In today's episode Simone reflects on autism, neurodivergence and racism in relation to work.

They begin by talking about how and why they decided to cover this topic, reflecting on how they are autistic and work supporting autistic people, and how autistic and neurodivergent people are often unable to remain in employment or are unceremoniously fired. How these stories are systemic but are often carried as individual shame.

They remind us that neurodivergent is an umbrella term, autism is part of this umbrella but that the terms shouldn’t be used interchangeably. Then they explore a TikTok account by Professor Sol that summarises a variety of studies regarding autistic people: https://www.tiktok.com/@better_sol

They consider the statistics that only 16% of autistic people are employed. And that autistic employees face the biggest pay gap and are the most under employed group whilst being the most overqualified group of all disabled groups. Then they reflect on how in addition to this people who are not cisgender white men are often misdiagnosed/undiagnosed as not autistic because of the way that white autistic men are the stereotype associated with autism in the media and in general. They discuss how for multiply marginalised people self diagnosis and self advocacy is incredibly important and valid. And how the criteria developed and employed around autism is fed by white supremacy and white “western” ideas, and how self diagnosis is a way of reclaiming experience.

Then they think about how racism, classism, sexism and other systems of oppression exacerbate autistic people’s difficulties in workplaces and with employment. How this contributes to autistic burnout and autistic shutdown and seriously effects people's health. They look at the study "Intersectional Stigma for Autistic People at Work: A Compound Adverse Impact Effect on Labor Force Participation and Experiences of Belonging https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36777372/ 

One of the things highlighted in this study is how little research exists about autistic people at work because the majority of autistic people don’t work. They think about what “work” means within our current cultural moment and whether “work” works for any of us. The study found that white autistic people living in the global north are more likely to have jobs and to have jobs that are accommodating for autistic people, And that women, non binary and transgender people feel less included at work and that feeling that someone cares is more important than accommodations.

They conclude by talking about accommodations that can be made but also that there are larger systemic adjustments that need to be made, and that employers and workplaces need to be attuned to intersections of oppression, to be attuned to how autistic people are not to be cured, fixed or exploited. But that this is a tough conversation for autistic people to have because the stigma means that many people don’t feel safe to be openly autistic in their workplaces.

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In today's episode Guilaine reflects on White Liberals, and on her past inclination to take people straightforwardly based on the words they write and the face they present to the world. She considers how experiencing the duality and complexity of people presenting as anti-racist publicly who in their personal interactions reveal themselves to be anti-black, has led to her trying to be more cautious about her tendency to trust people.

She thinks about her lived experience, widens it out to consider how people can understand and even agree with the theory but fail consciously or unconsciously to enact the practice. And she also ties this duality to her own experiences visiting the Congo.

She concludes by considering how this duality and complexity impacts the workplace and encourages people, particularly in relation to tribunals, to remember and consider this when addressing issues around race where for example a white person accused of race discrimination may be presenting as polite, reasonable and an outstanding member of the community.

The episode "Reflections on a trip to the Congo" is referenced in this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/14947769

If you would like to send us a question, query or dilemma that we could reflect on and respond to on the show please email [email protected] or [email protected] 

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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 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 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

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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 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 this re-released episode first published  on 3rd May 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 [email protected]

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the upcoming new course: the certificate in working with racial trauma and race based injuries using the foundation of group analysis. And in particular she focuses some attention on the large group that is going to be focused on Whiteness at Work.

She starts by describing the focus of the course. It is the first in-depth course on racial trauma in the UK, unlike the other courses it is a year long rather than a few days. It’s an online, group based course that looks at racial trauma critically, holistically, in the main using the foundation of group analysis, psychoanalysis, psychology and neuroscience, but also seeking to attempt to interrogate the thinking and colonial logics that lie within these disciplines. It’s a course for everyone but particularly people who are placed in positions to help, support and manage people who are racialised as black and brown and who are experiencing race based issues, and who may be dealing with race based distress and/or racial trauma.

Then she gives some background in why she is running the course. It’s the outcome of professional and traditional doctoral studies, years of research around racial trauma as well as thinking about where we are in the world socio-politically in terms of global insecurity and racial retraumatisation, all of which resulted in Guilaine going being called from an African ontological and cosmological perspective to to create this course.

She then discusses the content of the course in general and focuses on the large group that looks at whiteness at work. The group on whiteness is a core component of the certificate, by whiteness we mean the operationalisation of the structure of White Supremacy, the stratification of life based on racialisation. The aim of the group is to create a space to come together as a community to think about whiteness and share and speak about what they experience. It will meet monthly online and will focus on the dynamics at play and how to resist them. 

She concludes by considering that the bulk of harm she has seen in her clinical work has been acquired within the workplace and how this means it is essential for people within the workplace to understand these patterns. She is offering the experience of being in a large group to people wanting to pursue group analysis as a therapeutic discipline but more than that a large group is likely to repeat and recreate some of the dynamics at play out within institutions and society. So it’s very useful and insightful for exploring these issues in a more contained and better held environment.

Interested in the course? More information can be found here: https://racereflections.co.uk/certificate-in-working-with-racial-trauma-and-race-based-injuries-using-the-foundation-of-group-analysis-fee-page/

and an opportunity to reserve a place can be found here: https://racereflections.co.uk/events/open-day-certificate-in-working-with-racial-trauma-and-race-based-injuries-using-the-foundation-of-group-analysis/

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To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email [email protected]