Blog Post: You Don’t Sound Black…microaggressions in the workplace
Originally posted on Medium. View article here.
You don’t sound black…micro-aggressions in the workplace.
There’s a phenomenon known as “micro-aggression”, coded language with prejudicial undertones. Micro-aggressions can be intentional or unintentionally harmful, but all stem from a racist place of white supremacy.
Women of colour know the sweet sound of micro-aggressions all too well. We hear coded messages in the workplace from white women, white men and (sometimes worse yet) other minorities who undermining our presence and credibility. Here are some of the things I’ve heard:
No, where are you REALLY from?
You don’t ACT/SOUND black
OH, you’re only half black?! Mixed people are so hot. No wonder why you’re so pretty.
Is this your hair? *As this person proceeds to touch me without my permission*
And my personal favourite: “You’re really pretty FOR A BLACK GIRL”.
These are just some of the messages women of colour and particularly, black women hear on a day to day basis. Messages echoed from the origins of white supremacy, in an attempt to reinstate the low social status of black women become exhausting to hear. Consistent reminders that you’re less than equal and unfortunately, most of the time, people who are using these comments (liberals) are unaware of its harmful affects.
In the example of my personal favourite: “You’re really pretty for a black girl”. This comment underlying states that black women’s beauty is inferior to the beauty of other races- a separate category. And of this separate category, my beauty exceeds, but I could not be compared to the beauty of other women. Reminding the person listening, that black women bare no beauty; especially in comparison to white women.
Here’s the problem, these attitudes are engrained into many workplace cultures and have not yet been recognized by teams of human resources as troublesome. However, women of colour are bearing the burden of these words. And in silence, deal with the emotional scars of these consistent reminders and our workplaces wellness strategies, HR policies and diversity, inclusion and equity strategies have yet to catch up with the problems that women of colour face in the workplace.
Last week’s Women in Leadership program, invited Sulafa Silim from Dawa Apothecary our group focused on how equity, diversity and inclusion principles have been co-opted by white liberals trying to do good, but missing the mark because they have no strong understanding of the intersection of race, culture, religion and sometimes geographic location (where you grow up), as it plays a part into systematic discrimination.
As part of our discussions, I learned that many workplace wellness programs understand wellness as a broad sweeping practice without understanding the innately different ways many people may practice well-being. And in many cases, the wellness programs and strategies do not work for women of colour, causing them to be pushed out of companies.
Silim said it best: if we want everyone in the workplace to feel supported, we need to think about the person who is feels least supported and most excluded. Once we learn to support them (often women of colour), we see that these changes greatly benefit all those around them.
