How Black workers experience higher education environments

In today's episode Simone reflects on how racism operates in higher education environments. They begin by thinking about their lived experiences within education both as a student and as a professor. They consider how “gifted and talented” programs are a tool of white supremacy and the obstacles for Black people in terms of attending higher education. Reflecting on the stark contrast between the demographics of the students and the predominantly Black and brown janitorial, maintenance and service workers who keep the institutions running.They then look at the article Black Workers and the University by Lilah Burke  https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/27/black-workers-universities-often-are-left-out-conversations-about-race-and-higherThey finish off by looking at activism and union actions that have worked to confront and change conditions for Black workers within the academy. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine begins by reflecting on how people who are racialised as Black who are introverts are treated at work, her thoughts on this are still cooking but she has been noticing more and more testimony and stories from Black people about these experiences.She begins by thinking about the ways she herself is an introvert. Then she asks some questions:Have you noticed that Black people who are introverted tend to be maligned and face particular racialised challenges in the workplace?Have you noticed that when Black people get into disputes or conflicts in the workplace it is important for them to provide reassurance to the rest of the team and make it clear that they are okay? She calls this an expectation of Emotional Transparency.Have you ever noticed that Black people who keep themselves to themselves in the workplace are expected to reveal themselves and be readable/accessible to others?She names and frames all of the above as The Black Mirror Phenomenon. And then muses about how it is formed, how it operates  how it connects to theories around colonialities and blackness and projection, and the risks that it creates in terms of group dynamics and the outcomes these dynamics have on racialised individuals She ends by considering some potential solutions and strategies to navigate this phenomena.Authenticity in the workplace: https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/1623760/episodes/10665249-authenticitySubscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on the tokenism of corporations and other workplaces in the ways they treat Black people and people of colour. They begin by thinking about some scenes in season 2 of the TV series Severance which represent this dynamic and which have resonating with many viewers of colour. Then they consider the current situation in the USA where the Trump administration is seeking to destroy “DEI”, the emptiness of DEI programs in general, and the failure of corporate culture to both do adequate DEI work, and to respond to these current cultural and political attacks.They then look at this article: The tokenism trap: 7 ways it can hurt your workplace https://recruitcrm.io/blogs/tokenism-in-recruitment/They go through its recommendations but also heavily critique it, pointing out the problems in the way it frames and thinks about DEI, and the ways that it is representative of corporate and structural issues within White Supremacy. For example the framing of DEI as something that you do to make your corporation more profitable rather than something you do because it’s the right thing to do. When doing this they also draw on their own work being hired to do mediation within corporations and also their lived experience.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on intuition. What it means to include or to exclude the guts, the body, knowing with the body, knowing outside of “rational paradigms” or whatever we choose to call these forms of understanding. She defines the areas that intuition can cover and the different ways that people can think about these phenomena, and draws on her own lived experience as someone who is not an expert on intuitive thought academically but is quite an intuitive person and takes intuition seriously, and who comes from a family and culture that takes intuition seriously.She considers the ways that those with initiation can be encouraged by White Supremacy and other systems of oppression to not trust this form of knowledge. She thinks about different ways of knowing and considers how neurodivergence is impacted by society not taking intuition seriously. And she asks what does it mean in the context of the workplace to include "the guts"? Should we, should we not? What are we losing when we don’t? And can intuition be a lens that helps the unsaid be said in the context of racialised violence and oppression?This episode touches on things she covered within Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436And chimes with her thinking around Epistemic Homelessness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoKBLPbkB5IEpistemic homelessness: ‘feeling like a stranger in a familiar land https://mediadiversified.org/2017/11/24/epistemic-homelessness-feeling-like-a-stranger-in-a-familiar-land/Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on pregnancy and racism at work, taking an intersectional lens, considering the experience of people who are pregnant and people who birth which includes more people than just cisgender women. So they begin with some definitions and discussion of these lenses and categories.This episode is a companion to the episode on motherhood and/or parenthood and racism at work: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/16083900They look at this piece of scholarship: "'Oh gosh, why go?' cause they are going to look at me and not hire": intersectional experiences of black women navigating employment during pregnancy and parenting https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36627577/From the journal BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth: https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/And discuss it’s findings and related reflections they have based on lived experience and wider study.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the treatment of Chidimma Adetshina in relation to the Miss Universe competition, specifically her treatment within South Africa in relation to her perceived nationality that resulted in her becoming Miss Universe Nigeria, before coming second in the over-all competition.She muses on the case, beauty, the race and migration related politics of France and South Africa, displacement, scapegoating, so called Black-on-Black violence, self hatred, envy, and what all that might mean for group dynamics in the workplace.At various points she refers to things that she covered within Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on ageism and how it intersects with other systems of oppression inside and outside of the workplace. They draw on their experience working with clients, their personal experience and some studies and articles around the topic.They begin with their definition of ageism as a system of inequality that impacts people who are either on the young or old sides of the age spectrum. They think about how people often think of older, elderly and ageing people when thinking about ageism but often don’t include younger people who are also vulnerable and discriminated against and in the case of children and babies do not have rights or their own or autonomy.They then bring in intersectionality to thinking about ageism and stress how age is very tied to gender and race and the ways these systems of oppression work. And they think about how ageism in the workplace is connected very strongly to ageism in personal life, and connected issues around a lack of autonomy. Issues that old and young people face have a lot of similarities, but because society glorifies youth many people don’t consider the ways in which children lack rights and autonomy, and the ways young people are a vulnerable population.They then look at the article Ageism and age discrimination by Sheldon Reid https://www.helpguide.org/aging/healthy-aging/ageism-and-age-discriminationThey have strong critique of the article: young people are not included and are told they have it easy, and it claims that ageism is considered more acceptable by society than other forms of discrimination. But they appreciate the articles categories of ageism:Interpersonal: Which has a lot of relevance to the workplace, particularly when the ageism intersects with disability and neurodivergence. There are many ways to be dismissed from, or dismissed at, your job due to your age. Age can also factor into if you can get another job and so trap you in a work situation.Self directed ageism: Internalised attitudes and beliefs, often overlapping deeply with attitudes to gender and sexuality and bodiesInstitutional ageism: Social norms, practices, systems and rules are different for people who are older, and somehow this goes along with countries trying to raise retirement age. As we look at systems of oppression and institutions we also need to strongly consider class and race and gender.They then consider a 2020 survey which found that 80% of older workers witnessed or experienced ageism, and stated that older women of colour face age, race and sex discrimination in their personal lives as well as face institutionalised disadvantages at work, in their housing, and in their healthcare. Thinking about health they consider all the ways ageism exacerbates the effects of ageing in general, and the forms of ageism that are prevalent within healthcare and health research.Then finish by looking at the article Age, Race And Gender Create A Triple Threat For Workplace Bias by Sheila Callaham: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sheilacallaham/2022/10/31/age-race-and-gender-create-a-triple-threat-of-workplace-bias/ which offers some ways to approach pushing back against ageism and the other systems it intersects with within workplaces.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine shares a personal statement that encapsulates her personal position, politics and solidarity around the genocide happening in Palestine, and then reflects and expands on that.Her base position is that she stands in solidarity with Palestine from the wounded margin of Black liberation, but that she will not, and should not take the lead in this struggle. Particularly when there are current struggles against genocide and war in South Sudan and the DRC that are less public, and given the histories of colonial violence and anti-blackness for the Black African Diaspora.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on the experiences of people who go through pregnancy and birth whilst navigating and trying to balance that with employment.They begin by with a note about why they are using more inclusive terms to cover this subject and some definitions of cisgender, transgender and intersectionality. And suggest we keep all of this in mind during the episode as most of the research talked about does not apply this kind of inclusivity.They then discuss, with reference to a 2013 report from the Harvard Business School, the ways that race and work status affect judgement of mothers, acknowledging that mothers get a lot of personal judgment within society despite  facing a lot of structural forms of inequality. They suggest that mothers should  generally be understood as multiply marginalised people.They talk about the "Motherhood penalty” relating this to their own lived experience. They cover some of the stereotypes that impact this judgment of mothers and how this relates to their treatment in the workplace. Mothers are judged as less competent and less committed than other applicants and employees and so are less likely to be hired or promoted. This relates to stereotypes from the gender binary such as women being nurturing and domestic.They consider that the majority of studies of motherhood discrimination focus on how white mothers are treated in the workplace but obviously race plays a huge role in how Black mothers and other mothers of colour are treated. There are studies that suggest that Black mothers who don’t work experience more prejudice than those who do work based on racist stereotypes of irresponsibility, whereas with white mums it is often seen as better and more responsible if they don’t work. For example a study suggested that white families are more likely to receive loans if the mothers stay at home with the children, whereas Black and Latino families are more likely to be granted loans if the mother works outside the home. Then they think more about the race-based double standards between working and stay-at-home mums, and how divisions around who are “better” mothers, and if mothers should work, play into patriarchy and white supremacy. They then look at a more recent Time magazine piece about how the pay gap for working mums is a race issue and disproportionately impacts women of colour particularly Black women. This isn’t about women’s choices but about structural possibilities and foreclosures, and in particular a lack of institutional policies supporting them. They conclude with the idea that for things to change there needs to be structural and cultural changes implemented within workplaces with an understanding of how these policies impact communities differently. For example paid family leave, men taking leave too, affordable childcare, flexible time, paid sick leave, and much more!References:Gender and Work: Challenging Conventional Wisdom https://www.hbs.edu/race-gender-equity/symposium/Pages/2013-symposium.aspxPrescriptions and Punishments for Working Moms: How Race and Work Status Affect Judgments of Mothers by Amy Cuddy and Elizabeth Baily Wolf https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50970Mama, PhD: Women Write about Motherhood and Academic Life https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mama-PhD-Women-Motherhood-Academic/dp/0813543185 Why the Pay Gap for Working Moms Is a Race Issue Too by Jennifer Siebel Newsom https://time.com/5848269/moms-equal-pay-day/Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode following two queries on social media for her to do so, Guilaine reflects on the Police officer being found not guilty for the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba.First she thinks about the reasons she was hesitant to talk about this subject, she hasn’t read or studied the case in an in-depth way as she finds anti-Black police brutality particularly activating/triggering because of experiences witnessing it growing up. She can talk about the theory around it but to actually view and witness it is very difficult for her. From here she considers how our histories and our formative years influence our politics and the positions we adopt in relation to equality and oppression and how her childhood gave her an introduction to injustice and structural violence.She reflects briefly on the trial and wonders about its validity and if the Police acted with proportionality but as she is not a firearms expert she cannot fully comment on this. However she has expertise on how institutions function when they have to defend against charges of institutional racism, so connecting the case to the workplace, she focuses on character assassination. And also points out that we are thinking about these issues in terms of morality and ethics rather than legality, because what is legal is not always what is moral or ethical.She looks at how the press has reported on Chris’ character. She thinks about how Black men are disproportionately assessed as posing a greater risk than other people, which we can see from various studies and data including ones looking at the Police force and mental health services.Looking towards the workplace she discusses how people tend to utilise the most usable applicable tropes to reduce cognitive dissonance. In this case it was the trope of dangerousness. In employment when people want to justify exclusion usually if they are a woman they will be seen as difficult and if they are a man they will be seen as dangerous. She ends posing some questions to consider around these areas when thinking about the workplace, this legal case, and about society in general.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.