Race Reflections AT WORK

How Black women and others experience discrimination at work while pregnant In today's episode Simone reflects on how Black women and others experience discrimination at work while pregnant, linked in to Black Maternal Health Week that took place in April earlier this year, organised by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance: https://blackmamasmatter.org/

They consider the range of people who experience pregnancies, and define and exp...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on a the situation in Burkino Faso and what we can learn from that in relation to the workplace. How we can see the ways that whiteness, colonialism, and coloniality are playing out and glean insights into the working of those systems of domination. Fundamentally she urges us to pay attention to how what happens within the macro (ie the geopolitical level) has impacts and implications on th...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on a question she has received in multiple settings about how scapegoating operates, and why specific people might be targeted as scapegoats. This query is very prominent in the work she does and is a major part of her current doctoral thesis. She expands around the thinking previously shared on the podcast about both scapegoating, and the location of disturbance, covering basic definitions...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on when Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policies, procedures, rules and regulations, become blockers to achieving, or advancing, diversity, equality and inclusion within the workplace. Or as she prefers to see define it blockers to combating inequality, injustice and oppression  getting in the way of achieving liberation.

She shares her observations around how these instruments designed fo...

In today's episode Simone reflects on the invisible and unpaid labour that students of colour do within higher education.

They use the article The Invisible Labor of BIPOC Students by Stephanie Tavares: https://www.ncan.org/news/560484/The-Invisible-Labor-of-BIPOC-Students.htm as a jumping off point, drawing on their lived experience within higher education.

They talk about how activists are often coopted into doing DEI work for...

Today's episode is a follow up to this previous episode: Money, money, money: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/13872328

Guilaine begins by reflecting on how her specific collection of intersections interact with her relationship to money/worth, considering what it means to be a Black woman from the inner-city and how that collection of identities chimes more with her experience than the term working class. She thinks...

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 an...

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 ...

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 empt...

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...

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.co...

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, scape...

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 ...

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 ...

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 a...

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...

In today's episode Simone reflects on autism, neurodivergence and racism in relation to work.

They begin by talking about how and why they decided to cover this topic, reflecting on how they are autistic and work supporting autistic people, and how autistic and neurodivergent people are often unable to remain in employment or are unceremoniously fired. How these stories are systemic but are often carried as individual shame.

The...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on White Liberals, and on her past inclination to take people straightforwardly based on the words they write and the face they present to the world. She considers how experiencing the duality and complexity of people presenting as anti-racist publicly who in their personal interactions reveal themselves to be anti-black, has led to her trying to be more cautious about her tendency to trust...

In today's episode Simone reflects on the COVID 19 pandemic and how it intersects with racism and ableism. They begin by thinking about the Olympics in relation to a lack of COVID mitigations and how we need to have conversations about COVID and racism in relation to workplace inequality. How so many things are connected; with racism, xenophobia, classism and white supremacy at the root of it all.

They then consider the way tha...