Being the Black Guy at work with White Women.

As I look around the room, I notice that I am the only person of color here. And I am the only man in the room. The place is full of white women and…me. This happens to me often, very often.

I recently heard a podcast on the topic of being a Black man in a work environment of mostly white women. The conversation discussed issues I've experienced first hand. In this conversation, Black men were talking about their experiences dealing with this. This conversation confirmed what I already knew. It was refreshing to hear others share their experience. Mainly because, for me, this was not a hypothetical situation. I've had first-hand experience of this dynamic. At times it has not gone well. There is a sense of solace knowing that other Black men have experienced it too. A link to the podcast is here, 

One of the main issues in this topic is the need to "cover. "Covering is a way of performing. Performing to try to fit in. Performing to overcome negative expectations of others or to perform to cover up one's own perceived inadequacies. We all do a version of this. However, if you are not a member of the dominant culture, you will have more work to do to fit in.

I found another piece of solace in the study they mentioned. The study involved writing samples given to law firms. The law firms received two writing samples. The samples were identical with one exception. One was identified as a white writer. The other was identified as a black writer. The writing examples had intentional writing errors in them. The perception from the law firms reviewing the samples was that the black writer was subpar to the white writer. Keep in mind the samples were precisely the same. It was also notable that this tendency to find more errors with the black applicants was not exclusive to white people. This presumption in this study of black inferiority and thus white superiority was among men, among women, along with people of color and among white people. This all reflects a clear bias, a bias that automatically sees the work of a white person as better than the work of a black person. 

I have felt this bias. The need to overcome this bias, to prove my worth has always been present in my life. I have always felt the need to show black excellence. This black excellence is necessary to be seen as equal to someone who is white. I'm glad the podcast mentioned this study. It confirms my experience. Bias like this has led to black people's accomplishments getting overlooked. I've seen work by black people get credited to others, who were white. I've seen mistakes exaggerated and gossiped about because of this bias. 

A link to the study is here.

These biased perceptions are difficult to overcome. It's hard to overcome them because the dominant culture sets the rules. Those in the dominant culture, mostly white people set the rules. They become the standard, the expectation in the workplace. So it's no surprise that someone from the dominant culture meets that expectation. If it is not from the prevailing culture, it is bound to appear as "less than" that from the dominant culture. Those thinking this way are often not aware of this. It almost doesn't matter how good someone's work is. The outsider may never fit in. Those dominant cultural expectations will always be there.

None of us, myself included, are immune from bias. Hearing these stories about bias makes me more aware of how it works. I have my own biases too. So, I've got work to do about questioning my assumptions. 

 Like the guest in the podcast, I'm used to being the only black person in the room. In my work, I'm sometimes the only man in the room. In this situation, women, almost always white women, are the dominant culture. They set the rules. Others must learn to adapt.

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