Highly skilled Black African professionals report experiences of racial microaggressions at work are common and are expressed in a variety of ways. My recent study published in the British Journal of Social Work has found workplaces can be “battlegrounds for racism”.
Microaggressions are defined as:
Racial microaggressions in the workplace generally take covert or subtle forms, and may be conceptualised as “everyday” or “passive” racism that serve to invalidate or inferiorise the expertise of Black people while positioning white expertise as the standard of “best practice”.
I interviewed 27 Black African professional, most of whom held senior roles working in medicine, academia, nursing, teaching, banking and finance, IT, engineering and social work.
The participants reported feeling the workplace was a site of constant surveillance and scrutiny, where they were often assumed to be “out of place”.
Ongoing professional scrutiny and questioning
When participants were asked to describe their professional experiences in the workplace, including how their expertise was perceived (or responded to), many reported feeling like they were always viewed through a deficit lens. This contributed to their professional expertise being constantly scrutinised and questioned.
Wanjiru*, a senior nurse, reflected:
Mukisa, a medical doctor, said when he moved to a regional town, patients would ask not to be treated by him.
Nkandu, a senior accountant, reflected:
The patterns of racial microaggressions at work
John, a senior finance expert described how the subtleness of racial microaggressions contributes to the difficulty of “naming the problem.”
Unlike explicit racism, which is obvious and can be easily named, racial microaggressions are benign, hidden and implicit, and therefore harder to “call out” or decipher.
Sally, a microbiologist, said:
Vera, a senior social worker, spoke of being left out of workplace group activities, such as an instance when a card being signed for a colleague’s baby shower was passed to everybody except to her.
Microaggressions are also expressed when experienced and highly qualified people of colour are passed over for promotions or to backfill senior positions when an opportunity was present. Julie said:
Some reported having to contend with the assumption that Black people in senior positions are hired to fill a “diversity quota”, not due to their qualifications and expertise. Awinja recalled an instance where she and a colleague of colour were told by a Caucasian colleague:
The assumption is that their employment is an undeserved favour and not one that has been earned through merit.
As soon as they hear you speak’
Microaggressions are also enacted on accents, whereby African accents are considered undesirable in the workplace. The inability to speak colloquial Australian English often disadvantages them because racial stereotypes can summoned through speech.
Banji, a senior academic, reported instances in which:
Accent discrimination is a well-documented phenomenon that closes economic doors – especially for immigrants of colour, where English is not their first language.
The race-free workplace?
Findings from this study reveal the often-accepted narrative of “race-free” workplaces is not supported by many Black African immigrants who report constant, subtle, and covert patterns of racial microaggressions in the workplace.
In their paper Blackness as Burden? The Lived Experience of Black Africans in Australia, researchers Virginia Mapedzahama and Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo wrote that, for Black people in Australia:
This study, which revealed many Black African professionals experience the workplace as a battleground for covert and overt racism, builds on a growing body of research suggesting race complicates the professional identities of Black professionals in Australia – in ways not experienced by their white colleagues.
*Names and identifying features in this article have been changed to protect anonymity.