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 that the first year of the pandemic played out in 2020, drawing on both their lived experience and the studies and data that we now have. Thinking about who could shelter and who could not, and especially how people of colour experienced what has been described as the duel pandemic.

They then look at the article "COVID and Racism Cause Nurses of Color to Face “Dual Pandemic” by Kitta MacPherson: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/covid-and-racism-cause-nurses-color-face-dual-pandemic which sites the study "Effects of Race, Workplace Racism, and COVID Worry on the Emotional Well-Being of Hospital-Based Nurses: A Dual Pandemic” from Charlotte Thomas-Hawkins, Peijia Zha, Linda Flynn & Sakura Ando: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08964289.2021.1977605

They consider the pandemic happening in the context of the murder of George Floyd making it a very specific experience for Black people, and the anti-Asian racism that was exacerbated by the way the virus was being discussed making it a very specific experience for East-Asian people. And those racisms being seen in relation to communities of colour experiencing the highest rates of cases, deaths and hospitalisations, and nearly half of all health care workers with infections being among workers of colour, with nurses being the hardest hit.

Reflecting on anti-Asian racism they look at the article "Research: How Anti-Asian Racism Has Manifested at Work in the Pandemic” by Jennifer Kim and Zhida Shang: https://hbr.org/2023/03/research-how-anti-asian-racism-has-manifested-at-work-in-the-pandemic  

Then they reflect on workplaces currently within the ongoing pandemic: how this impacts disabled and at risk people, how employers and governments are failing to recognise this, how there are ways we could immediately make workplaces safer that are not being implemented. They consider the way the loses we have due to this are not just from death and disability, but also from workers and students quitting their workplaces and educational establishments, and the knowledge and experience we lose when this happens.

The episode ends by considering the way COVID has both harmed disabled people disproportionately and created more disabled people, and so going forward we need to include disabled people and attempt to mitigate dangers in our workplaces, and look after and support people if they do get sick.

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In today's episode Guilaine continues her reflections on relationships between Black people, continuing on from her thoughts in this episode: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/15451884

She addresses a question she has been answering for a long time and that keeps coming back: Should people of colour only receive therapy from therapists/analysts/psychologists/mental health professionals of colour. 

She focuses on psychotherapy which is a very specific field of work, but asks a question that may be of interest or use to people of colour from all workplaces.

Three reasons why black therapists may wound their Black clients:

1. It is not enough to match people on their race alone
2. Just because someone has black skin doesn’t mean they have done the professional work when it comes to training around racial trauma. (And a lot of training is designed and delivered by white people so this is also a structural issue.)
3. Just because someone has black skin doesn’t mean they have done the personal work around their relationship to whiteness, their heritage, their ancestry, intergenerational wounds, colonialism, etc…

Two more things to consider:

1. There are other skills that therapists may have that are not specifically related to racial trauma that will help people experiencing racial trauma such as anxiety management and other core skills.
2. It’s understandable why Black people might prefer Black therapists, primarily for reasons of safety and trauma

Her conclusion is that everybody would benefit from having skills for working with people experiencing racial trauma, and all training institutions and providers should offer training in racial trauma that is thorough, and supports people to work with people who are experiencing racial trauma and race based injury regardless of their racialisation. And that often racism gets in the way of working therapeutically with people of colour.

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In this re-released episode first published  on 15th March 2021, Guilaine reflects on why institutions often turn on those who allege racism. She considers some of the group processes at play using as illustration the treatment of Meghan Markle and responses from that interview. Location of disturbance and scapegoating are presented as frames to formulate victimisation and retaliation within institutions.  

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

Transcript: https://racereflections.co.uk/at-work-the-podcast/

She considers how trauma is generally centered on some kind breach of boundary and how whiteness can be seen as colonial violence performed through spacial embodiment, that breaches of consent are the colonial enactment of whiteness, and that white supremacy is founded on breaching the boundaries, borders, and sovereignty of the other - bodily, territorial, psychic - and so in the everyday quotidian enactment of white violence we are going to see some repetition and reproduction of those wider politics 

In today's episode Guilaine reflects around a listeners query asking "how do we get mangers to understand how biased they are when it comes to the feedback that they give to employees of colour." 

After briefly questioning the terminology of bias and unconscious bias, she looks at the evidence from organisational psychology, considering how empirical evidence shows that marginalised employees tend to receive poorer quality feedback. Even though the research isn’t always intersectional what exists demonstrates the intersectional effect that takes place when axis of oppression and identity collide. This feedback tends to be lower quality: less precise, more global, less frequent, and there tends to be a lot of anxiety around the exercise of providing feedback

She consider aversive racism where employers withhold negative feedback to avoid accusations of racism, but in act of withholding feedback deprive the employee of the opportunity to correct and to improve, and so sometimes to not be able to pass their probation periods or acquire skills and experience that would offer the opportunity for progression within their work. Basically in this dynamic employees of colour and other marginalised groups  are set to fail.

She reflects on how a high percentage of disputes that end up in employment tribunals are related to evaluation or discipline, and that the provision of effective feedback is central and essential to fair and just treatment in the workplace.

She spends some time talking about what employers racialised as white need to work on in regards to their anxiety and phobia around Blackness, considering what Fanon has said on these issues and the wider context of racist violence and exclusion, reflecting on how these conflicts are a liability for institutions when they are found lacking, and more frequently for black and brown individuals when they are not.

She then gives some thought to what can be done to correct these issues.

That whilst it’s worth making sure to avoiding it becoming self-fulfilling situation, most of the time people's instincts based on their  lived experience are astute and accurate/ We need to correct the misconception that people are misinterpreting the situations, marginalised people in general interpret things on balance correctly. So instead we need to take seriously these feelings and instincts and come up with strategies to mitigate and navigate these situations. Ultimately though it is really for employers and people racialised as white to address their issues around giving feedback because it isn’t something employees of colour can change alone.

Further listening:

Aversive Racism: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8346383

Thinking about feeling, feeling about thinking: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/14041582

Further reading:

White Minds: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the phenomenon and social dynamic of what has been called whitelash, a combination of white/whiteness and backlash. 

The term was coined by African-American journalist Van Jones to describe the backlash of White America coming together to reject what had been seen as a liberalisation of the USA under Obama. And in a more general sense it describes the sense of grievance, the sense of anger, the sense of frustration that originates from people racialised as White that comes from an often misconstrued and misconceived sense of displacement and social change which is a reaction to a perception that social advancements are being made in terms of equality. This is a concept and area that is expanded on in Guilaine’s second book White Minds.

After defining and exploring the concept she then considers it within the terms of group analytic thinking, theory and practice, and looks the relationship between the socio-political and the ways that institutions, organisations and individuals relate and interact, focusing on the workplace.

She considers the whitelash that we are currently experiencing almost 4 years after the murder of George Floyd galvanised institutions to make commitments and how those words and sometimes actions are now being pushed back against very strongly. And how this whitelash is also being felt across many intersections and identities.

She then shares some observations from her experience of delivering work related DEI training and looks at the affect of whitelash on Race Reflections as both an organisation and as a business.

White Minds is available to buy here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Van Jones on whitelash: https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/11/9/13572182/van-jones-cnn-trump-election-2016

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine continues to look forwards towards Race Reflections path in 2024 and beyond. She announces a future book that will be coming from Race Reflections, our first book as an organisation.

That book is Surviving Whiteness at Work: reflections on defiance, resistance and transformation

It will aim to describe the working of Whiteness in the workplace through the lived experience of our team and community members, and what ways they have found helpful to grow, to survive, to thrive despite working in an environment that might have been hostile, toxic, marginalising and discriminatory. It will look at theory and autoethnographic experience and will be solution focused.

In this episode she discusses and reflects on that book and gives a flavour of the thinking and topics it may cover.

For more on this exciting new project see here: https://racereflections.co.uk/title-surviving-whiteness-at-work-reflections-on-defiance-resistance-and-transformation/

If you are a member of the Race Reflections community we are looking for contributions: https://racereflections.co.uk/call-for-contributions-whiteness-at-work/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine looks forwards towards Race Reflections path in 2024.

She starts by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, followed by a brief reflection on global violence, specifically in Gaza and Congo, a topic she will return to in more detail in a future podcast later this year.

Then she outlines what is planned and being developed for Race Reflections over the next 12 months:

1. As Guilaine’s training is as a specialist clinician she wants to use this skillset more and will be setting up a group analytic clinic within Race Reflections establishing 2 to 3 regular groups this year.
2. Race Reflections will establish a physical office so we can put down roots, form in person community, and disrupt the reproduction of displacement that can happen within purely online spaces and groups. The office will be based in Milton Keynes (30 mins from London, 45 mins from Birmingham and Coventry).
3. Because of these first two developments there will be an even greater focus on in-person training.
4. Race Reflections will be launching a video channel this year.
5. Within the next 6 weeks we will announce a new programme for courses and training and in terms of the organisation we are looking into development around management both for existing team members and potentially in terms of recruitment. 

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published  on 4th April 2022,  we explore the relationship between podcasting and power, both how podcasting has replicated and interacted with existing power systems, and how it offers a radical space for marginalised voices to create freely without gatekeepers. We think about how The Podcast Industry has developed into just another industry/workplace incorporating the issues inherent in those industries and workplaces. We look at the history and present of podcasting and ask you to consider adding your voice to its future.

This episode is hosted by Race Reflection's Audio Wizard/Witch, Dave Pickering: http://davepickeringstoryteller.co.uk/

LINKS:

India.Arie on Joe Rogan/Spotify: https://www.nme.com/news/music/india-arie-says-she-left-spotify-because-of-its-treatment-of-artists-not-joe-rogan-3162696

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/india-arie-spotify-joe-rogan-interview-1299169/

Why I’ve Decided to Take My Podcast Off Spotify by Roxane Gay: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/opinion/culture/joe-rogan-spotify-roxane-gay.html

The Test Kitchen: https://www.vulture.com/article/gimlet-reply-all-controversy-spotify-test-kitchen.html

Hidden in plain sight by CC Paschal: http://www.thechiquitachannel.com/criticism/2021/3/7/hidden-in-plain-sight

Glass Walls by James T Green: https://www.jamestgreen.com/thoughts/115

Another Round and The Nod:
https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/30/21308074/the-nod-spotify-rss-feed-another-round-buzzfeed-podcast-ownership

https://hotpodnews.com/the-case-of-another-rounds-archives/

Palace Shaw - Why I’m saying goodbye to PRX by Palace Shaw: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13j3H7BidesRD4zgz2aoZuwDcdocV7NpzNs3YqA5Rcg8/mobilebasic?urp=gmail_link

“In response to Kerri Hoffman’s Letter”: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uu1nOsqLsnZDXNJe04lJt3TQpt6-tvFhZnF4aQ_dwHc/edit

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akdbbj/podcasters-are-reclaiming-storytelling-in-africa-and-becoming-celebrities-v28n1

Rise and Shine: https://www.riseandshineaudio.com

Multitrack Fellowship: https://www.multitrack.uk/

Equality in Audio Pact: https://www.equalityinaudiopact.co.uk/

How the Equality in Audio Pact came together by Renay Richardson: https://hotpodnews.com/how-the-equality-in-audio-pact-came-together-by-renay-richardson/

To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.

In this re-released episode first published  on 21st February 2022, Guilaine reflects on the particular dynamic where a person with power reacts to accusations of structural harm by saying that they feel unsafe. She considers how affect and feelings are conditioned and shaped by social context, histories and structures, and how feelings can play a role in protecting and enforcing social (dis)order and the status quo. She encourages us to consider how words and discourses can harm people, and to think critically about our feelings.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on workplace issues surrounding people's appearance, how appearance is policed, and how that relates to respectability politics and white supremacy.

They first discuss how appearing Palestinian or showing solidarity with Palestine during the current genocide intersects with how people's appearances are policed in general, specifically looking at this issue from a US perspective.

Then they consider how dress-codes in school set up dress-codes in the workplace, reflecting on how multiply marginalised people are the most affected by these dress codes, and the ways that dress-codes serve dominant cultures, patriarchy and white supremacy.

They then discuss an essay by Aysa Gray called The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards (https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_bias_of_professionalism_standards) which argues that the standards of professionalism are really just the standards of western white supremacy. They then challenge us to ask ourselves how we might be reinforcing white supremacy, xenophobia and other forms of systemic inequality and consider the role of hiring metrics in all this.

Simone ends with a series of questions from that essay by Gray that aim to help de-centre the standards of whiteness within the workplace.

Simone's website: https://www.simonekolysh.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine takes us on a freeform reflection and roundup of her thinking and feeling in 2023.

From the publication of her second book White Minds to the writing and collating of her third book Creative Disruption she shares her position as someone who doesn’t identify as an academic due to the violence she has experienced as a Black woman in academia and psychology (something she explores in both these books.)

She then gives us an introduction to Creative Disruption beginning with its genesis at a conference that looked at creative disruption. The chapter she has written for that book also began at that conference in a talk she gave on Congolese music. Here she also makes links with Afrobeats (which she describes as the hybrid child of the African diaspora). She then expands on the reasons for highlighting and emphasising creativity and on the importance of thinking about feelings, and feeling about thinking. Thinking with the body or feeling with the mind. How these ‘things’ are split by Western society but are not split within us. For this she refers to Audre Lorde’s text Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power.

Then she asks some questions to you, the listeners: Do we do enough to engage with the creative in the work we do at Race Reflections? Are we playing into the splitting of the rational self and the erotic self, this splitting of the feeling self and the thinking self?

She then talks about her latest piece (‘The world does not need more intelligent men’) which looks at the concept of intelligence and asks what intelligence is or might be. She explored these questions in relationship to the personal and the political overlapping and often being the same thing.

She ends with another invitation or provocation to the audience: 

How do we find ways to reconnect body and mind, rationality and corporality, heart and head, as an organisation so that our dismantling, disruptive, anti-racist and anti-oppressive work continues to allow us to grow and be connected with the world and each other?

Audre Lorde: Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power https://www.centraleurasia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/audre_lorde_cool-beans.pdf

‘The world does not need more intelligent men’ https://racereflections.co.uk/the-world-does-not-need-more-intelligent-men/

Guilaine’s first book Living While Black is available to buy here:  https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

Her new book White Minds is available to buy here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

Her third book co-edited with Hannah Reeves and Claudia Di Gianfrancesco is called Creative Disruption: https://creativedisruptioncouk.wordpress.com/about/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Simone reflects on the relationships between racism, sexism (and other systems of oppression) and anti-fat bias. They begin by thinking about how the curves of people’s bodies are seen and understood through a very racist lens, and how pregnant people are seen as if their bodies belong to the public. Situating all of this within histories of White Supremacy and how these prejudices become bureaucratic elements of policy and are enforced systemically.

The rest of the episode is in conversation with the article "Weight based discrimination in the workplace is real. Here’s why talking about it matters.” by Jordan Ziese: https://www.ywboston.org/weight-based-discrimination-in-the-workplace-is-real-heres-why-talking-about-it-matters/

They go over the various work, movements and resources that have existed around combating anti-fat bias and some of the big issues within this such as the pernicious influence of the debunked measurement system BMI, and studies that show that fat people are paid less and discriminated against in other ways within the workplace.

The episode ends with recommendations for employers in terms of how they deal with anti-fat bias in the workplace.

Here are some resources mentioned:

Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings https://nyupress.org/9781479886753/fearing-the-black-body/

Belly Of The Beast: The Politics Of Anti-Fatness As Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun L. Harrison: https://www.pagesofhackney.co.uk/webshop/product/belly-of-the-beast-dashaun-harrison/

Maintenance Phase podcast: https://www.maintenancephase.com/

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In this re-released episode first published  on 5th July 2021 Guilaine takes the Tiktok trend of "white women fake crying" as a jumping-off point to consider a slightly different take on intersectionality in relation to white womanhood. She reflects on the reasons why black people and people of colour find these videos disturbing or triggering, and explore "toxic femininity" which she define's as when white fragility meets the constructions of white femininity.

More on the TikTok trend: https://www.nylon.com/life/white-women-crying-on-cue-tiktok-trend

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

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine expands on her thinking around money which she has previously covered a little on the podcast and on the Race Reflections website. She specifically reflects on the relationship between money and attachment, considering internalised scarcity, social class and social deprivation, framing her thoughts around her own background and lived experience. This episode was inspired by the work she was doing for the Freud Museum Conference about the relationship between psychotherapy and money.

She begins by going over attachment theory as it exists from initial work done by Bowlby which relates to maternal or parental attachment. She offers some critique and complications around these theories but generally doesn't dispute the ideas and evidence around this topic. She does however suggest that whilst a lot of time is given to maternal attachment theory not enough has been done around how material circumstances influence attachment, and that maternal and material are seldom considered together.

She has done some work in this area when writing Living While Black, specifically considering attachment to and with place. We attach to spaces as well as to bodies, and anyway bodies and spaces are related to each other. And looking at places means looking at the influence of geopolitical factors such as borders and money. She then covers her own relationship with money and with scarcity thinking, looking at how growing up poor can create adaptive behaviours/internalised issues around things like experiencing injustice, a lack of familiarity with wealth, and difficulties navigating spaces without cultural capital.  She asks us to imagine a graph that cross references material and maternal/parental attachments and how that kind of thinking can help us understand our own relationship to attachment and to how we relate to money.

She ends by linking all this back to the workplace.

The article she mentions is on the Race Reflections website for members (and if you are not a member you are welcome to join):  Poverty, deprivation and internalised scarcity

Her book Living While Black where she explores some of what she talks about today is available to buy here:  https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

Her new book White Minds has just been published and is available to buy here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

This episode of Race Reflections at Work is about managing anxiety with the help of holistic/ alternative approaches while at work/ in employment, as well as some suggestions

TW: Admin, Comms and Engagement Lead Dionne talks about the triggers of anxiety while navigating spaces around her - often being the only minority.

Resources to read: 

https://www.rtor.org/2019/02/21/mental-health-and-chiropractic-care/

https://thehouseclinics.co.uk/learning-hub/stress-and-anxiety-how-chiropractic-can-help-you

https://www.onechiropractic.co.uk/blogs/simple-tips-to-manage-stress-in-the-moment

Where to find alternative support in the UK:

https://www.lsbu.ac.uk/stories/lsbu-chiropractic-clinic

https://www.gcc-uk.org/

https://blamuk.org/zuri-therapy-racial-wellness/

Dionne Anderson: http://dionneandersoncreative.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine explore and defines the concept of proximal ambivalence and proximal dynamics. She begins with the recent incident covered in the news that highlighted issues of anti-blackness within communities of colour, specifically in this context south asian communities in the UK. She reflects that whilst it's important to avoid overgeneralising it's also important to draw parallels and see patterns when they occur. She goes on to talk about some of her experiences of these dynamics and examines the specific racialised and economic context and tensions around afro haircare shops in the UK and the long historical legacies of inter-"racial" conflicts and tensions that date back to colonial administration and the role south asian groups played in African colonies and the Caribbean.

She then defines proximal ambivalence as a term that derives the ways that groups with proximity to power/Whiteness can have mixed feelings when it comes to justice, liberation and dismantling White Supremacy. This is because White Supremacy is a caste system or pyramid and everyone within its structures and strata can reproduce and enact racialised violence towards groups lower down the complex hierarchies. All groups including people racialised as white exist within these racialised hierarchies which is what creates these proximal dynamics.

She then considers how these dynamics look within the workplace.

Guilaine fully explores this subject in her upcoming book White Minds that you can pre-order here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

This is re-released episode first published on 5th April 2021 hosted by Guilaine: 

There are many challenges black leaders must contend with, that is for certain... In this episode we consider why black authority in the workplace continues to attract resistance, hostility and sometimes sabotage and reflect on some of the challenges of black leadership within white institutions. To do this, we make links to historical configurations, colonial relations and the expectation of black servitude.  

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on 1st March  2021 (our first ever episode) Guilaine reflects on what is racial trauma? How does it manifest in the workplace? She considers the distress that racism can cause in the workplace and explores the experience of Harvinder, a research assistant whose well-being becomes so adversely affected by his experience of discrimination and victimisation, he is forced to resign. She asks why it matters that those in positions of power within organisations understand racial trauma and what organisations can do mitigate the adverse impact of racism at work. 

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk 

In today's episode Race Reflections' Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on the issues and experiences around disability, mental health and neurodivergence in the workplace.

They begin by defining the terms/identities/concepts ableism, disablism, saneism, visible/invisible disability, mental illness, neurodivergence and intersectionality. Then they consider how many of these terms overlap and are often umbrella terms for each other, and that they depend on the people/institutions that are defining them who hold the power to define what is typical and what is done to those who aren't typical.

Neurodivergence, disability and mental illness are common human experiences and should not be pathologised. They are also tied into white norms and to other forms of, and systems of, marginalisation, normalisation and oppression.

Then they consider how neurodiverse, disabled and mentally ill people often have no access to "legitimate" work, highlighting how prior to the workforce these groups have often experienced oppression and alienation at home, in school and in higher education, a model that continues into adult life. How they can be seen and framed as troubled/troublesome and how that becomes criminalisation and pathologisation. Not having access to "legitimate" work also means barriers to accessing housing, food and healthcare.

Workplaces are set up around specific assumptions around work, productivity and success. These assumptions are within society and ourselves as much as they are within workplaces. By making them we miss other ways of being and viewing these things. Inclusive workplaces have a positive impact for all employees as they put the focus on the needs and different approaches of everyone.

Simone ends by talking about the practical ways that workplaces can redesign themselves to be truly (and not just legally) inclusive places that accommodate multiple ways of working and crucially recruit a wider range of workers with different strengths and needs.

Simone's website: https://www.simonekolysh.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on 2nd August 2021 we think about the dynamics at play in someone finding themselves in the role of being "The Black Advocate" (or any other position of advocating for marginalised groups) in the workplace. 

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the relationship between racism, neurosis and envy. She begins by going over an earlier article she wrote which expanded on Fanon’s theories around these areas and considers neurosis in classic anaylytic theory defining it as phenomena/processes that occur when we can’t confront something in the world, or in ourselves, or in others, because it provokes too much anxiety. So that anxiety expresses itself in some other ways, usually unconsciously. She then expands this to think about racialised or White envy. She considers the distinction between jealosy (the wish to possess) and envy (the wish to annihilate)

She then talks about how she has come to these conclusions through lived experience and group analysis and psychotherapy. With a side note that often in clinical settings the gaze is turned inwards so the question becomes "What do you do to trigger envy?" rather than understanding that the white subject is born or socialised into their envy. Instead the question could be: "How do you make yourself more resilient?" or "How do you look after yourself?"  And the answer to that is often to connect to your power which means connecting to the very things you are being envied for, not minimising it.

She then focuses in on what racialised or white envy looks like in the workplace, sharing experiences and anacdotes and breaking it down into:

• Dismissing/sabortaging Black authority
• Not congratulating/giving praise for achievements
• Envy creating canibalistic/bizarre behaviours

She then expands to think of envy from the wider perspective of it being a cornerstone of white supremacy, partly because racism is about fantasy and disavowed feelings. 

She finishes by reflecting on ways that people of colour can navigate envy in the workplac that include:

• Acceptance
• Naming it 
• Finding spaces where people are going to listen and think the envy through with you
• Reclaiming for yourself what you are envied for

And ends with encouraging all workplaces to think and talk about envy.

As Guilaine mentiones there is a lot about envy in her upcoming book White Minds that you can pre-order here: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

The open access article she begins by talking about can be read on the race reflections website here: https://racereflections.co.uk/neuroses-of-whiteness-white-envy-and-racial-violence/

And Guilaine has covered envy on the podcast before here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8728416-envy

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Membership Engagement Coordinator Janedra Sykes talks about Whiteness and White Supremacy Culture as narcissism in (and outside) the workplace.

She starts by reflecting on her personal experience in relations to this topic, how she came to consider racism through a public health lens and how her work on this takes Black women as her primary audience and aims to give them toolkits to use to navigate this terrain. She outlines Christina Sharpe's concept of anti-blackness as the climate in which we all live. Then she looks at the ways in which using narcissism as a lens for dealing with whiteness in the workplace has been helpful for her within this work.

She then explores some case studies, looking at how Black organisations and individuals are treated by White organisations.

Then she runs through some people and places to find tools from. From Doctor Ramani she takes documenting your work, understanding a narcissist won't give you anything back, forming healthy relationships inside and outside of your organisation (if you can) and recognising patterns of narcissism. From Dr Nathalie Martinek she takes ways to help hack narcissism in the workplace and the ways in which these dynamics are racialised. And then she expands on all this with her own thoughts and experiences.

She ends by outlining how White Supremacy as narcissism is not a new concept it having been already touched on by Dr Karl Bell in the 1970's and even by W.E.B. Du Bois, and she ends with summing up how exploring racism in the workplace through the lens of narcissism can help by de-personalising it, distancing it as well as that the act of naming something both takes some of it's power away and gives you some power back.

Christina Sharpe: The Weather https://thenewinquiry.com/the-weather/

Doctor Ramani's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/DoctorRamani

Nathalie Martinek: Hacking Narcissism https://nathaliemartinekphd.substack.com/

Janedra Sykes: http://arboretagroup.com/staff/janedra-sykes/

Narcissistic Racism: Revisiting Carl Bell by J. Luke Wood: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-psychology-of-racial-equity/202305/narcissistic-racism-revisiting-carl-bell

Race Reflections AT WORK was recently named as one of the Feedspot Top 15 Inequality Podcasts on the web! https://blog.feedspot.com/inequality_podcasts/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on a question that has come up in her personal conversations with siblings, how do you navigate tensions between Black people in the workplace that might be described as being related to internalised anti-blackness/negrophobia.

She thinks around the theory that surrounds these concepts, considers how many of the concepts we have explored on the podcast as being primarily being perpetrated by non black people can also be enacted by people racialised as Black. She considers the reasons why this topic can be controversial and why it is often not addressed or named. 

She then discusses some observations from her experience within group analysis during the high level of racial tension that came with the murder of Gorge Floyd. In addition to all the other theory and explanations for these tensions she encourages us to think with complexity and multiplicity about the function these tensions have within groups and institutions, how these conflicts serve power hierarchies  That conflict can be a gladiatorial entertainment and distraction, and that conflict can be a displaced version of tensions with the people at the top of the organisation that cannot be targeted safely, and that those people in positions of power are always implicated when there is tension within their teams.

This episode touches on many issues previously covered in podcast episodes such as these:

Black Authority in the Workplace: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8252930

Envy: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/8728416

Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the new book she is writing: White Minds

Pre-order: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds

She considers the process of writing her second book, gives an overview of the book's focus and thinks about what she has learned about being a writer and author.

She talks about how her writing style is difficult to define because it mixes theory and ideas with personal anecdotes and auto-ethnography. And how, whilst she has tried to keep both books accessible because that's an important part of the job of education and the project of anti-racism, White Minds is a little bit more challenging as a text.

She considers her new book in relation to her first book and discusses its content which may be seen as controversial because it focuses on the pathology of whiteness from the perspective of the white subject rather than the racialised other. It looks at how White Supremacy harms all of us and shifts the analytic gaze to make whiteness the subject. How white people function in society, how that reproduces white supremacy and then how white supremacy reproduces white minds. This focus is an act of transgression, defiance and resistance by interrogating the people at the perpetrating end of racialised oppression and domination. Looking at the psychosocial pathology of whiteness on the white subject.

And she ends by sharing some thoughts on what she has learnt as a writer.

Living While Black: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/442992/living-while-black-by-kinouani-guilaine/9781529109436

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Race Reflections' Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on the issues and experiences around being trans and/or non-binary within the workplace.

They begin by defining the terms/identities/concepts of transgender, non-binary, cisgender and intersectionality. Then they look at how even before trans and non-binary people reach the workplace they have often experienced discrimination at home, school and further education, and how we all exist within systems that force conformity around gender and sexual norms.

Then they consider "illegitimate" work, highlighting how sex work is perceived and how it is often one of the few forms of work available to marginalised people. They also talk about "walking while trans" a phrase that describes trans women being assumed to be sex workers and then harassed and discriminated against because of the stigma around sex work.

Then they look at "legitimate" work and workplaces, exploring issues around bathroom accessibility, misgendering, inappropriate questions about bodies and transition, and not being hired because of identities. They consider some things employers can do to make workplaces more trans and non-binary inclusive, including allowing transgender and non-binary people to self identify, offering intersectional allyship, creating ally programs, measuring managerial performance, designating a confidential ombudsman and pronoun guidelines.  They discuss creating zero tolerance policies around LGBTQ+ discrimination with clear and safe ways to report it and providing meaningful diversity and inclusion training.

They end by reflecting on how trans and non-binary people exist with accumulated discrimination experiences that combine home, education and work experiences and how this significantly contributes to factors that mean that trans and non-binary people quit work in addition to other ways that they are excluded from workplaces.

Stonewall: Getting started with trans inclusion in your workplace: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/workplace-trans-inclusion-hub/getting-started-trans-inclusion-your-workplace

Stonewall: Workplace trans inclusion hub: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/workplace-trans-inclusion-hub

Simone's website: https://www.simonekolysh.com/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

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

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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.

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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/

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine responds to, and reflects on, a dilemma from a listener who is a Black woman dealing with the way that workplaces tend to view her as overqualified, is having difficulty navigating these dynamics, has ended up moving from job to job, and increasingly feels the need to hide her knowledge and experience.

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!

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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/

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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

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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/

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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

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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/

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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: 

Mel Green's website: https://www.melalygreen.com/

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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.

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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.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on extraction, the process of which touches on ancestral vulnerability, blackness, colonial dialectics and coloniality in the workplace and generally racialised dynamics, and echoes her recent trip to the Congo.

She offers an aside on how plagiarism as an accusation can be weaponised and racialised against people of colour, particularly women of colour and Black women in particular; and how they can be on one hand mined quite heavily by institutions and by society at large, and on the other hand they tend to be the most vulnerable when it comes to those kinds of accusations.

But she then focuses on examples of extraction she has experienced recently, looking at some of the reasons she has altered her use of social media and the phenomena of high earners approaching Race Reflections to be considered for the low income courses we have offered for our recent certificate. And she considers the response of some people to her sharing an article "Racial trauma as bodily archive: The Griot & The Nzonzi” freely to wider community for 48 hours, but after that making it membership only. She was asked not just to make it permanently freely accessible but was also asked to send people files of the article for their use for free.

She then thinks about extraction in the workplace and considers some ways to navigate and mitigate these issues.

This podcast brings together many strands from other podcasts for example:

Introduction to the certificate in working with racial trauma and race based injuries using the foundation of group analysis: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/15148619-introduction-to-the-certificate-in-working-with-racial-trauma-and-race-based-injuries-using-the-foundation-of-group-analysis.mp3

Social Media Policy Change: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/15059341-social-media-policy-change.mp3

Reflections on a trip to the Congo: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/14947769-reflections-on-a-trip-to-the-congo.mp3

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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

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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/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode, Race Reflections podcast producer Dave talks to the newest team member Mel Green about her experiences and scholarship around racial bias in teaching and higher education. She covers her time working in pupil referral units, primary schools, online teaching and higher education and the systemic and personal challenges that has sometimes involved. And she shares tips and strategies for navigating, mitigating and combating these dynamics.

Some links to things mentioned in the conversation:

Mel Green's website: https://www.melalygreen.com/

Open University: https://www.open.ac.uk/

Leading Routes: https://leadingroutes.org/

Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks: https://www.routledge.com/Teaching-to-Transgress-Education-as-the-Practice-of-Freedom/hooks/p/book/9780415908085

Standpoint Theory/Sandra Harding: https://www.routledge.com/The-Feminist-Standpoint-Theory-Reader-Intellectual-and-Political-Controversies/Harding/p/book/9780415945011

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In today's episode, in response to a question from a listener, Guilaine reflects on authenticity in the workplace. She considers the issue in relation to a recent study that showed that black employees were more resistant to returning to the workplace post lockdown. She thinks about how the burden for "fitting in" is often placed on those who carry the difference, and how institutional racism and assimilative pressure impacts on the ability of racialised people to feel authentic and "real" at work, and how these factors contribute to people not being safe or supported to be a part of a team.

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk