No REALLY… How are your BPOC staff actually doing? Bernie #Unmutes & gives a black woman's perspective

We are delighted that Bernadette Albert is on #Unmute on International Women's Day. The wellbeing of BPOC staff is critical and needs to be acknowledged.

As many organisations work towards embedding diversity, equality, and inclusion in everything they do, it seems easily forgotten that black and people of colour (BPOC) come to work dealing with more than just the daily grind. They are also faced with dealing with spaces that “other” them and having to navigate these places where they feel they don’t belong.

Our mental health and wellbeing is affected on a daily basis. This can be affected by our lived reality, what is in the news, how we are perceived and the consistent need to be activists in our communities, our homes and in our workplaces. In addition to sometimes being infuriating and at the very least, frustrating, most of all, it is mentally and emotionally exhausting. Maybe this frustration is why I might be perceived as an "angry black woman" when I am witness to unjust situations and demand an explanation and that it be rectified!

As a BPOC woman, I do not have the luxury to simply walk into work and get on with my job. Increasingly, I am also required, whether passively or actively (I suppose the choice is mine) to advocate for equality, inclusion, and social justice on a daily basis for myself, my students and for my colleagues.

Some of the things I have to navigate in order to be a functioning and contributing team member in the current environment is to always strive to personally be better; more competent; more diplomatic in my responses; to be assertive but non-threatening; to be good but not too good to make others look bad; being vocal but not too loud; to be in the room but not at the table; be opinionated, as long as my opinions are not too disparate from my white colleagues and also to be the face of diversity (often as the “token” black) but not the face of diverse experiences or opinions. Essentially, it is expected that I am part of the solution to a problem, that according to the latest Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report, it is a problem that doesn’t exist! Did somebody say "BAME?"

Only a year ago, BPOC had to digest the “news” that the UK is not racist, that colonialism is in the past and should stay there- as of course, it is just history. Also they contended that Critical Race Theory is not a real theoretic position; that white privilege is not a thing (because obviously, there are lots of poor white people too); that my daily encounters with racism in my lived experiences are just a figment of my imagination and that if these experiences are real, they are not as bad as I say they are.

Within the field of psychology, I am sure the assertion that “there is little racism in the UK,” falls within the framework of gaslighting (funny - but not actually funny...I am being gaslighted by the establishment!). With all of this, I am still expected to show up to work and produce. I get no additional acknowledgment for this extra burden I carry, for the advocacy work I engage in (in addition to my regular responsibilities) or the additional impact it may have on my mental health and wellbeing. No one ever asks, “How are you coping and dealing with everything going on with you mentally/socially?" Or "How can we as an employer support you better?”

The murder of another black man in the US - this time Duante Wright, or the impact of the George Floyd’s trial after the trauma of his death (these modern-day lynching's are widely available to view on social media) are all very harrowing encounters that force BPOC people - particularly black ones - to assess our own mortality or the part we may play in our own survival. Though I understand the concept of “due process” and being “innocent until proven guilty,” it’s ridiculous to think that there is even a need to have a trial to consider the fate of a white officer, who we all saw clearly, murdered a black man on camera and in full view of witnesses who urged him to stop and was recorded and broadcast live for the world to see. It is all available on our mobile phones and to hear a legal defence team try to explain it away, could almost be considered comical, except it isn't!

With terms like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) used to characterise the mental impact of trauma on those who have experienced it... I wonder, what is trauma called if it is consistent and relentless and perhaps, is permanently there- centred around a person’s blackness and is triggered on a daily, weekly or monthly basis?

CRST perhaps? Continuous Racist Stress Trauma?

To think that this CRST is not recognised, acknowledged and doesn’t even have a name but clearly is a thing, is concerning. How on earth do BPOC continue to live with these experiences, and it not traumatise them? It is simple... it is what we have come to accept as black people. So, we cope, we flex and we try to adapt. We are taught from a very early age that this feeling is normal. That our lived experience is normal and that that is just the life of a black person. We are told that we need to "suck it up and don’t complain," for fear that we are considered difficult, weak, or unable to cope at work. I am sure I have seen/heard numerous mental health and wellbeing campaigns that say that "stress kills." No wonder then our life expectancy is ranked lower than your average person!

So, on to the big questions that you as an employer should start to consider.

? How do you “check in” with your BPOC staff members to see how the “extra stuff” or just their daily struggle of waking up black affects them and what that means as an impact on their wellbeing?

? What are you doing to address the racism that your BPOC staff are dealing with both inside and outside of work?

? How do you create environments that do not “other” your BPOC staff?

? What expectations do you have of your BPOC staff that you may not have of your other staff that puts additional pressure on them to produce?

? How do you provide them with culturally competent support to their mental health and wellbeing in light of the socially sensitive issues that they may be experiencing?

? How do you acknowledge that sometimes the barriers BPOC experience do exist-whether others choose to see them or not?

? How does your organisation deal with “intent versus impact” and give your BPOC staff the confidence and safe spaces to voice their opinions on this? Even though perpetrator(s) will try to minimise their transgressions by saying they "didn't mean" whatever is said or done to be taken the way it was received, they have to realise their actions can hurt- intentionally or not.

Your BPOC staff are not asking for anything earth shatteringly difficult here. We are asking for equal acknowledgment and sensitivity that if, for example another black man is shot dead by Government officials for no reason (whether in the US or anywhere in the world) or that a report comes out to say our lived experiences are a figment of our imagination; we only ask that the same level of consideration (that would be given to other colleagues dealing with other socially sensitive issues while at work) is given to us.

If you need additional support or need to provide support for your staff in this area, contact Include Me and we can help you.?

www.include-me.com | [email protected]