10 Signs of Anti-Blackness in Your Organization
We have worked with so many organizations that struggle to recruit and retain Black team members. After going through our Anti-Racist Initiative or our Cultural Mindfulness Institute, they begin to see that the reason for this is anti-blackness. We define anti-blackness within institutions as policies, procedures, and culture that is resistant or antagonistic to Black people, culture, values, etc. Below, we outline 10 ways that anti-blackness manifests in organizations.
#1 Defining Black People by White Cultural Standards
The cultural code we live within centers and normalizes white male culture. This means that our standards for “appropriate” behavior, performance, conduct, etc. is measured against white male identity. Let’s look at professionalism for example:
What does it mean to dress professionally? A suit and tie. What is the origin of a suit and tie? 17th century Europe. This means that for a Black person to dress “professionally” they must conform to a style that began in Europe.
Black professionals often find themselves criticized for aspects of their appearance or personality that are culturally in opposition to white cultural norms or that are not stereotypical of Black people. Here are some examples:
Alicia wore a headwrap to work. Her boss asked her to take it off before the client meeting because they didn’t want the client to question her ability to carry out the work.
Kamar was speaking passionately about the challenges his clients were facing around accessing healthy food. His co-workers complained to their supervisor that he was being aggressive and that it was scaring them.
Rahwa introduced herself to her new co-workers. One of them struggled to try and pronounce her name and then said, “I’m going to just call you Rachel.”
Lex was listening to hard rock in their office. Wyatt walked in and said, “That’s one of my favorite songs! I’m surprised you like it. I thought you’d be more into rap.”
Moments like these erode trust and can make Black people feel unwelcome, unwanted, and uncomfortable showing up fully in the workplace. Being unable to show up fully leads to turnover.
#2 Holding Black Staff Solely Responsible for Equity and Inclusion without Compensation
Oftentimes, when issues of equity and inclusion come up, Black staff are expected to carry the associated labor in addition to their job responsibilities. The underlying message is that racism is a Black issue, not the responsibility of the entire organization. This doubles the harm. Not only are Black staff experiencing anti-blackness, they also have to do the emotional labor of pointing it out and explaining to often defensive co-workers (which can lead to a hostile work environment) and do the intellectual labor of finding and implementing a solution. This leads to burnout and resentment and ultimately functions as a Black tax where Black people are putting in more labor than everyone else.
#3 Compensating and Promoting Black People Less
Let’s start this one with an example: Ms. Anita was hired 10 years ago to work in the after school program as a group leader. She doesn’t have a degree but she is from the community, graduated from that school and the kids love her. She is paid $15 per hour. Marlowe was just hired. He has a degree but no experience working with young people and just recently moved to the neighborhood. He will be paid $15 an hour. A year later when the Program Coordinator position opened up, Marlowe and Ms. Anita both apply. Marlowe gets the job. When Ms. Anita asks why, she is told that Marlowe was more qualified because of his degree and professionalism.
Although Ms. Anita has more experience, seniority, and a positive community reputation; she was overlooked because she didn’t have institutional validation of her skills or the vocabulary and networking skills that Marlowe had. Her contribution was not deemed to be worth as much even though she had the cultural and social capital to connect with the community. This happens to Black professionals all too often.
#4 Not Focusing on Black People Specifically in Issues of Equity
Sometimes when organizations embark on their equity journey, they steer the work away from confronting issues that pertain directly to Black people to focus on general equity issues. Although focusing on general issues that affect people of color broadly, or the LGBTQ+ community, or the working class is essential to achieving an equitable society, confronting those issues does not often lead to ameliorating the challenges that face Black people specifically. Here’s an example:
Anywhere USA, Inc. has a policy that states that long braids and hair decorations (beads, fabric, charms, etc.) are not allowed. It also has a policy against using more than one vacation or personal day per month. The company launched an equity initiative to make their policies more inclusive. They decided to change the vacation day policy because some of their employees are caretakers for aging parents or children and they were being adversely affected by this policy. This change in policy improved the conditions for almost all the employees. The hair policy was not addressed. Summer is the only Black employee and a parent. She loved wearing her hair in braids and wearing head wraps as an expression of her culture and personal style. Although Summer benefited from the change in the vacation day policy, the issue that affected her specifically, was not addressed. Had the group been tasked with looking for anti-black policies as well, they would have investigated how this policy impacted Summer disproportionately.
#5 Microaggressions
Microaggressions are (usually) unintended forms of discrimination between people that demean or degrade an already marginalized person or people. These small acts of discrimination have a huge impact on the people who experience them. They are like a small icepick slowly chipping away at a person’s psychological, mental, and physical health. Microaggressions are not a Black-only issue. All marginalized people are impacted by them including the LGBTQ+ community, cis women, people of color, poor people, immigrants, plus-sized people, people with disabilities, etc. Some ways that it may manifest for Black people specifically:
Co-workers touching their hair, jewelry, or other part of their body without permission
Being told that they are not like other Black people or that they don’t see them as Black
Being told that they are articulate or “speak so well”
Being perceived as always angry
#6 Disregarding the Unique Socio-Economics of the Black Community
Howard (who is Black) and Max (who is white) are both single fathers. Howard is often tired and moving slowly at work. He has left early twice this month to pick up his child. For the last month, he has been misplacing or losing things for work that he takes home. Max shows up on time every day and even though he is a single dad as well, he doesn’t even leave early because of it. On the surface, it can seem like Howard is acting unprofessionally and underperforming and that Max is the ideal employee. But if we look beneath the surface, we may see things differently.
Let’s look at the statistics.
White families have 8x more wealth than Black families.*
Nearly 73% of white families own their home vs. 44% of Black families (that number is 53% for Latinx/o/a/e families and 63% for Asian families)*
Four years after graduation, Black students owe an average of 188% more in loans than white students borrowed.*
Black parents are nearly twice as likely than White parents to experience job-related disruptions due to lack of childcare.*
If we put these pieces together like a puzzle, it could mean that a Black person on your team could be disproportionately struggling financially even though they are employed. Let’s go back to Howard and Max. Howard is more likely to be overemployed to afford basic expenses. He is more likely to be housing insecure (my husband and I were displaced 2 times in less than 4 years). He is less likely to have reliable childcare. Because of unconscious bias and Howard’s race, he may be more likely to be seen as underperforming or unprofessional instead of understanding that Max is less likely to experience inconsistent childcare, less likely to be housing insecure or overemployed (not to mention that Black men make 32% less wages than White men)*
#7 Hiring Without Training
According to a study by Conference Board*, BIPOC and women report a lack of professional development opportunities more than their white male counterparts. Due to the limitations mentioned in #6, Black people (and many other POC) are less likely to be able to afford to provide their own professional development opportunities and are less likely to be able to afford to volunteer to get the necessary training to excel in their jobs. Many Black people are hired but not sufficiently trained. Only 32% of Black people attain a college degree vs. 50.2% of White people. 22% of Black college students are caretakers of children or other family members as opposed to 11% of all other races of students*. Black college students are twice as likely to be working full time while going to school. An example of how this looks in action is:
Free was hired to work as a receptionist. They are very good with people, smart and enthusiastic, but they do not have a professional or college degree and have never been trained on administrative duties (filing paperwork, keeping records, etc.) so they struggle to perform those duties. Free’s supervisor put them on a Performance Improvement Plan but did not provide training or a budget to attend training.
The expectation that Free should be able to do a job they are not trained for, knowing that they are not trained for it, is unfair and can only result in a challenging work environment or loss of employment. If their organization were to invest in Free’s development, they could manifest their highest potential in the role.
#8 Dismissing the Opinions or Feedback
This conversation is probably the most mainstream in the medical field and it was evidenced by the global social outrage of the murder of George Floyd. For years, Black women have proclaimed incessantly about doctors not listening to them or taking their complaints about their health seriously. Similarly, Black people have been speaking out about situations similar to George Floyd’s for centuries, and many people dismissed them as overreacting or making excuses. Sometimes organizations don’t listen to Black staff when they shed light on an unfair practice. This leads to a feeling of invalidation and resentment.
#9 Not Taking Them Seriously
Scenario: When Deana was hired as the first Black woman CEO, she was excited but quickly realized it was going to be an uphill climb. Her staff questioned and picked apart every decision she made. She overheard some of them gossiping about her saying that the only reason she got the position was because she was Black. They constantly asked if she had experience doing a job like this and disengaged when she tried to lead professional development. They accused her of giving preferential treatment to the other Black staff. They refused to implement or poorly implemented her new strategies and then criticized her when they inevitably failed.
The number of stories like this are too numerous to count. Sometimes, when Black people are in leadership, they are never thought to be enough for the role. Their qualifications, experience, and judgment are doubted and challenged. This phenomenon is embodied in the idea of a “DEI Hire.”
#10 Explicitly Rejecting Equity and Diversity.
In the wake of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the murder of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, many companies made commitments to DEI. Now, some four years later, several of those companies, including Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Polaris, Indian Motorcycle, Lowe’s, and Ford, are walking those statements back. Working for a company that explicitly rejects DEI can be demoralizing and invalidating to Black staff. Systemic and institutional barriers to success (many of them outlined in the article) are dismissed in favor of a “colorblind” “neutral” approach that privileges white, hetero, cis, and male employees. This says to the Black employee facing these barriers that their company doesn’t care about the unique challenges that they face.
All 10 of these issues work together to eclipse the humanity of Black staff and therefore are anti-black. If your organization is having a difficult time retaining and recruiting Black staff, review this list against your policies and procedures and design a plan for shifting these policies as soon as possible. If you need support in doing this, take a look at our Anti-Racist Initiative.