Tag Archive for: racism

Black History Month 2022: Why bell hooks was right

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bell hooksBefore the word ‘intersectionality’ was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, bell hooks critiqued a narrowed feminism that hailed from the white middle class living room and neither addressed interlocking webs of oppression nor recognized its own race and class privileges – therefore, blindly disregarding the multidimensional plights of non-white, underprivileged women.

Her message has become undeniably resonant over the last two years – and not the least of all, her argument that humanity would need to brave the revolutionary path of deep self awareness and self actualization, as she taught, “once you learn to look at yourself critically, you look at everything around you with new eyes”.

A Revolutionary Feminism For Everyone

With her death on December 15th of last year, bell hooks, born as Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, left behind a legacy, as well as over 40 books in 15 different languages, of challenging and championing feminism.

In her book Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, she grounded her feminist approach in the struggles of black women. In Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, she proposed a revolutionary feminism: “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.”

Further, hooks wrote, “The foundation of a future feminist struggle must be solidly based on a recognition of the need to eradicate the underlying cultural basis and causes of sexism and other forms of group oppression. Without challenging and changing these philosophical structures, no feminist reforms will have a long-range impact.” Black feminist writer Barbara Smith wrote that anything less than a feminism that freed all women was “not feminism, but merely female self-aggrandizement”.

hooks also advocated that feminism was not men versus women, but all versus sexism, a conditioning both present in and oppressive to everyone. She wrote: “And that clarity helps us remember that all of us, female and male, have been socialized from birth on to accept sexist thought and action,” later continuing, “To end patriarchy (another way of naming the institutionalized sexism) we need to be clear that we are all participants in perpetuating sexism until we change our minds and hearts, until we let go of sexist thought and action and replace it with feminist thought and action.”

Emphasizing that oppression costs too much to everyone, including to those who overtly benefit from it, she called for ending sexism, racism, class elitism, and imperialism through not reform, but a revolution of self-actualization. She asserted any real movement of social justice to be based in the ethic of love, writing in her work Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.”

And yet with her departure, we still stand in our half-awoken adolescence of realizing the necessity of self-development she spent her life advocating for.

A Workplace That Is Still Damagingly Exclusive

According to authors in Harvard Business Review, women of color are still culturally encouraged to be grateful for what they have, discouraged when declining undervalued work or seeking greater power and resources, and often fear backlash. Meanwhile, the angry black woman stereotype “not only characterizes Black women as more hostile, aggressive, overbearing, illogical, ill-tempered and bitter, but it may also be holding them back from realizing their full potential in the workplace — and shaping their work experiences overall.”

Whereas anger is a normal workplace emotion, when  expressed by a black women particularly, it’s perceived (assumed) as a personality trait – rather than due to validating external circumstances, despite little substantiation for that perception. Meanwhile black women often find themselves stereotyped, kid-gloved or imposing tone policing on their own voices. Echoing hooks in regards to self-development, the researchers suggest an antidote to this is deeper self-reflection and empathy by those in the workforce.

Even well-intentioned leaders can put extra responsibilities and burdens on successful black women in the office. When black women are implicitly seen to speak as representative for a group, rather than for themselves, or when they are disproportionately committed to external opportunities as visible symbols of parading a company’s diversity, the pressure and time commitment can be overwhelming. Meanwhile, the stereotype of the strong black woman means managers are less likely to check in to see if they are doing okay with managing the workload. Couple that with it being societally instilled that black women will have to work twice as hard as others to succeed.

Not only this, but the perception gap creates a gaslighting of the workplace experience for black women – McKinsey notes that black employees are 23% less likely to see there is support to advance, 41% less likely to view the promotion process as fair and 39% less likely to feel the company’s DE&I program are effective, relative to white colleagues. Gallup found that black women are less likely to feel valued, treated fairly and respected in the workplace. Consistently, the experience of fairness and organizational commitment to addressing bias is lower for them, and they are also less likely to consider themselves as thriving.

When it comes to women of color and the multidimensional factors they face, the glass ceiling has been reframed as a concrete ceiling. Too often the corporate definition of leadership has proven to exclude women of color – with standards of what leadership looks still contingent upon traits most associated with white males.

If you question that, consider that a study has recently shown that black women are indeed penalized for natural hairstyles in an interview setting, as authors wrote: “Black women with natural hairstyles were perceived to be less professional, less competent, and less likely to be recommended for a job interview than Black women with straightened hairstyles and white women with either curly or straight hairstyles.”

The emotional tax black women are paying to be in workplaces rife with conscious and unconscious incidences of exclusion is not an abstract concept – it’s visible in functional MRI brain scans, which show that black women who have experienced more incidents of racism have greater response activity in the brain regions most associated with vigilance and anticipating incoming threats. This ultimately can have a trauma-like impact on health.

The researchers also state that “a disproportionately high amount of brain power may go into regulating, or inhibiting, their emotional responses to these situations” – which is consuming energy that could otherwise be put into well-being, thriving, creating and innovating.

Inclusion Does Rest Upon Collective Self-Development

So amidst the Great Resignation, black women are leaving the workforce in record numbers, with a track record of having outpaced all other women when it comes to daring the journey of entrepreneurship and achieving business growth within it.

With research indicating that “one of the fastest ways to accelerate change and effectively begin to address the racial wealth gap is to listen to and invest in Black women,” Goldman Sachs launched, in partnership with Black women-led organizations and others, the One Million Black Women initiative – committing $10 billion in investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic support to be focused on key moments, from early childhood to retirement, that offer the greatest possibility to narrow the opportunity gaps and positively impact lives.

Meanwhile, Gallup asserts that the exclusion experiences of black women in the workplace can be largely addressed by managers, as the crux of feeling engaged comes from coaching. Seeking to coach and sponsor those who are under-championed is where you begin – getting to know and support every person, in their individual strengths and challenges, is where engagement is created. Gallup suggests that to be inclusive, more workplaces need to train their managers to become coaches.

As summarized in the Journal of International Women’s Studies, hooks consistently advocated that only “the self-development of a people will shake up the cultural basis of group oppression.”

Haven’t the prominent themes of the last couple years – braving the difficult conversations, recognizing the unconscious biases in everyone, listening to the experiences of others, cultivating a personal growth mindset of being open to being wrong and learning – echoed the message of this visionary, who emphasized our interconnectedness and collective responsibility to expose the ideology of the status quo that exists in each of us?

As hooks wrote: “No level of individual self-actualization alone can sustain the marginalized and oppressed. We must be linked to collective struggle, to communities of resistance that move us outward, into the world.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Becoming Conscious of Microaggressions

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by Aimee Hansen

Systemic racism is exemplified in cumulative and insidious ways in our everyday interactions, and we often do not even see it. 

Noam Shpancer Ph.D. speaks to the importance of identifying the “true character of American racism,” in Psychology Today, as “a systemic feature of our social architecture, interwoven into the collective fabric by way of myriad traditions, legacies, laws, myths, institutions, and habits.”

This means identifying that an “overtly oppressive ideology” is embedded in our culture and within each of us. We are complicit in racism because it is insidious to the culture that formed and influences our self-concept and worldview.

Implicit Bias and Internalized Racism

Shpancer describes that racism has gone from being habituated (no longer registering what we are used to), to internalized (integrated into self-concept, including the oppressed taking on the oppressor’s sense of values), to becoming learned helplessness (the repeated frustration that neutralizes sense of agency), to falling into confirmation bias (selectively perceiving affirmation of what we already believe to be true, and dismissing what disproves it).

“Once it’s been habituated to, internalized, and allowed to shape our habits and perceptions, the oppressive ideology has in effect coopted us into perpetuating it,” writes Shpancer.

Microaggressions Are “Death By A Thousand Cuts”

In 2007, social scientist researchers called microaggressions “the new face of racism.” They position the dominant culture as the norm and perpetuate disapproval, discomfort and aberrance of marginalized groups.

Derald Wing Sue, professor of psychology at Columbia University and author of the book Microaggressions in Everyday Life, states in Fast Company, “Racial microaggressions are the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities, and denigrating messages sent to people of color.”

Though often unintentional, microaggressions have “the impact of highlighting a person’s ‘difference’ from the majority represented group.” They are especially toxic because they appear neutral or positive to the speaker themselves, while reinforcing thinly veiled stereotypes and associations held by culture and that person.

For example, commenting that an African-American woman is “articulate” reflects that you did not expect her to be. Saying “your name is hard to pronounce” standardizes white names. Claiming to “not see color” is a microinvalidation of systemic racism that makes life more difficult because an individual is black, and discounts implicit bias. Other examples of microaggressions include telling an Asian-American woman she speaks English well, assuming two people need to meet just because they are LGBTQ+ or yet another manterruption while making a point in a meeting.

“It feels like death by a thousand cuts,” says HR expert, Avery Francis, who created a 10-slide presentation on microaggressions often experienced by black women that went viral. “[Microaggressions] really chip away at your self worth, and it’s harder because the instances seem so small.”

“Because of their somewhat ambiguous nature, microaggressions come with an added layer of emotions,” says psychologist Dr Samantha Rennalls, “They can be confusing, sometimes leaving the recipient with a sense of uncertainty about why they are feeling hurt or offended.”

Renalls shares that, “Long-term exposure to microaggressions has been associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, possibly due to the impact that they have on self-esteem and/or the way in which one may feel powerless to challenge them.”

“In our research, we find that the impact of microaggressions are cumulative, causing major psychological harm,” Sue said. 

Making Microaggression Visible

Confronting microaggressions is difficult because of how subtle and innocuous they can appear, because the microaggressor will often feel innocent in intention and because the recipient herself can have an unclear feeling about the interaction. 

“…it is important to understand that a lot of times people who engage in microaggressions will not believe that what they said was racist or sexist or homophobic,” says to psychology professor Kevin Nadal, “…and we’re all human beings who might commit microaggressions.”

The conversation must be navigated from a growth mindset for the possibility of awareness of bias and its impact to be made conscious. One suggestion Nadal makes is to ask, “What do you mean by that?” Another suggestion is to ask, “Where do you think that was coming from?”

This can provide a moment for the microaggressor to stop and consider their words. This can even lead to them realizing they are unintentionally perpetuating racism.

According to Sue as written in CNN, a “microintervention” must consider the two levels of a microaggression: “One is the conscious communication of the initiator, which was likely intended to be a surface-level compliment. Then there’s the unconscious metacommunication, which is the message the microaggression sends.”

Sue suggests three ‘artful’ strategies for confronting microaggression, as an ally: 

  • Making the invisible, visible – make the nature of the behavior visible to the perpetrator
  • Educate the perpetuator – shift the focus from the intention (in which harm was not often consciously intended) to the impact and how it can cause pain
  • Disarm the microaggression – steer the conversation away from a comment or remark to disarm the energy in the moment

If you’re the recipient of microaggression, power dynamics might make this dangerous or emotionally-depleting. One option is to enlist an ally of equal position to the perpetrator to confront the behavior. 

If you’re confronted for your own microaggression, it’s important to be open to listen to the pain expressed and learn from this moment with a growth mindset. 

The more we can navigate with empathy and compassion, the more we can consciously alter the power dynamics that have perpetuated systemic racism. 

Aimee Hansen is a freelance writer, frequent contributor to theglasshammer and Creator and Facilitator of Storyteller Within Retreats, Lonely Planet-recommended women’s circle retreats focused on self-exploration and connecting with your inner truth and sacred expression through writing, yoga, meditation, movement and ceremonies.

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Important Conversations at Work: Improving Communication Across Differences

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Guest contributed by Katherine Giscombe

At this contentious time in the United States, the rights of all women are under fire.

In spite of movements against sexual harassment that are gaining in popularity and support, such as #MeToo and TimesUp, there are factions within the country including lawmakers who actively oppose equal, fair and just treatment for women. And there has been an uptick in violence and harassment directed against racial minority groups, which have been condoned, and even spurred, by those in high political offices.

Boundaries between our work and personal lives continue to blur given the increasingly 24-hour a day expectations of employers, greater levels of virtual work, and increased workloads across industries. It becomes more difficult, over time, to not bring concerns about our lives outside of work into the workplace. The context of our lives affects our well-being and experiences at work, as shown in Catalyst’s research on the Emotional Tax, which demonstrates that a majority of women and men across racial/ethnic minority groups report feeling vigilant or on guard in the workplace, constantly preparing for the potential to deal with bias, discrimination, or exclusion.

It is vital for employees and associates to be able to engage with each other in a healthy manner, and develop mutual understanding even when they do not share similar backgrounds or experiences. Further, in the workplace, as research on career progression has shown, it is essential to develop relationships with allies and potential sponsors who can help progress one’s career. But doing so can be difficult among those from different backgrounds.

Catalyst has developed methods for reaching across differences to form meaningful connections at a personal level. It starts with understanding how communication among employees and associates can improve, and providing tactics to do so. In summary, reluctance to engaging across differences can fall into three major themes:

  • There isn’t a problem (attitudes about whether issues of gender, race, and ethnicity warrant concern)
  • There’s no benefit to talking (judgments about whether it’s worth the effort to discuss these issues)
  • There will be negative consequences to my actions (experiences that influence whether someone speaks up or remains silent).

Those who feel that there is not a problem may assume that race or gender differences don’t matter, because they believe they view women and men equally, and have no racial prejudice. A way to move beyond these beliefs is to ask one’s colleagues (of a diversity of genders and race/ethnicity groups) if they have ever experienced or witnessed biased behavior, and probe on what it looked like, what was verbally communicated. Further, they can ask whether colleagues of a different racial, ethnic, or cultural background feel that the workplace respects their identity and experiences.

Those who believe there is no benefit in talking may feel that race and ethnicity are not relevant in certain places, or that talking about our differences can only further divide us. Catalyst recommends asking colleagues a number of questions, including identifying times when discussing any type of difference has led to a positive outcome. Another suggestion is to identify “off-limits” issues— then discuss how not talking about these issues can derail inclusion.

Finally, the fear that there will be negative consequences to my actions is sometimes grounded in the fear of being labeled as overly sensitive, or the belief that it is not safe to speak up in the workplace. In these cases, Catalyst recommends that an employee ask a colleague for help in providing honest, constructive feedback, especially in cases where the employee uses words that are hurtful or offensive. Other advice includes asking a team member who has been silent during a meeting if he or she would like to contribute a different perspective.

In Catalyst’s workshops and consulting engagements, we sometimes use “ice breaker” exercises that build rapport across differences. One such example is a “pair share” in which each member of the pair names three identity groups he or she belongs to, including two visible elements of difference, and one invisible. Each person then takes turns sharing aspects of their identities. When sharing one’s identities, the speaker practices demonstrating vulnerability and self-disclosure. The listener, in turn, practices suspending judgment and inquiring across difference.

Going beyond building interpersonal connections at work, employees and associates can also co-create structures at work that encourage inclusion. This might entail forming an employee or associate resource group (ERG) for all women in the organization, that focuses on the many needs encompassed by women. In working with Catalyst’s supporter organizations, we sometimes see that women of color prefer to join an ERG that represents their racial/ethnic group, rather than the women’s groups. A good way to form alliances to get more done for all women would be for a women’s ERG to ensure that its officers represent a diversity of women within the company, and also represent the interests of a diversity of women.

Reaching across differences to form meaningful and robust working relationships can enhance our personal and professional lives, and provide a fortification of support during fraught times.

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