Race Reflections AT WORK

In this re-released episode first published on 21st June 2021 we think about how the so called "deadly sin' of envy can play out in the workplace in relation to racial dynamics and inequality. We consider the distinction between envy and jealousy and the underlying motivations behind these feelings and what they look like within the contexts of whiteness and work. Further reading: Neuroses of whiteness, white envy and racial violence Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma is out: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/144/1442992/living-while-black/9781529109436.html Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on September 6th 2021, in response to a listener's request, we give an introduction to one of our most requested interventions our training course, Beyond Bias. We cover a little bit about it's content and some of its learning objectives, and give some context for why Guilaine designed the course, and the journey that the training takes you on. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk Beyond Bias for organisations: https://racereflections.co.uk/events/beyond-bias-training-for-organisations/

In today's episode Race Reflections' Admin, Comms and Engagement Leading Boss Dionne inspired by a panel at Priya Joi's book launch, talks about The Talk. She reflects on the differences between brown and Black people's relationship with talking to their children about racism and how that influences and impacts how they enter into and experience the workplace. She begins with sharing her personal experiences, considers how an American-centric approach to these issues can overlook the nuances of how young people/children are exposed to racism in infancy and how that shapes who they become in the workplace. She then thinks about the people and ideas that influence how she is currently thinking about The Talk in relationship to the workplace, particularly the work of copywriter and podcaster Eman Ismail. She ends by thinking around ideas of success and ways that this idea can be decoupled from income to become something both more personal and expansive. Priya Joy: Motherland - What I've Learnt About Parenthood, Race and Identity: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451133/motherland-by-joi-priya/9780241574317 Eman Ismail: Mistakes That Made Me: https://emancopyco.com/podcast/ Dionne Anderson: http://dionneandersoncreative.com/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on May 3rd 2021 Guilaine considers the influence of the past on the present by exploring the concept of transference, what it means and how it might manifest in the workplace. This episode is all about making present-past links to better make sense of conflicts, tensions and race-based difficulties at work. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on a question that was posed to her recently: "When it comes to racial trauma, don't we bring some baggage that may make us more vulnerable than others, and if so should we address that baggage?" Building on the work she has done around the intersection of trauma in her book Living While Black and other work by her and others in terms of empirical studies and wider theory, and then applying that to the workplace. Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436 She considers how racial trauma, social trauma or oppression related trauma taking place in the workplace intersects with early life experiences and trauma, or as it's often framed: adverse childhood experiences. After thinking around the complex factors that surround and underpin these issues she thinks about the ways that we can increase our self awareness and insight, and understand that even if we have had difficult experiences we can build our capacity to remain intact in the face of racism. But that there will always be an impact regardless of the work we do personally. She councils employers and colleagues not to speculate about people's personal histories and instead to start from a point of compassion and to assume that there's nearly always a reason for the way people respond. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Assistant Disruptor Lucia offers some reflections on how group work and community work can help or support people in developing their anti-racist approach to work. She looks at the advantages, drawbacks and limitations of working in groups. She begins with a definition and with her personal experience of being a client and a therapist and finding the most effective healing happening within group therapy. She sees group work as a space that allows people to be human and vulnerable whilst connecting to others humanity. But also cautions that building community/groups where everyone feels engaged and as safe as possible is a challenging endeavor involving emotional labour and care, but that when it's done effectively it can help combat isolation, helplessness and hopelessness that individuals might feel within the systems that surround them. Considering obstacles and drawbacks to this approach she brings up expected responsibility for education and emotional labour being projected onto the more marginalised members of the group, dynamics of entitlement, space taking and access to others' feelings and experiences within the more privileged members of the group, and how group dynamics and enactments as microcosms of society can lead to people being retraumatised. She concludes by offering some suggested solutions for facilitators of this work to help mitigate these problems that include; naming the problems, challenging these dynamics, holding boundaries, and breaking the group down into affinity groups to process some of the work. Lucia's website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on Black and brown people's relationship with pain, particularly Black women's relationship with pain and distress. And from this also the relationship between pain and associated issues such as accessing health services and self compassion. She begins with a personal disclosure that one of her younger sisters recently nearly died and considers how pain played into this. She then uses this as a case study and jumping off point to move away from an individualised analysis to a consideration of systems, structures and power. She thinks about internalised toxic discourses, narratives and expectations that exist around the idea of the strong Black woman, thinking about ideas like strength, self-reliance and relying on others. And wonders whether Black people (and to a lesser extent brown people) allow themselves to seek help, support, rest, or attend to their suffering when required. How does this impact late diagnosis of conditions such as cancer, and feelings of self compassion? And outside of the self how does this systemic lack of acknowledgement and recognition of Black women's pain influence these dynamics. She then links all this to the workplace considering two elements: 1. How pain/distress of a white person in conflict with a black or brown person is seen, centered, and acknowledged and how this is linked to the colonial construction that black people are immune to pain. How Black distress or vulnerability is seen as inauthentic, not real or even contrived, and how that connects to Whiteness and white fragility. 2. How Black people internalise these elements which may also make Black people (particularly Black women) present in a way that hinders people reading them as being in pain/distress. She concludes with some questions for employers and employees to consider when approaching conflict and distress in the workplace. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on October 4th, 2021, we are joined by head of editorial at Black Ballad (and author of Hope & Glory) Jendella Benson, and teacher (and author of Being Amani) Annabelle Steele to talk about how they navigate the workplace and the publishing space as Black women. The conversation reflects on Black representation, Black motherhood, authorship, self care and Black literature. Jendella Benson: http://www.jendella.co.uk/ Black Ballad: https://blackballad.co.uk/ Hope & Glory: https://www.waterstones.com/book/hope-and-glory/jendella-benson/9781398702295 Twitter and Instagram: @Jendella Annabelle Steele: https://www.beingasteele.com/ Being Amani: https://www.hashtagpress.co.uk/product-page/being-amani Twitter and Instagram: @beingasteele This episode is hosted by Race Reflection's Admin, Comms and Engagement Leading Lady, Dionne Anderson: https://linktr.ee/livingmotherhoodcreatively Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects and thinks back on the things that have stood out for her during 2022. What is she left with, what have been the biggest stories, the biggest moments and the biggest lessons? She considers how the world cup final has brought up a lot for her and others around homelessness, homeness, displacement and migration. She engages with this from an autobiographical, auto-ethnographical position and discussed her lived experience here. What does it mean to black and French in relation to this theatre of sport? Here TEDX talk on epistemic homelessness is of relevance to this topic: https://youtu.be/MoKBLPbkB5I She also links these themes to the 'controversies" around the 2022 French film Tirailleurs (English name: Father & Soldier) and the interventions and comments it's star Omar Sy has made around racism. Then she relates these ideas to the workplace. Related to this she briefly thinks around the noise surrounding Meghan and Harry and the British Royal Family and how it has held up a mirror for the ways that Black women are treated within British culture particularly in workplaces and institutions. This episode on Location of Disturbance and Scapegoating covered issues around Meghan Markle and the racism she faces: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8127268 She then thinks about how the "return to normal" in relation to the "end" of the pandemic has thrown a spotlight on important work issues around exclusion and disability. And she ends by thinking about how things have gone for Race Reflections in 2022. Happy New Year from the Race Reflections Team! Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Assistant Disruptor Lucia returns to reflect on class and classism. She shares her thoughts around these concepts and what they may represent within our current systems of oppression. She covers reasons why it's difficult to clearly define class or different class groups and then gives a definition of classism as the belief that a persons social or economic station in society determines their value in that society which creates prejudice pr discrimination based on social class. Then she considers the relational aspects of classism and how class can come to be an embodied experience and thinks about how that influences peoples experiences within the job market, and how middle class or upper class identity or belonging can be seen as a process of othering and exclusion. She finishes her thinking looking at classism in conjunction with whiteness and how that plays out in relation to white adjacency. Lucia's website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine responds to a listener question: Can Black employees ever be authentic in the workplace? She answers the question with some other questions and reflects on the issues surrounding them. The first is: Is authenticity a desirable aim to achieve for Black people and organisations? She comes to the conclusion that their is a strong case as a general rule for the importance of workplace authenticity in improving culture, morale, well-being, organisational turnover and even leadership. But it isn't simple as her second question suggests: Is it realistic, both for organisations and for black employees, that a workplace can increase it's level of authenticity? She reflects that some change can be achieved with sustained effort but that a blanket expectation of authenticity doesn't take into account difference in terms of experiences, cultures and beliefs. She considers the barriers such as the British/English cultural aversion to authenticity, and how whilst leaders may be the guardians of organisational culture they are often leading from the "snowy white peak" of white middleclass masculinity which doesn't tend to embrace authenticity. She concludes with advice for employers on ways they can encourage authenticity and support the people that this (counter) cultural change will potentially challenge and isolate. Some other Race Reflections AT WORK podcasts that touch on these issues: Authenticity: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/10665249 The only person of colour in the workplace: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/10172908 Imposter Syndrome: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/11323973 Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on reaching a milestone within the PHD she is currently undertaking. She gives the lowdown on what she's been working on, discusses some of the challenges she has encountered and what she has learnt so far, and she discusses where she stands in relation to the research and some of the implications for her and for Race Reflections. Her study looks at whiteness, at time and space, at memory, with focus is on developing a group analytical frame for addressing whiteness and racialised violence in Psychotherapy, and an exploration of the overlap between group analysis and African philosophies, challenging "Western"linear temporalities. It looks at hpw whiteness as a factor or force for trauma becomes reproduced, reenacted and reiterated within the clinical encounter, and the implications this offers on how whiteness comes to be within institutions, organisations and teams relationally, procedurally and structurally. Podcast about the start of her PHD process: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/9373225 PHD study page: https://racereflections.co.uk/whiteness-in-psychotherapy/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on Jun 7, 2021 we consider surviving the workplace while black. We reflect on the workplace conditions of previous and current generations of black people, particularly black women. We think about three strands that are navigated when working while black: 1. Inequalities and structural racism which impacts physical and mental health. 2. Experiences of discrimination, interpersonal racism and bullying which intersect with structural issues. 3. The internal and external pressures put on black people by themselves, their family and community, to work twice as hard to overcome these oppressive systems. Living While Black: The Essential Guide to Overcoming Racial Trauma is out: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/144/1442992/living-while-black/9781529109436.html Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Assistant Disruptor Lucia offers some thoughts and potential approaches to how to navigate organisational or community change processes that come out of anti-oppressive or anti-racist work. These reflections are inspired by regular responses and questions posed by participants during the delivery of Race Reflections training. She considers practical ways to apply theory to practice, thinks about anti-oppressive work as counter cultural, suggests expecting both internal and external challenges during this work such as: awareness of emotional processes and power dynamics, boundaries, building tolerance, building community, emotional regulation, and separating mistakes and behaviors from intention. She looks at accountability culture as a more useful model than existing blame and punishment cultures and contextualises all of this within the many obstacles created by White Supremacy and Whiteness, specifically the unhelpful social structures of individualism, perfectionism and moral purity. Lucia's website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Academic Lead/Scholar Scout Mel Green takes us through her personal relationship with imposter syndrome and it's effects on black women. She thinks about concepts like over productivity, burnout, breakdown, authenticity, assimilation and what bell hooks calls the "mind/body split". She uses her experience as a case study and reflects on the tactics and realisations she has found to help her deal with these experiences. She links her experience to this study: Experiences With Imposter Syndrome and Authenticity at Research-Intensive Schools of Social Work Mel Green's website: https://www.melalygreen.com/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on 19th April, 2021 we consider aversive racism. Specifically, how the fear of being called racist, the fear of confronting racism and the avoidance of difficult race-related conversations by white managers, can lead to exclusionary interpersonal dynamics and cultures of marginalisation within institutions which can have significant adverse consequences on the welfare, morale and/or workplace experience of colour. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode we return to exploring the relationship between podcasting and power, this time looking at how "Prestige" podcasting has replicated and interacted with existing power systems. We look at some of the worst cases of podcasts being made with a colonialist mindset, and then look at The Trojan Horse Affair and how that avoided the traps of previous prestige podcast journalism and how it was mostly dismissed by the wider media landscape. This episode is hosted by Race Reflection's Audio Wizard/Witch, Dave Pickering: http://davepickeringstoryteller.co.uk/ Down to a sunless sea: memories of my dad: https://podfollow.com/sunlesspod/view LINKS: The Complicated Ethics Of ‘Serial,’ The Most Popular Podcast Of All Time: https://archive.thinkprogress.org/the-complicated-ethics-of-serial-the-most-popular-podcast-of-all-time-6f84043de9a9/ White Reporter Privilege: https://www.theawl.com/2014/11/white-reporter-privilege/ The Science of Racism: Radiolab's Treatment of Hmong Experience: https://hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2012/10/22/science-racism-radiolabs-treatment-hmong-experience How ‘S-Town’ Fails Black Listeners https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/how-s-town-fails-black-listeners-112210/ S-Town is a stunning podcast. It probably shouldn't have been made. https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/3/30/15084224/s-town-review-controversial-podcast-privacy The Trojan Horse Affair: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html Trojan Horse: A failure of British journalism and that includes the Observer https://mediadiversified.org/2022/02/20/trojan-horse-a-failure-of-british-journalism-and-that-includes-the-observer/ Trojan Horse On Trial https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/02/trojan-horse-podcast-islamophobia-birmingham-michael-gove-sonia-sodha Trojan Horse affair: Why new podcast evokes both enthusiasm and rage https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/uk-islam-trojan-horse-affair-new-podcast-enthusiasm-rage-why The Trojan Horse Affair vs. the British Press https://www.vulture.com/2022/03/trojan-horse-affair-podcast-british-response-interview.html The Real Trojan Horse Affair https://mediadiversified.org/2022/03/08/the-real-trojan-affair/ Recommeded podcasts: Human Resources, Have You Heard George’s Podcast?, Reclaimed and Rewritten, Coiled, Busy Being Black, Say Your Mind, Intersectionality Matters!, Masala Podcast, Surviving Society (full links in the shownotes on our website) To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine is back to talk about social media, particularly twitter, and the ways this platform has helped both Guilaine personally and Race Reflections as an organisation. She goes over how she came to use social media as a professional platform, considers the advantages, opportunities and gifts that using this platform have created for her and for RR, and reflects on where she stands in terms of some of the controversies and criticisms that exist around twitter and social media in general in relation to mental health professionals and to scholarship in general. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Lead Associate Disruptor Dr Furaha Asani talks about empathy, and lack of empathy, in the workplace. She thinks about definitions of empathy and sympathy and how empathy can function as an action. As a case study she reflects on a personal experience of not receiving empathy and support at work within a racialised context. She considers how gaslighting and self-gaslighting can operate within these kinds of dynamics. And when thinking about solutions she notes that self advocacy has it's limits, suggests that employers work out standard operating protocols to minimise harm, and lists some ways that everyone can work towards actively creating workplaces that foster empathy. Some links to things mentioned in the conversation: The Importance of Empathy in the Workplace, Center For Creative Leadership: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/empathy-in-the-workplace-a-tool-for-effective-leadership/ Empathy for others’ suffering and its mediators in mental health professionals, Santamaría-García, et al https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-06775-y Misogynoir in the Workplace: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/10443664 The Invisible Gaze of White Women: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/9739129 Envy: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8728416 Envy, Power and the Fear of the Self: https://racereflections.co.uk/envy-power-and-the-fear-of-the-self/ When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat, Erika Stallings https://zora.medium.com/when-black-women-go-from-office-pet-to-office-threat-83bde710332e What Is Gaslighting? Meaning, Examples And Support, Marissa Conrad https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/what-is-gaslighting/ 5 Signs You’re Gaslighting Yourself, Nicole Bedford https://aninjusticemag.com/5-signs-youre-gaslighting-yourself-2bca12b62e9b Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode therapist and Race Reflections' Assistant Disruptor Lucia talks about whiteness in psychotherapy. This episode is for everyone but particularly for people either working within the therapeutic traditions, or people who are current or future service users. Drawing on the existing Race Reflections training resources she looks at the ways that whiteness and violence have framed therapy during it's history and present, issues with therapists not being sufficiently trained around working with difference, and considers tips and approaches that can be taken by potential clients when looking for a therapist that will be able to deal with systemic experiences of racism or marginalization. She covers therapy as a history of pathologizing difference, it's bias towards catering to the majority group, how legacies of slavery and other forms of violence and exploitation are still present within therapy now, and existing frameworks that can be used and adapted to navigate all of this. Some links to things mentioned in the conversation: Whiteness In Psychotherapy: https://academy.racereflections.co.uk/courses/whiteness-in-psychotherapy Janet Helms: https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/lynch-school/faculty-research/faculty-directory/janet-helms.html Lucia's website: https://www.luciasarmientoverano.com/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk