Race Reflections AT WORK

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on how the perception of language and linguistics can become dislocated through a primitive colonial imaginary to the point where people do not hear language as it is.

She presents a hypothesis around the ways that the literal sound of racialised people talking can become distorted and dislocated in the ears of white people listening. She draws on two anecdotes as examples, both consisting o...

In today's episode Simone reflects on how even though DEI initiatives end to fall short of meaningfully achieving their aims, operating as lip service for corporations, banning them only creates more harm.

They talk about how the US courts have been utilised by the Trump administration and the way this impacts workplaces and schools. And how eliminating diversity initiatives in healthcare has some serious implications for racia...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on some questions and queries that people of colour, particularly Black people experience, in relation to their “racial” lineage and heritage. How these function as racist micro-aggressions and in particular the relationship between what is being asked, the histories of colonialism, and the power structures of White Supremacy.

She focuses on one of the most familiar micro-aggressive question...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the binary polarisation of justification when it comes to accounting for workplace dynamics, particularly in cases of discrimination. Situations where for example an employee of colour makes a complaint and it is dismissed, in their belief due to the colour of their skin, but their employer claims the dismissal is due to the employees conduct, behaviour or ability to do the job. The two ...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on how covert racism functions, in particular within the cultural context of the UK.

She begins by defining covert racism as a form of racialised bias/discrimination that is not explicitly, overtly and obviously manifested. This results in the people experiencing it being faced with issues of deniability, ambiguity and a near impossibility for redress, becoming mired in questions of what is ...

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 ...