Race Reflections AT WORK

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-mindsSubscribe, 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

This is re-released episode first published on 5th April 2021 hosted by Guilaine: 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.  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

In this re-released episode first published on 1st March  2021 (our first ever episode) Guilaine reflects on what is racial trauma? How does it manifest in the workplace? She considers the distress that racism can cause in the workplace and explores 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. She asks why it matters that those in positions of power within 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 

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/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

In this re-released episode first published on 2nd August 2021 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. 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

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 authorityNot congratulating/giving praise for achievementsEnvy creating canibalistic/bizarre behavioursShe 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:AcceptanceNaming it Finding spaces where people are going to listen and think the envy through with youReclaiming for yourself what you are envied forAnd 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-mindsThe 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-envySubscribe, 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

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

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the new book she is writing: White MindsPre-order: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-mindsShe 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/9781529109436Subscribe, 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

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-workplaceStonewall: Workplace trans inclusion hub: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/workplace-trans-inclusion-hubSimone's website: https://www.simonekolysh.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

In this re-released episode first published on 21st June 2021 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.Further reading:  Neuroses of whiteness, white envy and racial violenceLiving While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma is out: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/144/1442992/living-while-black/9781529109436.htmlSubscribe, 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

In this re-released episode first published on September 6th 2021,  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.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.ukBeyond Bias for organisations: https://racereflections.co.uk/events/beyond-bias-training-for-organisations/

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/9780241574317Eman Ismail: Mistakes That Made Me: https://emancopyco.com/podcast/Dionne Anderson: http://dionneandersoncreative.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

In this re-released episode first published on May 3rd 2021 Guilaine considers 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. 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

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/9781529109436She 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.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

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/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

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.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

In this re-released episode first published  on October 4th, 2021,  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/9781398702295Twitter and Instagram: @JendellaAnnabelle Steele: https://www.beingasteele.com/Being Amani: https://www.hashtagpress.co.uk/product-page/being-amaniTwitter and Instagram: @beingasteeleThis episode is hosted by Race Reflection's Admin, Comms and Engagement Leading Lady, Dionne Anderson: https://linktr.ee/livingmotherhoodcreativelySubscribe, 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

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/MoKBLPbkB5IShe 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/1623760/8127268She 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!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

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

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/1623760/10665249The only person of colour in the workplace: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/10172908Imposter Syndrome: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/11323973Subscribe, 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