My Stories of Racism In The British Working World

This is an important blog for me. Many people all over social media are sharing their experiences with racism, racial microaggressions in the workplace or just in life and even incidents where they have had to diminish their blackness. For some of you, you may feel like these stories should be kept hidden. It’s the past, what’s done is done, move on but I will definitely have to disagree with you on this. Everyone has a right to share their heart, their loves and their pains on the Internet and I am going to do the same.

I have kept these stories in for too long and erased these workplaces off of my job history. Why? Because there’s no way I am going to allow my next opportunity to get a reference from someone who has shown racial microaggressions towards me or any form of racism. I will not allow their words to determine where my next step is accepted or not.

Telling my story on here is also the only way I want to share where I have experienced and witnessed racism in the workplace. Telling my story will let you see that racism exists in the workplace and in the recruitment process and it’s fundamental that it is weeded out. Here are my stories:

“Can you keep a secret?”

Workplace: Canaletto’s Restaurant in Chelsea Football Club

Chelsea Football Club was where I got my first job. I started as a waitress then moved into becoming a Back-of-House Assistant. I was 16 years old when I started and I was, honestly, very proud. I mean, it’s Chelsea Football Club! No-one had ever had a conversation with me about racism in the workplace, I had never heard of racial microaggressions or anything along those lines but when I witnessed racism for the first time at work, I was shocked and ultimately disgusted in how it was handled.

Let me get into my story.

*this is a preview of the full blog on my website. I do hope you enjoyed it. Do head over to jenniferopal.co via the link below to red the rest of my story.

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