Effects of White Supremacy Culture in The Workplace: Part 1
Creator: Jacquelyn Martin Credit: AP
Talk to nearly any Black woman who has worked in the modern workplace, and you will hear some similarities in our stories: moved goalposts, double standards, daily microaggressions, constant questioning of our qualifications and experience. More conservative analysts would say that perhaps Black women and other marginalized folks are exaggerating or making things up, or perhaps we were the problem.
But one thing I know for sure, is that none of us are imagining the ways that racism, sexism, misogyny, and other forms of systemic oppression have negatively impacted our experiences in the workplace. Some of us have switched industries, left roles, or even built our own consulting practices due to what we have experienced as Black women working in white-led or white-centered organizational cultures.
You can look at any window of time within the last 50 years, and see very clearly how systemic oppression is a feature in the workplace, and not a bug. In fact, the presence and practice of white supremacy culture is the biggest roadblock to the success and wellness of Black women in every industry in the American work place.
Before I get into specific examples, I want to define exactly what white supremacy culture is. The term was coined in 1999, in a paper written by Tema Okun with input and inspiration from her teacher, Kenneth Jones. At its core, Okun writes, White Supremacy Culture “teaches us both overtly and covertly that whiteness holds value, whiteness is value.”
The combination of racism and sexism Black women face at work are directly related to many of the White Supremacy Culture’s main characteristics. Black women who are more senior in their careers and have the resume and expertise to prove that they are more than qualified for executive management roles. However, they are often encountered by their white counterparts with being asked to prove that they belong in leadership.
Many of us witnessed this phenomenon during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, where Republican Senator Ted Cruz implied that her race, and not her impressive experience and intelligence, is what granted her success and even her admission into Harvard. Additionally, there is additional effort used to exclude Black women from the table which are explained away with “conflicts of interest” and claims of being “overqualified.
The same treatment is not given to white men in senior positions, whose credentials are often taken at face value with not nearly the same amount of vetting. Black women are often encouraged to partner on projects with or be vouched for by white colleagues to be seen as less intimidating or, even worse, more palatable and easier to manage by decision makers.
My kids have slowly turned me into a Taylor Swift fan, and one of my favorite songs by her is “The Man,” where Taylor envisions how differently she would be treated as a celebrity and as an artist if she were a man:
I'm so sick of running as fast as I can Wondering if I'd get there quicker If I was a man
Similar to Taylor, I have reflected on how my career as a Black woman would be easier or even more successful if I was a mediocre white man. For one, my talent would be taken at face value—I certainly wouldn’t have to go through unnecessary vetting and litmus tests. I’d have the room for growth, improvement over time, and fewer consequences for mistakes or failures.
A major characteristic of white supremacy culture is perfectionism: that there is one right way to do something, including being a leader in an organization. People of color in general and Black women in particular become victims of this characteristic, in which making a mistake in the work place is both handled and interpreted as the Black woman tasked with the job being a mistake.
Thus, many Black women enter and remain in the workplace with the pressure and mentality and that if one of us fails, then we all do, and none of us will be given a leadership opportunity again. On the other hand, white men are givin an abundance of chances to fail, to make things worse, and even to capsize entire business models. They are often assumed to be effective leaders on the strength of their identities as white and male, regardless of a lack of experience or talent. And this is why the phrase “have the courage of a mediocre white man” exists.
Lastly, I’d never have worry about being “too aggressive” or sounding too angry at a meeting when I am simply stating my opinion or giving feedback on a project. White men get the privilege of being able to voice their concerns without being tone policed or gaslit into thinking they are overreacting. This links directly to another characteristic of white supremacy: the right to comfort.
Black women in the workplace are supposed to make their white counterparts comfortable, first and foremost, and holding back on speaking up when there needs to be a different approach to a project or finding a solution to a challenge gives white managers and decision-makers the comfort they believe they are owed. My advice to Black women: don’t make them comfortable. Be the first to speak up. Take up space.
White supremacy culture’s major function is to keep White people in a position of power, and to maintain that power by exploiting the work, talent, and resources that people of the global majority bring to the workplace and other institutions. White decision makers who want to address white supremacy culture’s influence on their organizational culture must folks acknowledge their own fear of losing power, and let go of it in order to address inequity, racism, and sexism. It is only then that Black women will have the space within these structures to lead authentically, with no one holding them back.
