Black Women vs. Work Discrimination
Earlier this year I read an article entitled White Women are Often Terrorist to Black Women at Work and I can attest to that from personal experience. I’ve also witnessed other Black women experience apathy, bias, pay disparities, bullying, gaslighting, and character assassination. The latter experienced most often after standing up for themselves.
Per the aforementioned article, “White women have a particular type of microaggressions where they can…evade responsibility and use womanhood as a banner to show solidarity when in reality they are actively sabotaging Black women. They can also use anti-Black racism and stereotypes to paint Black women as aggressive and white women as fragile.” I was once reprimanded for not coddling a white, female colleague who talked to me sideways, only for her to then weaponize her tears when the issue was escalated to management.
It wasn’t until I was in my 30s that I had my first full-time, white, female direct managers. To say the experience has been “interesting” would be an understatement. But I’m also not a new kid on the block naive to the politics of the workforce. Despite having to work twice as hard as my white counterparts to attain equitable opportunities, pay, and recognition, I find that I am in a perpetual state of one-sided competition with many white women who see me, and my quality of work, confidence, and work ethic, as a threat.
Imagine Hunger Games vibes, but with business suits and fewer sharp objects.
Although we transitioned to a remote work world due to a deadly global pandemic while in the midst of a global, social uprising against racist police brutality, I, a Black woman, was advised by my white manager to work on my body language and facial expressions on camera in order to ease others’ perceptions of me.
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Ease others’ perceptions of me while we navigate nonexistent physical boundaries between our personal and professional lives and racial identities within our homes during a crisis? ‘Sure, Jan.’ State sanctioned closings and limitations of salons and barbershops during the pandemic has required many Black professionals to embrace and/or care for our own natural hair; natural hair that has only been legally safe from discrimination in three states for approximately 18 months via the CROWN Act.
Navigating discrimination, bullying, microaggressions, and global issues is compounded when you’re a professional Black woman fighting an uphill battle for equity in both demographics of race and gender. Black women experience burn out, depression, anxiety, etc. at exponential rates, all while trying to work and provide for ourselves and/or our families.
I’ve also witnessed an increase in “professional” platforms like LinkedIn censoring outspoken Black women and activists, especially this past year, who speak out against the workplace discrimation they experience, call out insincere displays of solidarity from their place of work, or push for better DEI education and trainings. That is one of the reasons why I created this website in order to carve out space to raise my voice and share my experiences without having my account suspended, being silenced, or shadowbanned. If you’re reading this and need to talk, vent, or just be, this space is for you too.
Peace.