On Racism: Cheerleading Women of Colour at Work

with Deepa Purushothaman, Author

Deepa Purushothaman is the author of The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color can Redifine Power in Corporate America and the first woman of colour to make partner in the Deloitte’s history. Her 2022 book describes the paradox of women of colour at work: often the highest qualified yet most underestimated and underutilised of any workplace demographic.

In this episode, Deepa and I talk openly about race and power in the workplace. We swap stories about growing up in immigrant brown families in small white towns and the subtle and overt forms of rejection we both faced. We also enter taboo territory in talking white women, and why this group is often named as the biggest barrier to women of colour succeeding at work.

For more on the theme of power, read the story “Boss Lady” in my upcoming book Bones of Belonging (now available for pre-order).