed through spacial embodiment, that breaches of consent are the colonial enactment of whiteness, and that white supremacy is founded on breaching the boundaries, borders, and sovereignty of the other – bodily, territorial, psychic – and so in the everyday quotidian enactment of white violence we are going to see some repetition and reproduction of those wider politics

She then concludes by thinking about the workplace and how the coloniality of interpersonal relationships, especially cross racial interpersonal relationships, is enacted in relation to the consent of employees of colour.

Some links:

Epistemic homelessness:
https://mediadiversified.org/2017/11/24/epistemic-homelessness-feeling-like-a-stranger-in-a-familiar-land/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoKBLPbkB5I
Envy: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8728416
Location of disturbance: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8127268
White Minds: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds
Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 59: FEEDBACK!

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects around a listeners query asking “how do we get mangers to understand how biased they are when it comes to the feedback that they give to employees of colour.”

After briefly questioning the terminology of bias and unconscious bias, she looks at the evidence from organisational psychology, considering how empirical evidence shows that marginalised employees tend to receive poorer quality feedback. Even though the research isn’t always intersectional what exists demonstrates the intersectional effect that takes place when axis of oppression and identity collide. This feedback tends to be lower quality: less precise, more global, less frequent, and there tends to be a lot of anxiety around the exercise of providing feedback

She consider aversive racism where employers withhold negative feedback to avoid accusations of racism, but in act of withholding feedback deprive the employee of the opportunity to correct and to improve, and so sometimes to not be able to pass their probation periods or acquire skills and experience that would offer the opportunity for progression within their work. Basically in this dynamic employees of colour and other marginalised groups  are set to fail.

She reflects on how a high percentage of disputes that end up in employment tribunals are related to evaluation or discipline, and that the provision of effective feedback is central and essential to fair and just treatment in the workplace.

She spends some time talking about what employers racialised as white need to work on in regards to their anxiety and phobia around Blackness, considering what Fanon has said on these issues and the wider context of racist violence and exclusion, reflecting on how these conflicts are a liability for institutions when they are found lacking, and more frequently for black and brown individuals when they are not.

She then gives some thought to what can be done to correct these issues.

That whilst it’s worth making sure to avoiding it becoming self-fulfilling situation, most of the time people’s instincts based on their  lived experience are astute and accurate/ We need to correct the misconception that people are misinterpreting the situations, marginalised people in general interpret things on balance correctly. So instead we need to take seriously these feelings and instincts and come up with strategies to mitigate and navigate these situations. Ultimately though it is really for employers and people racialised as white to address their issues around giving feedback because it isn’t something employees of colour can change alone.

Further listening:

Aversive Racism: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8346383

Thinking about feeling, feeling about thinking: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/14041582

Further reading:

White Minds: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 58: WHITELASH

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on the phenomenon and social dynamic of what has been called whitelash, a combination of white/whiteness and backlash.

The term was coined by African-American journalist Van Jones to describe the backlash of White America coming together to reject what had been seen as a liberalisation of the USA under Obama. And in a more general sense it describes the sense of grievance, the sense of anger, the sense of frustration that originates from people racialised as White that comes from an often misconstrued and misconceived sense of displacement and social change which is a reaction to a perception that social advancements are being made in terms of equality. This is a concept and area that is expanded on in Guilaine’s second book White Minds.

After defining and exploring the concept she then considers it within the terms of group analytic thinking, theory and practice, and looks the relationship between the socio-political and the ways that institutions, organisations and individuals relate and interact, focusing on the workplace.

She considers the whitelash that we are currently experiencing almost 4 years after the murder of George Floyd galvanised institutions to make commitments and how those words and sometimes actions are now being pushed back against very strongly. And how this whitelash is also being felt across many intersections and identities.

She then shares some observations from her experience of delivering work related DEI training and looks at the affect of whitelash on Race Reflections as both an organisation and as a business.

White Minds is available to buy here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Van Jones on whitelash: https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/11/9/13572182/van-jones-cnn-trump-election-2016

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 57: SURVIVING WHITENESS AT WORK

In today’s episode Guilaine continues to look forwards towards Race Reflections path in 2024 and beyond. She announces a future book that will be coming from Race Reflections, our first book as an organisation.

That book is Surviving Whiteness at Work: reflections on defiance, resistance and transformation

It will aim to describe the working of Whiteness in the workplace through the lived experience of our team and community members, and what ways they have found helpful to grow, to survive, to thrive despite working in an environment that might have been hostile, toxic, marginalising and discriminatory. It will look at theory and autoethnographic experience and will be solution focused.

In this episode she discusses and reflects on that book and gives a flavour of the thinking and topics it may cover.

For more on this exciting new project see here: https://racereflections.co.uk/title-surviving-whiteness-at-work-reflections-on-defiance-resistance-and-transformation/

If you are a member of the Race Reflections community we are looking for contributions: https://racereflections.co.uk/call-for-contributions-whiteness-at-work/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 56: RACE REFLECTIONS IN 2024

In today’s episode Guilaine looks forwards towards Race Reflections path in 2024.

She starts by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, followed by a brief reflection on global violence, specifically in Gaza and Congo, a topic she will return to in more detail in a future podcast later this year.

Then she outlines what is planned and being developed for Race Reflections over the next 12 months:

  1. As Guilaine’s training is as a specialist clinician she wants to use this skillset more and will be setting up a group analytic clinic within Race Reflections establishing 2 to 3 regular groups this year.
  2. Race Reflections will establish a physical office so we can put down roots, form in person community, and disrupt the reproduction of displacement that can happen within purely online spaces and groups. The office will be based in Milton Keynes (30 mins from London, 45 mins from Birmingham and Coventry).
  3. Because of these first two developments there will be an even greater focus on in-person training.
  4. Race Reflections will be launching a video channel this year.
  5. Within the next 6 weeks we will announce a new programme for courses and training and in terms of the organisation we are looking into development around management both for existing team members and potentially in terms of recruitment.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 55: APPEARANCE

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on workplace issues surrounding people’s appearance, how appearance is policed, and how that relates to respectability politics and white supremacy.

They first discuss how appearing Palestinian or showing solidarity with Palestine during the current genocide intersects with how people’s appearances are policed in general, specifically looking at this issue from a US perspective.

Then they consider how dress-codes in school set up dress-codes in the workplace, reflecting on how multiply marginalised people are the most affected by these dress codes, and the ways that dress-codes serve dominant cultures, patriarchy and white supremacy.

They then discuss an essay by Aysa Gray called The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards (https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_bias_of_professionalism_standards) which argues that the standards of professionalism are really just the standards of western white supremacy. They then challenge us to ask ourselves how we might be reinforcing white supremacy, xenophobia and other forms of systemic inequality and consider the role of hiring metrics in all this.

Simone ends with a series of questions from that essay by Gray that aim to help de-centre the standards of whiteness within the workplace.

Simone’s website: https://www.simonekolysh.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 54: THINKING ABOUT FEELING, FEELING AB0UT THINKING

In today’s episode Guilaine takes us on a freeform reflection and roundup of her thinking and feeling in 2023.

From the publication of her second book White Minds to the writing and collating of her third book Creative Disruption she shares her position as someone who doesn’t identify as an academic due to the violence she has experienced as a Black woman in academia and psychology (something she explores in both these books.)

She then gives us an introduction to Creative Disruption beginning with its genesis at a conference that looked at creative disruption. The chapter she has written for that book also began at that conference in a talk she gave on Congolese music. Here she also makes links with Afrobeats (which she describes as the hybrid child of the African diaspora). She then expands on the reasons for highlighting and emphasising creativity and on the importance of thinking about feelings, and feeling about thinking. Thinking with the body or feeling with the mind. How these ‘things’ are split by Western society but are not split within us. For this she refers to Audre Lorde’s text Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.

Then she asks some questions to you, the listeners: Do we do enough to engage with the creative in the work we do at Race Reflections? Are we playing into the splitting of the rational self and the erotic self, this splitting of the feeling self and the thinking self?

She then talks about her latest piece (‘The world does not need more intelligent men’) which looks at the concept of intelligence and asks what intelligence is or might be. She explored these questions in relationship to the personal and the political overlapping and often being the same thing.

She ends with another invitation or provocation to the audience:

How do we find ways to reconnect body and mind, rationality and corporality, heart and head, as an organisation so that our dismantling, disruptive, anti-racist and anti-oppressive work continues to allow us to grow and be connected with the world and each other?

Audre Lorde: Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power https://www.centraleurasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/audre_lorde_cool-beans.pdf

‘The world does not need more intelligent men’ https://racereflections.co.uk/the-world-does-not-need-more-intelligent-men/

Guilaine’s first book Living While Black is available to buy here:  https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

Her new book White Minds is available to buy here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Her third book co-edited with Hannah Reeves and Claudia Di Gianfrancesco is called Creative Disruption: https://creativedisruptioncouk.wordpress.com/about/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 53: MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

In today’s episode Guilaine expands on her thinking around money which she has previously covered a little on the podcast and on the Race Reflections website. She specifically reflects on the relationship between money and attachment, considering internalised scarcity, social class and social deprivation, framing her thoughts around her own background and lived experience. This episode was inspired by the work she was doing for the Freud Museum Conference about the relationship between psychotherapy and money.

She begins by going over attachment theory as it exists from initial work done by Bowlby which relates to maternal or parental attachment. She offers some critique and complications around these theories but generally doesn’t dispute the ideas and evidence around this topic. She does however suggest that whilst a lot of time is given to maternal attachment theory not enough has been done around how material circumstances influence attachment, and that maternal and material are seldom considered together.

She has done some work in this area when writing Living While Black, specifically considering attachment to and with place. We attach to spaces as well as to bodies, and anyway bodies and spaces are related to each other. And looking at places means looking at the influence of geopolitical factors such as borders and money. She then covers her own relationship with money and with scarcity thinking, looking at how growing up poor can create adaptive behaviours/internalised issues around things like experiencing injustice, a lack of familiarity with wealth, and difficulties navigating spaces without cultural capital.  She asks us to imagine a graph that cross references material and maternal/parental attachments and how that kind of thinking can help us understand our own relationship to attachment and to how we relate to money.

She ends by linking all this back to the workplace.

The article she mentions is on the Race Reflections website for members (and if you are not a member you are welcome to join):  Poverty, deprivation and internalised scarcity

Her book Living While Black where she explores some of what she talks about today is available to buy here:  https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

Her new book White Minds has just been published and is available to buy here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 52: LOCATING ANXIETY & STAYING SAFE

This episode of Race Reflections at Work is about managing anxiety with the help of holistic/ alternative approaches while at work/ in employment, as well as some suggestions

TW: Admin, Comms and Engagement Lead Dionne talks about the triggers of anxiety while navigating spaces around her – often being the only minority.

Resources to read: 

https://www.rtor.org/2019/02/21/mental-health-and-chiropractic-care/

https://thehouseclinics.co.uk/learning-hub/stress-and-anxiety-how-chiropractic-can-help-you

https://www.onechiropractic.co.uk/blogs/simple-tips-to-manage-stress-in-the-moment

Where to find alternative support in the UK:

https://www.lsbu.ac.uk/stories/lsbu-chiropractic-clinic

https://www.gcc-uk.org/

https://blamuk.org/zuri-therapy-racial-wellness/

Dionne Anderson: http://dionneandersoncreative.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 51: PROXIMAL AMBIVALENCE

In today’s episode Guilaine explore and defines the concept of proximal ambivalence and proximal dynamics. She begins with the recent incident covered in the news that highlighted issues of anti-blackness within communities of colour, specifically in this context south asian communities in the UK. She reflects that whilst it’s important to avoid overgeneralising it’s also important to draw parallels and see patterns when they occur. She goes on to talk about some of her experiences of these dynamics and examines the specific racialised and economic context and tensions around afro haircare shops in the UK and the long historical legacies of inter-“racial” conflicts and tensions that date back to colonial administration and the role south asian groups played in African colonies and the Caribbean.

She then defines proximal ambivalence as a term that derives the ways that groups with proximity to power/Whiteness can have mixed feelings when it comes to justice, liberation and dismantling White Supremacy. This is because White Supremacy is a caste system or pyramid and everyone within its structures and strata can reproduce and enact racialised violence towards groups lower down the complex hierarchies. All groups including people racialised as white exist within these racialised hierarchies which is what creates these proximal dynamics.
She then considers how these dynamics look within the workplace.

Guilaine fully explores this subject in her upcoming book White Minds that you can pre-order here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 50: ABLEISM AND SANEISM IN THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on the issues and experiences around disability, mental health and neurodivergence in the workplace.

They begin by defining the terms/identities/concepts ableism, disablism, saneism, visible/invisible disability, mental illness, neurodivergence and intersectionality. Then they consider how many of these terms overlap and are often umbrella terms for each other, and that they depend on the people/institutions that are defining them who hold the power to define what is typical and what is done to those who aren’t typical.

Neurodivergence, disability and mental illness are common human experiences and should not be pathologised. They are also tied into white norms and to other forms of, and systems of, marginalisation, normalisation and oppression.

Then they consider how neurodiverse, disabled and mentally ill people often have no access to “legitimate” work, highlighting how prior to the workforce these groups have often experienced oppression and alienation at home, in school and in higher education, a model that continues into adult life. How they can be seen and framed as troubled/troublesome and how that becomes criminalisation and pathologisation. Not having access to “legitimate” work also means barriers to accessing housing, food and healthcare.

Workplaces are set up around specific assumptions around work, productivity and success. These assumptions are within society and ourselves as much as they are within workplaces. By making them we miss other ways of being and viewing these things. Inclusive workplaces have a positive impact for all employees as they put the focus on the needs and different approaches of everyone.

Simone ends by talking about the practical ways that workplaces can redesign themselves to be truly (and not just legally) inclusive places that accommodate multiple ways of working and crucially recruit a wider range of workers with different strengths and needs.

Simone’s website: https://www.simonekolysh.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 49: NEUROSIS, RACISM AND ENVY

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on the relationship between racism, neurosis and envy. She begins by going over an earlier article she wrote which expanded on Fanon’s theories around these areas and considers neurosis in classic anaylytic theory defining it as phenomena/processes that occur when we can’t confront something in the world, or in ourselves, or in others, because it provokes too much anxiety. So that anxiety expresses itself in some other ways, usually unconsciously. She then expands this to think about racialised or White envy. She considers the distinction between jealosy (the wish to possess) and envy (the wish to annihilate)

She then talks about how she has come to these conclusions through lived experience and group analysis and psychotherapy. With a side note that often in clinical settings the gaze is turned inwards so the question becomes “What do you do to trigger envy?” rather than understanding that the white subject is born or socialised into their envy. Instead the question could be: “How do you make yourself more resilient?” or “How do you look after yourself?”  And the answer to that is often to connect to your power which means connecting to the very things you are being envied for, not minimising it.

She then focuses in on what racialised or white envy looks like in the workplace, sharing experiences and anacdotes and breaking it down into:

  • Dismissing/sabortaging Black authority
  • Not congratulating/giving praise for achievements
  • Envy creating canibalistic/bizarre behaviours

She then expands to think of envy from the wider perspective of it being a cornerstone of white supremacy, partly because racism is about fantasy and disavowed feelings.

She finishes by reflecting on ways that people of colour can navigate envy in the workplac that include:

  • Acceptance
  • Naming it
  • Finding spaces where people are going to listen and think the envy through with you
  • Reclaiming for yourself what you are envied for

And ends with encouraging all workplaces to think and talk about envy.

As Guilaine mentiones there is a lot about envy in her upcoming book White Minds that you can pre-order here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

The open access article she begins by talking about can be read on the race reflections website here: https://racereflections.co.uk/neuroses-of-whiteness-white-envy-and-racial-violence/

And Guilaine has covered envy on the podcast before here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8728416-envy

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 48: WHITENESS AS NARCISSISM

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Membership Engagement Coordinator Janedra Sykes talks about Whiteness and White Supremacy Culture as narcissism in (and outside) the workplace.

She starts by reflecting on her personal experience in relations to this topic, how she came to consider racism through a public health lens and how her work on this takes Black women as her primary audience and aims to give them toolkits to use to navigate this terrain. She outlines Christina Sharpe’s concept of anti-blackness as the climate in which we all live. Then she looks at the ways in which using narcissism as a lens for dealing with whiteness in the workplace has been helpful for her within this work.

She then explores some case studies, looking at how Black organisations and individuals are treated by White organisations.

Then she runs through some people and places to find tools from. From Doctor Ramani she takes documenting your work, understanding a narcissist won’t give you anything back, forming healthy relationships inside and outside of your organisation (if you can) and recognising patterns of narcissism. From Dr Nathalie Martinek she takes ways to help hack narcissism in the workplace and the ways in which these dynamics are racialised. And then she expands on all this with her own thoughts and experiences.

She ends by outlining how White Supremacy as narcissism is not a new concept it having been already touched on by Dr Karl Bell in the 1970’s and even by W.E.B. Du Bois, and she ends with summing up how exploring racism in the workplace through the lens of narcissism can help by de-personalising it, distancing it as well as that the act of naming something both takes some of it’s power away and gives you some power back.

Christina Sharpe: The Weather https://thenewinquiry.com/the-weather/

Doctor Ramani’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/DoctorRamani

Nathalie Martinek: Hacking Narcissism https://nathaliemartinekphd.substack.com/

Janedra Sykes: http://arboretagroup.com/staff/janedra-sykes/

Narcissistic Racism: Revisiting Carl Bell by J. Luke Wood: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-psychology-of-racial-equity/202305/narcissistic-racism-revisiting-carl-bell

Race Reflections AT WORK was recently named as one of the Feedspot Top 15 Inequality Podcasts on the web! https://blog.feedspot.com/inequality_podcasts/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 47: WHITE MINDS

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on the new book she is writing: White Minds

Pre-order: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

She considers the process of writing her second book, gives an overview of the book’s focus and thinks about what she has learned about being a writer and author.

She talks about how her writing style is difficult to define because it mixes theory and ideas with personal anecdotes and auto-ethnography. And how, whilst she has tried to keep both books accessible because that’s an important part of the job of education and the project of anti-racism, White Minds is a little bit more challenging as a text.

She considers her new book in relation to her first book and discusses its content which may be seen as controversial because it focuses on the pathology of whiteness from the perspective of the white subject rather than the racialised other. It looks at how White Supremacy harms all of us and shifts the analytic gaze to make whiteness the subject. How white people function in society, how that reproduces white supremacy and then how white supremacy reproduces white minds. This focus is an act of transgression, defiance and resistance by interrogating the people at the perpetrating end of racialised oppression and domination. Looking at the psychosocial pathology of whiteness on the white subject.

And she ends by sharing some thoughts on what she has learnt as a writer.

Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 46: TRANS AND NON-BINARY AT WORK

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on the issues and experiences around being trans and/or non-binary within the workplace.

They begin by defining the terms/identities/concepts of transgender, non-binary, cisgender and intersectionality. Then they look at how even before trans and non-binary people reach the workplace they have often experienced discrimination at home, school and further education, and how we all exist within systems that force conformity around gender and sexual norms.

Then they consider “illegitimate” work, highlighting how sex work is perceived and how it is often one of the few forms of work available to marginalised people. They also talk about “walking while trans” a phrase that describes trans women being assumed to be sex workers and then harassed and discriminated against because of the stigma around sex work.

Then they look at “legitimate” work and workplaces, exploring issues around bathroom accessibility, misgendering, inappropriate questions about bodies and transition, and not being hired because of identities. They consider some things employers can do to make workplaces more trans and non-binary inclusive, including allowing transgender and non-binary people to self identify, offering intersectional allyship, creating ally programs, measuring managerial performance, designating a confidential ombudsman and pronoun guidelines.  They discuss creating zero tolerance policies around LGBTQ+ discrimination with clear and safe ways to report it and providing meaningful diversity and inclusion training.

They end by reflecting on how trans and non-binary people exist with accumulated discrimination experiences that combine home, education and work experiences and how this significantly contributes to factors that mean that trans and non-binary people quit work in addition to other ways that they are excluded from workplaces.

Stonewall: Getting started with trans inclusion in your workplace: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/workplace-trans-inclusion-hub/getting-started-trans-inclusion-your-workplace

Stonewall: Workplace trans inclusion hub: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/workplace-trans-inclusion-hub

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 45: THE TALK

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Admin, Comms and Engagement Leading Boss Dionne inspired by a panel at Priya Joi’s book launch, talks about The Talk.

She reflects on the differences between brown and Black people’s relationship with talking to their children about racism and how that influences and impacts how they enter into and experience the workplace. She begins with sharing her personal experiences, considers how an American-centric approach to these issues can overlook the nuances of how young people/children are exposed to racism in infancy and how that shapes who they become in the workplace.

She then thinks about the people and ideas that influence how she is currently thinking about The Talk in relationship to the workplace, particularly the work of copywriter and podcaster Eman Ismail.

She ends by thinking around ideas of success and ways that this idea can be decoupled from income to become something both more personal and expansive.

Priya Joy: Motherland – What I’ve Learnt About Parenthood, Race and Identity: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451133/motherland-by-joi-priya/9780241574317

Eman Ismail: Mistakes That Made Me: https://emancopyco.com/podcast/

Dionne Anderson: http://dionneandersoncreative.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 44: THE INTERSECTION OF TRAUMA

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on a question that was posed to her recently:
“When it comes to racial trauma, don’t we bring some baggage that may make us more vulnerable than others, and if so should we address that baggage?”

Building on the work she has done around the intersection of trauma in her book Living While Black and other work by her and others in terms of empirical studies and wider theory, and then applying that to the workplace.

Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

She considers how racial trauma, social trauma or oppression related trauma taking place in the workplace intersects with early life experiences and trauma, or as it’s often framed: adverse childhood experiences.

After thinking around the complex factors that surround and underpin these issues she thinks about the ways that we can increase our self awareness and insight, and understand that even if we have had difficult experiences we can build our capacity to remain intact in the face of racism. But that there will always be an impact regardless of the work we do personally.

She councils employers and colleagues not to speculate about people’s personal histories and instead to start from a point of compassion and to assume that there’s nearly always a reason for the way people respond.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 43: ANTI-RACIST AND ANTI-OPPRESSIVE WORK IN GROUPS AND IN COMMUNITY

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Assistant Disruptor Lucia offers some reflections on how group work and community work can help or support people in developing their anti-racist approach to work. She looks at the advantages, drawbacks and limitations of working in groups. She begins with a definition and with her personal experience of being a client and a therapist and finding the most effective healing happening within group therapy. She sees group work as a space that allows people to be human and vulnerable whilst connecting to others humanity. But also cautions that building community/groups where everyone feels engaged and as safe as possible is a challenging endeavor involving emotional labour and care, but that when it’s done effectively it can help combat isolation, helplessness and hopelessness that individuals might feel within the systems that surround them.

Considering obstacles and drawbacks to this approach she brings up expected responsibility for education and emotional labour being projected onto the more marginalised members of the group, dynamics of entitlement, space taking and access to others’ feelings and experiences within the more privileged members of the group, and how group dynamics and enactments as microcosms of society can lead to people being retraumatised. She concludes by offering some suggested solutions for facilitators of this work to help mitigate these problems that include; naming the problems, challenging these dynamics, holding boundaries, and breaking the group down into affinity groups to process some of the work.

Lucia’s website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 42: PAIN

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on Black and brown people’s relationship with pain, particularly Black women’s relationship with pain and distress. And from this also the relationship between pain and associated issues such as accessing health services and self compassion.

She begins with a personal disclosure that one of her younger sisters recently nearly died and considers how pain played into this. She then uses this as a case study and jumping off point to move away from an individualised analysis to a consideration of systems, structures and power.

She thinks about internalised toxic discourses, narratives and expectations that exist around the idea of the strong Black woman, thinking about ideas like strength, self-reliance and relying on others. And wonders whether Black people (and to a lesser extent brown people) allow themselves to seek help, support, rest, or attend to their suffering when required. How does this impact late diagnosis of conditions such as cancer, and feelings of self compassion? And outside of the self how does this systemic lack of acknowledgement and recognition of Black women’s pain influence these dynamics.

She then links all this to the workplace considering two elements:

1. How pain/distress of a white person in conflict with a black or brown person is seen, centered, and acknowledged and how this is linked to the colonial construction that black people are immune to pain. How Black distress or vulnerability is seen as inauthentic, not real or even contrived, and how that connects to Whiteness and white fragility.

2. How Black people internalise these elements which may also make Black people (particularly Black women) present in a way that hinders people reading them as being in pain/distress.

She concludes with some questions for employers and employees to consider when approaching conflict and distress in the workplace.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 41: REFLECTING ON 2022

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects and thinks back on the things that have stood out for her during 2022. What is she left with, what have been the biggest stories, the biggest moments and the biggest lessons?

She considers how the world cup final has brought up a lot for her and others around homelessness, homeness, displacement and migration. She engages with this from an autobiographical, auto-ethnographical position and discussed her lived experience here. What does it mean to black and French in relation to this theatre of sport?

Here TEDX talk on epistemic homelessness is of relevance to this topic: https://youtu.be/MoKBLPbkB5I

She also links these themes to the ‘controversies” around the 2022 French film Tirailleurs (English name: Father & Soldier) and the interventions and comments it’s star Omar Sy has made around racism. Then she relates these ideas to the workplace. Related to this she briefly thinks around the noise surrounding Meghan and Harry and the British Royal Family and how it has held up a mirror for the ways that Black women are treated within British culture particularly in workplaces and institutions.

This episode on Location of Disturbance and Scapegoating covered issues around Meghan Markle and the racism she faces: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8127268

She then thinks about how the “return to normal” in relation to the “end” of the pandemic has thrown a spotlight on important work issues around exclusion and disability. And she ends by thinking about how things have gone for Race Reflections in 2022.

Happy New Year from the Race Reflections Team!

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 40: CLASS AND CLASSISM FROM A PSYCHOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Assistant Disruptor Lucia returns to reflect on class and classism. She shares her thoughts around these concepts and what they may represent within our current systems of oppression. She covers reasons why it’s difficult to clearly define class or different class groups and then gives a definition of classism as the belief that a persons social or economic station in society determines their value in that society which creates prejudice pr discrimination based on social class. Then she considers the relational aspects of classism and how class can come to be an embodied experience and thinks about how that influences peoples experiences within the job market, and how middle class or upper class identity or belonging can be seen as a process of othering and exclusion. She finishes her thinking looking at classism in conjunction with whiteness and how that plays out in relation to white adjacency.

Lucia’s website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 39: CAN BLACK EMPLOYEES EVER BE AUTHENTIC IN THE WORKPLACE?

In today’s episode Guilaine responds to a listener question: Can Black employees ever be authentic in the workplace?  She answers the question with some other questions and reflects on the issues surrounding them.

The first is: Is authenticity a desirable aim to achieve for Black people and organisations?  She comes to the conclusion that their is a strong case as a general rule for the importance of workplace authenticity in improving culture, morale, well-being, organisational turnover and even leadership.

But it isn’t simple as her second question suggests: Is it realistic, both for organisations and for black employees, that a workplace can increase it’s level of authenticity?  She reflects that some change can be achieved with sustained effort but that a blanket expectation of authenticity doesn’t take into account difference in terms of experiences, cultures and beliefs. She considers the barriers such as the British/English cultural aversion to authenticity, and how whilst leaders may be the guardians of organisational culture they are often leading from the “snowy white peak” of white middleclass masculinity which doesn’t tend to embrace authenticity.

She concludes with advice for employers on ways they can encourage authenticity and support the people that this (counter) cultural change will potentially challenge and isolate.

Some other Race Reflections AT WORK podcasts that touch on these issues:

Authenticity: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/10665249

The only person of colour in the workplace: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/10172908

Imposter Syndrome: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/11323973

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 38: REACHING A MILESTONE

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on reaching a milestone within the PHD she is currently undertaking.  She gives the lowdown on what she’s been working on, discusses some of the challenges she has encountered and what she has learnt so far, and she discusses where she stands in relation to the research and some of the implications for her and for Race Reflections.

Her study looks at whiteness, at time and space, at memory, with focus is on developing a group analytical frame for addressing whiteness and racialised violence in Psychotherapy, and an exploration of the overlap between group analysis and African philosophies, challenging “Western”linear temporalities. It looks at hpw whiteness as a factor or force for trauma becomes reproduced, reenacted and reiterated within the clinical encounter, and the implications this offers on how whiteness comes to be within institutions, organisations and teams relationally, procedurally and structurally.

Podcast about the start of her PHD process: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/9373225

PHD study page: https://racereflections.co.uk/whiteness-in-psychotherapy/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 37: CHALLENGES AND ACCOUNTABILITY DURING ANTI-OPPRESSIVE CHANGE PROCESSES

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Assistant Disruptor Lucia offers some thoughts and potential approaches to how to navigate organisational or community change processes that come out of anti-oppressive or anti-racist work. These reflections are inspired by regular responses and questions posed by participants during the delivery of Race Reflections training. She considers practical ways to apply theory to practice, thinks about anti-oppressive work as counter cultural, suggests expecting both internal and external challenges during this work such as: awareness of emotional processes and power dynamics, boundaries, building tolerance, building community, emotional regulation, and separating mistakes and behaviors from intention. She looks at accountability culture as a more useful model than existing blame and punishment cultures and contextualises all of this within the many obstacles created by White Supremacy and Whiteness, specifically the unhelpful social structures of individualism, perfectionism and moral purity.

Lucia’s website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 36: IMPOSTER SYNDROME

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Academic Lead/Scholar Scout Mel Green takes us through her personal relationship with imposter syndrome and it’s effects on black women. She thinks about concepts like over productivity, burnout, breakdown, authenticity, assimilation and what bell hooks calls the “mind/body split”. She uses her experience as a case study and reflects on the tactics and realisations she has found to help her deal with these experiences.

She links her experience to this study: Experiences With Imposter Syndrome and Authenticity at Research-Intensive Schools of Social Work: https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/advancesinsocialwork/article/view/24124

Mel Green’s website: https://www.melalygreen.com/

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 35: PODCASTING AND POWER PART 2

In today’s episode we return to exploring the relationship between podcasting and power, this time looking at how “Prestige” podcasting has replicated and interacted with existing power systems. We look at some of the worst cases of podcasts being made with a colonialist mindset, and then look at The Trojan Horse Affair and how that avoided the traps of previous prestige podcast journalism and how it was mostly dismissed by the wider media landscape.

This episode is hosted by Race Reflection’s Audio Wizard/Witch, Dave Pickering: http://davepickeringstoryteller.co.uk/

LINKS:

The Complicated Ethics Of ‘Serial,’ The Most Popular Podcast Of All Time: https://archive.thinkprogress.org/the-complicated-ethics-of-serial-the-most-popular-podcast-of-all-time-6f84043de9a9

White Reporter Privilege: https://www.theawl.com/2014/11/white-reporter-privilege/

The Science of Racism: Radiolab’s Treatment of Hmong Experience: https://hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2012/10/22/science-racism-radiolabs-treatment-hmong-experience

How ‘S-Town’ Fails Black Listeners https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/how-s-town-fails-black-listeners-112210/

S-Town is a stunning podcast. It probably shouldn’t have been made. https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/30/15084224/s-town-review-controversial-podcast-privacy

The Trojan Horse Affair: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html

Trojan Horse: A failure of British journalism and that includes the Observer https://mediadiversified.org/2022/02/20/trojan-horse-a-failure-of-british-journalism-and-that-includes-the-observer/

Trojan Horse On Trial https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/02/trojan-horse-podcast-islamophobia-birmingham-michael-gove-sonia-sodha

Trojan Horse affair: Why new podcast evokes both enthusiasm and rage https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-islam-trojan-horse-affair-new-podcast-enthusiasm-rage-why

The Trojan Horse Affair vs. the British Press https://www.vulture.com/2022/03/trojan-horse-affair-podcast-british-response-interview.html

The Real Trojan Horse Affair https://mediadiversified.org/2022/03/08/the-real-trojan-affair/

Human Resources: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/human-resources/id1565249472

Have You Heard George’s Podcast? https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/have-you-heard-georges-podcast/id1436036246

Reclaimed and Rewritten: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/reclaimed-rewritten/id1598946087

Coiled: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/coiled/id1585408648

Busy Being Black: https://www.busybeingblack.com/

Say Your Mind: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/say-your-mind/id1324118843

Intersectionality Matters! https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/intersectionality-matters/id1441348908

Masala Podcast: https://www.soulsutras.co.uk/about-masala-podcast/

Surviving Society: https://survivingsocietypodcast.com/

Down to a sunless sea: memories of my dad: https://podfollow.com/sunlesspod/view

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 34: SOCIAL MEDIA

In today’s episode Guilaine is back to talk about social media, particularly twitter, and the ways this platform has helped both Guilaine personally and Race Reflections as an organisation. She goes over how she came to use social media as a professional platform, considers the advantages, opportunities and gifts that using this platform have created for her and for RR, and reflects on where she stands in terms of some of the controversies and criticisms that exist around twitter and social media in general in relation to mental health professionals and to scholarship in general.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 33: EMPATHY IN THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode Race Reflections’ Lead Associate Disruptor Dr Furaha Asani talks about empathy, and lack of empathy, in the workplace. She thinks about definitions of empathy and sympathy and how empathy can function as an action. As a case study she reflects on a personal experience of not receiving empathy and support at work within a racialised context. She considers how gaslighting and self-gaslighting can operate within these kinds of dynamics. And when thinking about solutions she notes that self advocacy has it’s limits, suggests that employers work out standard operating protocols to minimise harm, and lists some ways that everyone can work towards actively creating workplaces that foster empathy.

Some links to things mentioned in the conversation:

The Importance of Empathy in the Workplace, Center For Creative Leadership: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/empathy-in-the-workplace-a-tool-for-effective-leadership/

Empathy for others’ suffering and its mediators in mental health professionals, Santamaría-García, et al https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06775-y

Misogynoir in the Workplace: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/10443664

The Invisible Gaze of White Women: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/9739129

Envy: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8728416

Envy, Power and the Fear of the Self: https://racereflections.co.uk/envy-power-and-the-fear-of-the-self/

When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat, Erika Stallings https://zora.medium.com/when-black-women-go-from-office-pet-to-office-threat-83bde710332e

What Is Gaslighting? Meaning, Examples And Support, Marissa Conrad https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/what-is-gaslighting/

5 Signs You’re Gaslighting Yourself, Nicole Bedford https://aninjusticemag.com/5-signs-youre-gaslighting-yourself-2bca12b62e9b

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 32: WHITENESS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY

In today’s episode therapist and Race Reflections’ Assistant Disruptor Lucia talks about whiteness in psychotherapy. This episode is for everyone but particularly for people either working within the therapeutic traditions, or people who are current or future service users. Drawing on the existing Race Reflections training resources she looks at the ways that whiteness and violence have framed therapy during it’s history and present, issues with therapists not being sufficiently trained around working with difference, and considers tips and approaches that can be taken by potential clients when looking for a therapist that will be able to deal with systemic experiences of racism or marginalization. She covers therapy as a history of pathologizing difference, it’s bias towards catering to the majority group, how legacies of slavery and other forms of violence and exploitation are still present within therapy now, and existing frameworks that can be used and adapted to navigate all of this.

Some links to things mentioned in the conversation:

Whiteness In Psychotherapy: https://academy.racereflections.co.uk/courses/whiteness-in-psychotherapy

Janet Helms: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/faculty-research/faculty-directory/janet-helms.html

Lucia’s website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 31:RACIAL BIAS AND BLACKNESS IN TEACHING AND HIGHER EDUCATION

In today’s episode, Race Reflections podcast producer Dave talks to the newest member Mel Green about her experiences and scholarship around racial bias in teaching and higher education. She covers her time working in pupil referral units, primary schools, online teaching and higher education and the systemic and personal challenges that has sometimes involved. And she shares tips and strategies for navigating, mitigating and combating these dynamics.

Some links to things mentioned in the conversation:

Mel Green’s website: https://www.melalygreen.com/

Open University: https://www.open.ac.uk/

Leading Routes: https://leadingroutes.org/

Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks: https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-to-Transgress-Education-as-the-Practice-of-Freedom/hooks/p/book/9780415908085

Standpoint Theory/Sandra Harding: https://www.routledge.com/The-Feminist-Standpoint-Theory-Reader-Intellectual-and-Political-Controversies/Harding/p/book/9780415945011

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 30:AUTHENTICITY

In today’s episode, in response to a question from a listener, Guilaine reflects on authenticity in the workplace. She considers the issue in relation to a recent study that showed that black employees were more resistant to returning to the workplace post lockdown. She thinks about how the burden for “fitting in” is often placed on those who carry the difference, and how institutional racism and assimilative pressure impacts on the ability of racialised people to feel authentic and “real” at work, and how these factors contribute to people not being safe or supported to be a part of a team.

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 29: REFLECTING ON TWO YEARS OF RUNNING A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on and celebrates the first two years of running Race Reflections as a social enterprise. She maps out the history of how Race Reflections grew from a blog to an organisation and business, and considers the personal and structural challenges, thinks about what she has learned and what she has found difficult about the process.

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 28: FIRST RACE REFLECTIONS RELAUNCH OF 2022

In today’s episode Guilaine is back (with another cameo from her kitten Jazzie) to talk about the first Race Reflections relaunch of 2022. She talks about the challenges, achievements and changes that Race Reflections has had as part of its journey during its first 18 months as a social enterprise, and introduces the return of Race Reflections Academy,  our new Radical Scholarship Fund, our relaunched membership options, our refreshed website, and our upcoming academic outreach work.

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 27: MISOGYNOIR IN THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode, we explore misogynoir in the workplace and the power and positionality of the Black woman in the corporate world. Misogynoir, a term coined by Moya Bailey in 2010, identifies the intersection of Black women and “the persistence of sexist and racist biases in both media and politics, and the unique blend of both that black women experience.” Engagement and Comms lead, Dionne discusses her understanding of the issues in the corporate world, whilst reflecting on some common coping strategies, her own experiences, and the likelihood of more Black women using digital platforms as a way to ensure their voices are heard if they are not in the activist or influencer sphere.

This episode is hosted by Race Reflection’s Admin, Comms and Engagement Leading Lady, Dionne Anderson: https://linktr.ee/dionneandersoncreative

Links:

Asuman, M. K. A. (2021). Book Review: Misogynoir Transformed, Black Women’s Digital Resistance by Moya Bailey. Journal of Communication Inquiry.

Misogynoir: The Trauma Experienced By Black Women In Corporate – make a difference – workplace culture, mental health, wellbeing

Weathering Is One More Thing That’s Killing Black People – SELF

What HR managers need to know about misogynoir – People Management

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 26: PODCASTING AND POWER

In today’s episode we explore the relationship between podcasting and power, both the ways that podcasting has replicated and interacted with existing power systems, and ways that it offers a radical space for marginalised voices to create freely without gatekeepers. We think about how The Podcast Industry has developed into just another industry/workplace incorporating the issues inherent in those industries and workplaces. We look at the history and present of podcasting and ask you to consider adding your voice to its future.

This episode is hosted by Race Reflection’s Audio Wizard/Witch, Dave Pickering: http://davepickeringstoryteller.co.uk/

LINKS:

India.Arie on Joe Rogan/Spotify: https://www.nme.com/news/music/india-arie-says-she-left-spotify-because-of-its-treatment-of-artists-not-joe-rogan-3162696

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/india-arie-spotify-joe-rogan-interview-1299169/

Why I’ve Decided to Take My Podcast Off Spotify by Roxane Gay: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/opinion/culture/joe-rogan-spotify-roxane-gay.html

The Test Kitchen: https://www.vulture.com/article/gimlet-reply-all-controversy-spotify-test-kitchen.html

Hidden in plain sight by CC Paschal: http://www.thechiquitachannel.com/criticism/2021/3/7/hidden-in-plain-sight

Glass Walls by James T Green: https://www.jamestgreen.com/thoughts/115

Another Round and The Nod: https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/30/21308074/the-nod-spotify-rss-feed-another-round-buzzfeed-podcast-ownership

https://hotpodnews.com/the-case-of-another-rounds-archives/

Palace Shaw – Why I’m saying goodbye to PRX by Palace Shaw: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13j3H7BidesRD4zgz2aoZuwDcdocV7NpzNs3YqA5Rcg8/mobilebasic?urp=gmail_link

“In response to Kerri Hoffman’s Letter”: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uu1nOsqLsnZDXNJe04lJt3TQpt6-tvFhZnF4aQ_dwHc/edit

Podcasters Are Reclaiming Storytelling in Africa: https://www.vice.com/en/article/akdbbj/podcasters-are-reclaiming-storytelling-in-africa-and-becoming-celebrities-v28n1

Rise and Shine: https://www.riseandshineaudio.com

Multitrack Fellowship: https://www.multitrack.uk/

Equality in Audio Pact: https://www.equalityinaudiopact.co.uk/

How the Equality in Audio Pact came together by Renay Richardson: https://hotpodnews.com/how-the-equality-in-audio-pact-came-together-by-renay-richardson/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 25: BLACK, BRITISH, IN BUSINESS AND PROUD

Release date: Monday 21st March

In today’s episode we are joined by Black Business Network founder Shari Leigh to talk about the Black, British, In Business and Proud report. She talks about the issues, actions and solutions suggested by the survey of more than 800 Black people in Britain.

Black Business Network: https://www.blackbusinessnetwork.online/

BBIBP Report: https://www.blackbusinessnetwork.online/bbibpreport

Black Investor 360 Conference and Exhibition: https://www.blackinvestor360.com/

This episode is hosted by Race Reflection’s Admin, Comms and Engagement Leading Lady, Dionne Anderson: https://linktr.ee/livingmotherhoodcreatively

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 24: THE ONLY PERSON OF COLOUR IN THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode Guilaine responds to a listener query about strategies for navigating situations where you are the only person of colour or marginalised person within the space. She reflects on her own experiences of this dynamic and considers issues such as representation, isolation, assimilation, scapegoating, hyper-visibility, invisibility, tokenisation and internalised racism. And she suggests some approaches for individuals and organisations to mitigate these harms including finding, creating and supporting networks, communities and mentorship.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 23: THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT FEELINGS

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on the particular dynamic where a person with power reacts to accusations of structural harm by saying that they feel unsafe. She considers how affect and feelings are conditioned and shaped by social context, histories and structures, and how feelings can play a role in protecting and enforcing social (dis)order and the status quo. She encourages us to consider how words and discourses can harm people, and to think critically about our feelings.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 22: THE ART OF RELAXATION

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on the importance of relaxation for racialised and marginalised people,  particularly when experiencing discrimination or oppression within the workplace.  She considers the physical effects of oppression and stress and offers some approaches that may help to transform this embodied data; visualisation, mindfulness, breathing. She reflects on ways to use physiology, as a tool of resistance and a tool to mitigate the impact of white supremacy and other systems of oppression.

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 21: ASSIMILATION IN THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on how how people, especially Black and brown people, face pressure to assimilate within the workplace. She considers what assimilation or “the politics of assimilation” means,  how this works in practice, what implications this has for marginalised employees, and strategies for resisting assimilation.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 20: THE INVISIBLE GAZE OF WHITE WOMEN

In our last episode of 2021, Guilaine reflects on her recent article The Invisible Gaze of White Women (now only available to Race Reflections members) and considers how the insights she explored in this article can be applied to the workplace. She combines theories around misogynoir, rape culture, and the white gaze, to theorize systemic sexual harassment created in part by the white female gaze.

Link to the article for members.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 19: WHITENESS IN THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode, Lucia -the Assistant Disruptor at Race Reflections – reflects on how Whiteness as a set of cultural practices affects our work environments by setting norms and expectations for everyone. Starting with a definition of Whiteness and its characteristics, we then examine how it enacts exclusionary practices in organisations.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 18: WRITING AND POWER

In today’s episode we reflect on writing in relation to the workplace and in relation to power. Who gets to document, author, and narrate their lived experience? What can writing give you in relation to self care, transgression and home-ness?

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 17: SIDE HUSTLING AS A NAVIGATIONAL STRATEGY FOR BLACK AND BROWN EMPLOYEES: PART 2

In today’s episode Dionne – the Admin, Comms and Engagement Lead at Race Reflections – continues the conversation on side hustles and entrepreneurship, following Guilaine’s introduction on Episode 12. Dionne reflects on her own personal and professional journey in business and introduces five suggestions for those side hustling, or taking the leap towards building their business as a full-time venture.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 16: THE START OF A NEW CHAPTER

In today’s episode Guilaine reflects on her personal and professional news that she is starting a PHD. She considers why she has chosen to pursue this path given her difficult journey within psychology, and thinks about this process as an act of resistance and about the roles this can play in disrupting whiteness and structures of power. She also discusses the focus and process of her studies, and the wider experiences of people of colour and other marginalised people within academia.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 15: WRITING WHILE BLACK with Jendella Benson and Annabelle Steele

In today’s episode we are joined by head of editorial at Black Ballad (and author of Hope & Glory) Jendella Benson, and teacher (and author of Being Amani) Annabelle Steele to talk about how they navigate the workplace and the publishing space as Black women. The conversation reflects on Black representation, Black motherhood, authorship, self care and Black literature.

Jendella Benson: http://www.jendella.co.uk/

Black Ballad: https://blackballad.co.uk/
Hope & Glory: https://www.waterstones.com/book/hope-and-glory/jendella-benson/9781398702295
Twitter and Instagram: @Jendella

Annabelle Steele: https://www.beingasteele.com/

Being Amani: https://www.hashtagpress.co.uk/product-page/being-amani
Twitter and Instagram: @beingasteele

This episode is hosted by Race Reflection’s Admin, Comms and Engagement Leading Lady, Dionne Anderson: https://linktr.ee/livingmotherhoodcreatively

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 14: THE SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT OF THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode we look at how the workplace relates to the sociopolitical context it exists within. We critique existing individualistic thinking that presents workplaces as exceptions to sociopolitical violence, sociopolitical processes and sociopolitical events, and instead consider the workplace as a microcosms of societies.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 13: INTRODUCTION TO BEYOND BIAS

In today’s episode, in response to a listener’s request, we give an introduction to one of our most requested interventions our training course, Beyond Bias. We cover a little bit about it’s content and some of its learning objectives, and give some context for why Guilaine designed the course, and the journey that the training takes you on.

Beyond Bias for organisations: https://racereflections.co.uk/events/beyond-bias-training-for-organisations/

The next Beyond Bias training course will take place on September 24th 2021, 10h00-16h00: https://racereflections.co.uk/register/beyond-bias-training/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 12: SIDE HUSTLING AS A NAVIGATIONAL STRATEGY FOR BLACK AND BROWN EMPLOYEES

In this podcast we discuss side hustling when black or brown or otherwise marginalised and therefore likely to encounter inequality, injustice and oppression at work. We think about why side hustling matters and why it can act as a buffer to adverse work experiences.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 11: THE BLACK ADVOCATE

In today’s episode we think about the dynamics at play in someone finding themselves in the role of being “The Black Advocate” (or any other position of advocating for marginalised groups) in the workplace.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 10: CONDITIONAL HUMANITY, GRATITUDE AND BLACK OBJECTHOOD

In this episode we think about the treatment of the Black players in the England team after the Euro 2020 final. We think about the parallels between all of this and the struggles people navigate in more conventional workplaces. We consider the conditional humanity afforded to Black people and people of colour, the colonial notion of gratitude and how Black people are objectified.

The twitter thread this episode was based around:

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 9: TOXIC WHITE FEMININITY

In today’s episode we take the recent Tiktok trend of “white women fake crying” as a jumping-off point to consider a slightly different take on intersectionality in relation to white womanhood. We consider the reasons why black people and people of colour find these videos disturbing or triggering, and explore “toxic femininity” which we define as when white fragility meets the constructions of white femininity.

More on the TikTok trend: https://www.nylon.com/life/white-women-crying-on-cue-tiktok-trend

Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma is out.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 8: ENVY

In today’s episode we think about how the so called “deadly sin’ of envy can play out in the workplace in relation to racial dynamics and inequality. We consider the distinction between envy and jealousy and the underlying motivations behind these feelings and what they look like within the contexts of whiteness and work.

Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma is out.

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 7: SURVIVING THE WORKPLACE WHILE BLACK

In today’s episode we consider surviving the workplace while black. We reflect on the workplace conditions of previous and current generations of black people, particularly black women. We think about three strands that are navigated when working while black:

1.  Inequalities and structural racism which impacts physical and mental health.
2. Experiences of discrimination, interpersonal racism and bullying which intersect with structural issues.
3. The internal and external pressures put on black people by themselves, their family and community, to work twice as hard to overcome these oppressive systems.

Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma is out.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 6: LIVING WHILE BLACK

Today we do something a little bit different because Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma is due to come out very soon! So this episode is dedicated to thinking together about the book, considering the relevance of LWB to the workplace and sharing an exclusive extract from the book’s introduction. You can preorder living while black here.

To learn more about the book go here.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 5: TRANSFERENCE IN THE WORKPLACE

In today’s episode we consider the influence of the past on the present by exploring the concept of transference, what it means and how it might manifest in the workplace. This episode is all about making present-past links to better make sense of conflicts, tensions and race-based difficulties at work.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 4: AVERSIVE RACISM

In Episode 4 we consider aversive racism. Specifically, how the fear of being called racist, the fear of confronting racism and the avoidance of difficult race-related conversations by white managers, can lead to exclusionary interpersonal dynamics and cultures of marginalisation within institutions which can have significant adverse consequences on the welfare, morale and/or workplace experience of colour.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

The twitter thread this episode was based around:

AT WORK EPISODE 3: BLACK AUTHORITY IN THE WORKPLACE

There are many challenges black leaders must contend with, that is for certain… In this episode we consider why black authority in the workplace continues to attract resistance, hostility and sometimes sabotage and reflect on some of the challenges of black leadership within white institutions. To do this, we make links to historical configurations, colonial relations and the expectation of black servitude.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

AT WORK EPISODE 2: LOCATION OF DISTURBANCE AND SCAPEGOATING

In this episode we ask ourselves why institutions often against those who allege racism. We consider some of the group processes at play using as illustration the treatment of Meghan Markle and responses from that interview. Location of disturbance and scapegoating are presented as frames to formulate victimisation and retaliation within institutions.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

Transcript:

Welcome to episode 2 of AT WORK, Race Reflections’ fortnightly podcast on all things inequality, injustice and oppression.

As you know we work on questions, challenges, dilemmas and issues that are related to racial trauma in the workplace and offer reflections and possible solutions.

As many Black woman, I found the treatment of Megan Markle distressing and triggering. Women of colour have been vocal in naming what has been going on and let’s be clear it’s not because we’re royalist or monarchy stans but because we recognise patterns of misogynoir (racialised sexism) and racism.

I am no monarchy commentator and I don’t follow the couple closely but I know that Meghan agreed to do a ‘tell all’ interview with Oprah which many speculated would name her experience of racism within the Royal family.

As soon as this was announced Buckingham Palace shared amongst other alleged wrongdoings that it would be investigating multiple allegations of bullying made against Mehgan. I think timing is material, particularly material as we know what can happen when a person of colour dares to speak of racism… Indeed it’s rarely the case that they are greeted with flowers and chocolates.

So is going on? Or what can we learn about organisational functioning from this debacle?

This is of course a very broad question and there are various ways to tackle it but what I want to do is to give you new perspectives hopefully some new concepts that you can use to better understand what happened within institutions and within groups when a person of colour in particular, attempts to speak about their experience of racism in the workplace.

So you’ve heard the story, you perhaps even had the experience of naming racism. You name racism and all of a sudden something seems to happen, perhaps you become the enemy, perhaps you become ignored, perhaps your loyalty to the organisation is questioned. But in any event the endgame is that you are in some ways excluded, smear campaigns are not uncommon, you go from target from persecutor.

So what is it that makes workplaces and social structures claim overtly that we are all for inclusion diversity and equality but turn violent when their claim to inclusion and diversity are challenged?

The concept I want to speak about is what group analysis refers to as the location of disturbance and the second one which is somewhat related is scapegoating.

Location of disturbance

The concept of psychological disturbance in group analysis is a way to view a tension, a conflict or dysfunction in a group. The location of disturbance is a way of understanding how an individual can become a recipient of unconscious group projections, which reflect a wider group dynamic or problem, we could say a blind spot for that wider group. What is being said here, is that no disturbance can ever be confined to or attributable to a single person or entity. Rather, that a distressed or disturbed individual or the person who carries the disturbance is thought of as the site, the symptom of a problem belonging to a larger unit.

Group analytic thinking sees disturbance as group phenomena, as a self-protective mechanism for the group to preserve its ignorance or innocence vis á vis its own wishes which can then projected onto an individual scapegoat. And so here we can see the overlap between location of disturbance and scapegoating.

What is scapegoating?

Scapegoating is a group dynamic that means that it is something which is reproduced by groups where usually an individual is unfairly singled out for blame for something for which they are not responsible or at least not wholly responsible for.

Why does it happen?

There are there are various theories to make sense of the dynamic of scapegoating. At the core of the need to scapegoat is an inability to address some disturbance or some difficulty because it is too anxiety provoking, too overwhelming or for whatever reason cannot be faced.

Some of the factors linked to organisational scapegoating include;

-a blame culture: where we tend to look for someone to blame/locate faults

-a highly hierarchical culture: where power is distributed vertically, where place and rank in the organisation determines your treatment

-institutions with stark inequality in relation to ‘representation’

-highly stressed contexts, this may be because of change, particularly poorly managed stressed

In every case of scapegoating, there is displacement and misdirection of the problem towards a safer and usually more vulnerable rather.  Hence why there is a strong correlation between organisation toxicity, scapegoating and lack of inclusivity.

So what can be done?

I am amongst those who believe that scapegoating is inevitable but you’ll be glad to know there are things we can do to stop if in its course and mitigate its impact. Here a few thing we can all do:

1. Learn about scapegoating, what it is what it looks like except that it is almost an inevitable group dynamic

2. When you see it when you recognise it name it for what it is

3. Encourage collective ownership of problems

4. Redirect hostility, anger and anguish or causes of stress of grievances of anxiety to where they belong. Most of the time this will be to do with structural issues rather than individual factors. Often power is involved.

That is all on organisational scapegoating for now I hope you have found this short episode helpful, again feel free to get in touch with your questions.

This has been Guilaine from Race Reflections, please take care.

AT WORK EPISODE 1: RACIAL TRAUMA AT WORK

What is racial trauma? How does it manifest in the workplace? In this episode we consider the distress that racism can cause in the workplace and explore the experience of Harvinder, a research assistant whose well-being becomes so adversely affected by his experience of discrimination and victimisation, he is forced to resign. We ask ourselves why it matters that those in position of power in organisations understand racial trauma and what organisations can do mitigate the adverse impact of racism at work.

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

Transcript:

Hello, this is Guilaine from Race Reflections,

I’m really excited to welcome you into the first episode of our new podcast at work, the podcast is all about tackling issues of inequality injustice and oppression at work

It is going to be a fortnightly place to reflect on the issues you face and so going forward we’ll use an open format which means that moving we will welcome your questions your challenges and dilemmas related to inequality, injustice and oppression.

If you would like to put to us issues to consider, then get in touch and we’ll feature them in the podcast.

How at work develops over time is up to you and to your feedback but will remain open to take the direction you find the most helpful.

Before we get started a little bit about us and a little bit about me Race Reflections is a fast growing social enterprise dedicated to tackling inequality injustice and oppression in society and we do this through various activities including organisational consultancy, Training, community engagement content creation.

As for me I am a psychologist by background with grounding in sociology in in cultural studies in psychoanalysis and group analysis so those are the perspectives I will bring when considering organisational functioning at work.

Today is our first ever episode so it is a little bit scary but it is also very exciting at the same time also as it is celebratory in more than one way.

As some of you may know I have just finished writing living wile blak my first book and so it is a very special time; it’s been quite a tough journey to get to this point.

Living While Black address issues the psychological impact of racism and racial trauma in this deity lived experience primarily black people, it provides tools and strategies to facilitate self-care within white supremacy.

And so it seems to befitting today to think about racial trauma in the workplace, an issue not often reflected upon when it comes to considering the experience of people of colour in the workplace and also when it comes to thinking about organisational functioning and dynamics. So let us take the rest of the podcast to think a little bit about what racial trauma might be.

Before we think about what racial trauma might be, let think about trauma first. Now there are no universally agreed definition of trauma, but generally when clinician are talking about trauma they are talking about both events and responses to events that are experienced as frightening and as overwhelming,

And which negatively affect our sense of safety and a sense of security in the world so I guess we could say and which have long lasting effect on how we relate to ourselves have you relate to others and how we relate to the world

To consider racial trauma, it’s important to remember there no universally agreed definition either. But we could extend that definition trauma to say that racial trauma. Both racism related distressing events or our our responses to these events that are experienced as frightening and as overwhelming, and which negatively affect our sense of safety and our sense of security in the world.

There are more specific definitions that exist so for example Dr Robert Carter who is African-American psychologist has created a framework which makes visible the harm of racism and that framework is called race-based traumatic stress injury according to this framework racial trauma is essentially the pain that a person may feel after encounters with racism, according to carter how we experience these encounters is going to be dependent on us as individual on the context, on the history. So whether an event is going to be experienced as traumatic or as stressful is a matter of intersection between individual factors and contextual factors and history.

I wonder whether it’s going to be helpful to think about this definition to in relation to someone so I’m going to tell you about someone that I have worked with, of course I have altered some biographical information in the interest of maintaining confidentiality and anonymity. The person I want to tell you about, I called Harvinder.

Harvinder is a British Asian male in his mid 20s and who worked as a research assistant for about two years. He was fiercely ambitious having beloved most of his life that his work ethics and competence would be no bar progressing in his career and being treated fairly.

Harvinder found himself within a context of organisational restructuring and he accepted a transfer to an all white team within which he quickly started to notice that he was treated differently. He was denied time off when it is suited him, he was unlike others micromanaged, he was given more more administrative assignment. Because of his treatment Harvinder made a number of race discrimination complaints none of which were upheld but as a result his supervisor retaliated.

He was labelled as a troublemaker, deprived of support and excluded from social events, because he needed to job Harvinder endured the mistreatment for several months and he started to have nightmares about work, he experienced panic attacks on his way to work and they became so severe that he could no longer face returning to work. Harvinder was eventually signed off with depression for about 18 weeks this period was extended and then eventually he resigned.

Now what in Harvinder’s story can help us better understand what racial trauma is and what it might look like in the workplace?

We could say that racial trauma is the lived experience of distress which occur as a result of racism, the real or threaten emotional or physical pain that experiencing racism might cause, it the result of micro, meso macro, processes & configurations.It can manifest in various ways including via feelings of shame, of self blame, of isolation. It is operational at individual and collective level, it is central to group identify and dynamics – although the story of Harvinder does not cover this, it can be transmitted intergenerationally.

Racial trauma is a significant issue when it comes to the well-being of employees of colour for example it’s not unusual for people who and are underrepresented in their place of employment to feel that they bear the burden of countering negative stereotypes, to feel that they have to work 3-4 times harder to succeed or to feel that they have to put on a persona, to leave their authentic self to be acceptable and safe.

More often than not when a person of colour manages to access a white organisation even though HR and management may go out of their way to increase racism diversity… the expectation or normalised practice culturally is that they dress themselves In whiteness so that in the end everyone comes to think the sane way, dress the same way, speak the same way in a way that simply reproduced whiteness and therefore culturally exclude those it wants to recruit but or forces assimilating into norms that reproduces social & historical micro messages about micro inferiority, otherness and trespassing which can take their toll on the wellbeing of employees of colour.

That is why it’s so important to think beyond interpersonal issues, and consider cultural and structural issues as well to promote the well-being of staff of colour.

So what can people in position of authority do, what can organisations or social structures do to mitigate the impact of racism and therefore limit the probability that their employee will be experiencing race based distress or trauma?

As we have said at the beginning of the podcast at work is really all about trying to figure out some possible solutions so I want to leave you with things that you may want to consider if you are in a position of power within your organisation that is not to say that these are the interventions that are possible and of course right now I focus on organisational level interventions, there are individual interventions for people who are at the receiving end of racism and things we can do, to look after our mental health and well-being. Consider registering for our racial trauma courses or buy living while black which has a chapter on working while black and is packed with self-care tools.

So back to organisational interventions. 4 things…

Firstly, I really want you to start to listen and to trust people who have lived experience of racism. They have the expertise when it comes to recognising racism. Basic but as we have seen in the case of Harvinder, rare. Most race discrimination complaints are dismissed. There are complex dynamics we have no time to cover today but if that’s something that interests, you please get in touch and tell us and we will be happy to reflect on them in the podcast.

Number two, it is vital that you accept racism as the norm and that you take a critical stance to your activities and to your services this will avoid the kind of scapegoating that we have seen with Harvinder as he attempted to name what the organisation was not prepared to contemplate the problem or the disturbance became located in him which is a frequent dynamic within groups.

Number 3 be honest about you the limitations: where you are located in society, place on your perspective. What you can see and what you cannot see.

I know there a lot of pushback in relation to unconscious bias and I think that most of the criticisms are important and valid but what we do not want to do is for micro level phenomena to be completely discarded when he comes to understanding how inequality in the workplace is reproduced.

Any comprehensive antiracism program comprehensive or racial equality program is going to include the reproduction of racism at the microlevel, at meso level and at macro level. so it’s important not to continually reflective and to develop a learning culture in tension to difference.

Finally 4, as we have seen through the story of Harvinder, isolation and lack of social support are contextual risk factors for racial trauma. Do your staff have access to race-based support? Spaces or network to connect to others who may have similar experience of the workplace.

Well that is probably enough for a first introduction into racial trauma at work, If you want to know more please get in touch don’t forget to put to us your query questions challenges.

Thank you for listening, this has been Guilaine from Race Reflections. Until next time take good care

AT WORK TEASER

Here’s a teaser for Race Reflections AT WORK!

Our first episode will be released on Monday 1st March.

The feed is now live on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk