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Uproot workplace racism.
On Friday, NBC reported on a Glassdoor survey, which found the primary reason workers are excited to return to their workplaces is the opportunity to socialize with their coworkers (GlassDoor). But for employees of color, workplace socialization and communication are often taxing rather than restorative. Just 3% of Black remote workers want to return to the office, compared to 21% of their white peers.
TAKE ACTION
Recognize racist microaggressions and intervene when you witness them.
Subscribe to Anti-Racism at Work, our weekly email that offers tactical ways to transform the workplace.
Consider: How do I feel about my work environment? Could my coworkers with different identities feel differently? What kind of support do I and others need? How can I practice active solidarity with the people I work with?
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By Andrew Lee (he/him)
On Friday, NBC reported on a Glassdoor survey, which found the primary reason workers are excited to return to their workplaces is the opportunity to socialize with their coworkers (GlassDoor). But for employees of color, workplace socialization and communication are often taxing rather than restorative.
When one Black web developer learned of plans to work in-person again, she thought back to the “snide remarks, almost always about race” she endured before a year of remote work. “Some of it was intentional. Most of it was. A little of it was just sort of unconscious. All of it just wears on you. I was really upset.” Rather than return to her office to face more “jokes” about affirmative action and boats back to Africa, she decided to quit (NBC).
The microaggressions faced by employees of color include bigoted jokes, backhanded “compliments,” and offensive nicknames (BuzzFeed). See our previous piece on microaggressions. The psychic toll of such exchanges mean that workplaces can feel very different for white people and people of color. 21% of white workers wish to return to the office. In contrast, only 3% of Black workers want to do the same (Future Forum).
White workers are seven times more amenable to returning to office work than their Black colleagues because “they don’t have to deal with the microaggressions we do,” said marketing and public relations specialist Crystal Lowe. “Who wants to work in the office? I’d rather clean up dog poop” (NBC).
“Working from home has provided a sense of freedom from that,” explained Joseph B. Hill, managing partner of a diversity, equity, and inclusion firm. “But what this has highlighted is that some bold and courageous conversations have to take place inside these offices to make them welcoming for Black people” (NBC). Maybe your job is considering a return to in-person work. Perhaps your job falls within the half of American jobs that can't be performed remotely (Global Workplace Analytics). In any case, the wild disparities in attitudes towards returning to the office between Black and white workers demonstrates the urgency of starting such “bold and courageous conversations” in workplaces of any kind.
We should all feel compelled to intervene when we witness microaggressions on the job, especially those that don’t affect us directly. It can be tempting to avoid responsibility by second-guessing yourself about what you witnessed. You may wonder if you heard it correctly, if you have the authority to respond, or what the negative consequences might be for you should you decide to get involved (DiversityQ). But if a workplace is good for you only in equal measure to it being harmful to your coworkers from marginalized backgrounds, you’re already involved. In each instance, we all need to question, interrupt, and denounce discriminatory behavior while supporting those against whom it is directed. Rather than creating a culture of blame, responsible bystander intervention instead “creates a culture of accountability, and one that doesn’t tolerate harassment, microaggresions, or discrimination of any kind” (Idealist).
Ultimately, rooting out workplace racism requires structural change, as well. Workers of color also face longer commutes than white workers (Grist) because of economic inequalities, housing market racism, and gentrification (Teen Vogue), so returning to work in-person requires a greater sacrifice of unpaid commuting time each week for non-white workers. In the workplace, equity may require systemic changes like labor protections for marginalized workers (The Progressive, UCLA) and initiatives to create actively anti-racist workplaces at all levels (Times Up). We should demand that the places we work view anti-racism as integral to the work itself, and we should insist on racial, economic, and housing justice in the places we live. But while we should advocate for large-scale change, we don’t need to wait for it to take action ourselves. We can look the other way in the face of workplace microaggressions, or we can instead choose to advocate for ourselves and coworkers of marginalized backgrounds. We have a collective responsibility to uproot workplace racism.
Key Takeaways
Just 3% of Black remote workers want to return to the office, compared to 21% of their white peers.
Many workers of color face racial microaggressions at their jobs from co-workers and supervisors alike.
We need to take the initiative to disrupt racial microaggressions whenever we see them, including on the job.
Study Hall! Raising multiracial children and addressing microaggressions.
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Happy Saturday!
Welcome to faces old and new! This Saturday recaps our emails from the previous weeks, answers questions that came in from the community, and offers resources others shared in response to the topics we discussed.
The Anti-Racism Daily started June 3, and all previous emails are available on our website organized by categories for easy review. We're also now on Instagram @antiracismdaily.
If you haven't already, know that you can make a one-time contribution on PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or contribute monthly on Patreon – but only if you choose. Thank you to everyone that's supported!
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
Write out three questions you have from the content shared this week, and discuss one of them with a friend. If it's difficult, consider starting your questions with the following inquiries:
What would it look like if...
If this issue didn't exist, what would this newsletter be discussing about this issue in its place?
I never realized that...
What did I believe about this issue before?
GET EDUCATED
Your email mentioned, "shouldn’t we all be held to the same levels of accountability?" Can we create "one standard of behavior" across the board when it comes to race? When does setting different standards advantage the privileged or demean those who don’t hold privilege?
In response to Abolish qualified immunity, Monday, July 6.
I do feel we're missing a sense of standardization in how we hold each other accountable in relationship to the law. The qualified immunity conversation is fascinating to me because it makes it incredibly difficult to arrest and charge officials. Yet, we know that it is also much easier for Black people to end up in jail (previous newsletter). We already have standards of behaviors embedded in our Constitution that advantage the privileged or demean those who don't hold privilege.
In my opinion, we need to either abolish the standards that exacerbate the inequities or create new standards that counter the imbalance of power. We also need to be critical about who's creating the standardization, and what privileges their perspectives on the issue reflect. Your response mentions standardized testing (which is deserving of its own newsletters) as an example of standards that don't serve all. And it is in part because it wasn't designed to serve all.
Is it possible to create one standard that truly, equitably serves all? Perhaps not. But can we do a lot better from where we all now? Absolutely. And we must have these standards amend and iterate throughout time to best reflect the swiftly changing times we live in.
I know you referenced multiple times that cancel culture can be used in harmful ways and that it shouldn't be used to discredit the movement in general. But I think it's harmful not to name how harmful cancel culture can also be when it's not used appropriately.
In response to Understand the role of cancel culture, Friday, July 10.
I think right now the mainstream media is making that case well enough at the moment, which is why I didn't spend more time on it. I also think that appropriately is incredibly subjective – many people called cancel culture inappropriate when it was used to hold white men accountable during the #MeToo movement, and hold R. Kelly accountable re: sexual relations with minors. It wouldn't be my place to pick and choose examples of what is appropriate, or who is considered "well-informed" and who isn't, or whether victims of harm perpetuated against them are "taking it too far".
I also try to look at broader issues, like cancel culture, from an anti-racism lens, instead of the broader issue itself as a whole. That absolutely limits the scope of reporting on the issue itself and doesn't give a comprehensive look at the full picture. My hope is that we can understand how current events, and more importantly, our perception of them, can either accelerate or detract from dismantling systemic oppression. And as we watch dominant culture aim to cancel cancel culture, we need to understand how that can silence voices that need to be heard.
The action was to understand the role of cancel culture, not shield it from criticism. As we continue the work, especially on broad cultural and political conversations, it's important to remember that this newsletter cannot act as a single news source, single perspective, or sole comprehensive analysis. That's especially important to remember because there are so many -isms beyond racism that we need to dismantle, like sexism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia, etc, that are also impacted by these conversations. And although they often overlap, they each deserve their own lens (consider how the cancel culture movement gained fervor last week because of JK Rowling's transphobic comments, right off the heels of pride month and as so many trans lives have been lost these past few weeks).
Can I reference your emails when I contact my senator?
In response to Abolish qualified immunity, Monday, July 6.
Absolutely, share away. Whatever supports your activism. Feel free to forward our emails, or copy and paste content, however you need. But when you do, be sure to reference where it is from and who wrote it. You may notice this week we recently added bylines for contributors – as these conversations grow, it won't just be my voice anymore!
But I advise against signing anyone up for this email without their consent (local official, citizen, or otherwise). I understand the sentiment, but subscribing people in lieu of having a conversation about their racist behaviors likely isn't going to make an impact. It may even draw their animosity our way.
How are we supposed to know the breadth of microaggressions that a person can experience? And how can we assume that something we hear is a microaggression for someone else?
From Acknowledge the harm of microaggressions, Thursday, July 9.
There's not an expectiation that through this work you become an expert on all the topics immediately. There's a lot of binary thinking when it comes to anti-racism because there's a very binary goal – be actively anti-racist, or don't. But within it is a full scope and spectrum of learning and understand. The goal is to be consistently committed to the learning; a persistent student, always practicing the myriad actions we can take to dismantle white supremacy and learn along the way.
Side note: someone asked why I structure the emails with the action first, and the education following, feeling that it makes more sense to have the action at the bottom. But I want to emphasize, as I did in the paragraph above, that the active practice needs to be emphasized. It is the doing, not just the learning, that changes the world.
When it comes to racial microaggressions, there are more than enough instances of common questions, phrases, and terms used copiously to build a general understanding of what they are, and why they're harmful, so you can not use that language moving forward. And a healthy dose of empathy goes a long way. Paying closer attention to how your non-white colleagues show up in conversations, or respond to the language you're questioning, may also give you a clue that something isn't right.
You also mentioned that we can't assume that some microaggressions are considered microaggressions by everyone in the group. And you're right, it's never good to assume that all people from a same race are the same. But it is important to remember that if many people have actively said that language is harmful, it's likely to be harmful. So there's no need to use it and risk it, OR let someone else say it without addressing it.
I addressed a microaggression that a colleague made to a Black woman in our office, and she realizes her grave error. Should she now apologize to the Black woman?
From Acknowledge the harm of microaggressions, Thursday, July 9.
Great question! I wrote a whole newsletter on apologies on July 1, 2020; a follow up on one of the first newsletters we sent on checking in on June 6. I hope both of these perspectives are helpful as you continue to unpack this work.
Is there anything your parents did, or that you wish they did, that helped you to feel more comfortable embracing your biracial ancestry? What can I do for my children to help them navigate society and feel more confident in their identities?
From Honor the biracial / multiracial experience Tuesday, July 7
This is an excerpt from a response written by the original author Ebony Bellamy.
At a young age, I was educating my friends about being biracial because my dad and I always had open conversations about race. I grew up knowing I was different and that there was nothing wrong with that. My dad often shared stories about what it was like for him to grow up in NYC during the 60s and 70s (my dad was born in the late 50s). Those stories really shaped how I viewed my privilege has a biracial person because I learned how important it is to respect and honor different perspectives and cultures.
I think it's important to embrace all aspects of each race, so your children can grow up loving being biracial or multiracial. When they understand what makes each race beautiful and unique, they'll be able to embrace their racial identity with confidence.
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Acknowledge the harm of microaggressions.
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Hi,
We're close to the end of another week! Reminder that each Saturday I share reflections and questions from the community – reply to this email with yours. I appreciate all the thoughtful responses from our topics this week.
Many people have asked about microaggressions, so today's newsletter dives in. We've been focusing much of our newsletter on the systemic forms of racism, so this is a good reminder of how much our individual actions help to reinforce inequitable systems by perpetuating false stereotypes.
As always, you can invest one-time on Paypal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza) or monthly on Patreon to keep this community growing. We have new tools and resources coming your way, and your support is so appreciated!
Nicole
TAKE ACTION
For those that identify as white:
1. Reflect on the last time you saw a racial microaggression happen. Have a conversation with that individual using the resources below.
Everyone:
2. Consider – what microaggressions have you experienced related to your identity? How did they feel? How do you wish to be perceived instead?
GET EDUCATED
Stories of microaggressions have been making the news as brave non-white people share their harmful experiences with others, oftentimes in work settings. But they're easy to overlook as more overt forms of racism dominate the news cycle. Today we're analyzing how microaggressions play a major role in interpersonal and systemic racism.
Microaggressions are defined as "the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership" (Blavity). Microaggressions can be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc, and any combination of these, too (remember our conversation on intersectionality), but we're centering this conversation on racial microaggressions.
For the sake of our non-white readers, I won't be listing any examples in this article, but you can read lists of examples on Vox, NYTimes, Psychology Today, Fortune, Teen Vogue, Buzzfeed, Instagram, and CNN. Read these and Google "examples of racial microaggressions" so you can see more. Do not reach out to a non-white person to give you examples of microaggressions.
Because of the word "micro," many people (read: non-white people) consider instances of microaggressions to be brief and relatively harmless. But there is nothing micro about microaggressions. Many psychologists refer to the impact of microaggressions as "death by a thousand papercuts" for those that experience them on a regular basis (NYTimes). If macroaggressions define more overt forms of racism (JSTOR), microaggressions are more accurately subvert acts, a way to undermine or corrupt someone, which makes them all the more sinister, especially when people use them intentionally to get away with racism in public settings.
The impact of microaggressions
But the impact of microaggressions is anything but small. In fact, studies have proved that the impact of microaggressions is almost as mentally and emotionally damaging as macroaggressions (full study here). Another study found that Black teenagers in the United States face microaggressions multiple times a day, most frequently online, which often leads to depression (Blavity).
It's difficult to isolate the impact of microaggressions alone on broader health outcomes. But in this fascinating article from NPR, psychologists look at correlations of various health indicators after more overt forms of racism on different populations throughout the world and find consistent data that indicates how damaging stressful, traumatic experiences can be (NPR). The aggregated impact of racism, from the systemic to interpersonal, is being referred to as a term called weathering, which refers to the way the constant stress of racism can lead to premature biological aging and worse health outcomes for Black people (SELF Magazine). Although microaggressions certainly play a part in weathering, we'll discuss weathering in full at a later date.
But remember, we don't need statistics to validate harm. Kevin Nadal, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, puts it simply: "At the end of the day if somebody says something racist to you, it's racist. And if it hurt your feelings, it hurt your feelings, so it doesn't really matter what we define it as" (NPR).
“[Microaggressions] really chip away at your self worth, and it’s harder because the instances seem so small.”
Avery Francis, HR Expert for the Independent
Addressing racial microaggressions
As conversations around race grow in offices and around dinner tables, microaggressions have more of a chance to come out of the shadows. But it puts non-white people in a difficult position. Not only do we have to reckon with the emotional impact of the microaggression itself, we have to choose how to respond– knowing our disadvantaged position in these scenarios. We have to consider how responding could further enforce false stereotypes about our race. We have to gauge whether we could be provoking more racial aggressions, even bodily harm. We also have to consider how staying silent will enforce this behavior in the future, and cause further suffering.
Resources for responding to racial microaggressions as a non-white person that highlight these considerations are available in the Harvard Business Review and Advancing Justice website.
With privilege comes the responsibility to intervene on behalf of someone harmed and address racist interactions directly. Derald Wing Sue, a psychology and education professor at Columbia University in New York City, offers a way for anti-racist allies to intervene during a microaggression in an interview with CNN.
Make the invisible, visible.
According to Sue, the perpetrator is often unaware of their actions. As an anti-racist ally, you must, at minimum, make sure they are aware of the harm they caused (CNN). Diane Goodman, a social justice and diversity consultant, offers this format in the NYTimes:
“I know you didn’t realize this, but when you __________ (comment/behavior), it was hurtful/offensive because___________. Instead you could___________ (different language or behavior.)”
Educate the perpetrator.
Ensure they understand that regardless of the intent of what they said, it's the impact of their words that matter (CNN).
Disarm the microaggression.
Move the conversation past a problematic to communicate that it's offensive. According to Sue, you'll be "modeling good behavior to other people present, and you can have a later conversation with the person about why his joke was inappropriate" (CNN).
"…if you're a person with privileged identities and you want to be a true ally, maybe you do have to do that homework. Maybe you do have to engage in those uncomfortable emotions because you know that it's your job and responsibility to have those conversations so that other people of color or women or LGBTQ folks won't have to have those conversations for you.'“
Kevin Nadal, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice for NPR
It's important as we do this work that we don't focus only on the blatant forms of racism. So much of macro systemic racism is reinforced by micro-actions, and racial microaggressions play a major part. As we do this work we must take accountability for microaggressions, and use our privilege to call them out however we can.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Racial microaggressions are common and brief and subvert forms of racism
The impact of racial microaggressions is as damaging as macroaggressions
Microaggressions contribute to the cumulative stress that non-white people experience as part of living with racism
It's important that we leverage our privilege to dismantle microaggressions in our workplaces and other social spaces
PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT
Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.
Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza