Resources to help me understand white supremacy in "professionalism"
August 22, 2022 8:38 AM Subscribe
Can anyone point me to resources that will help me understand how to help undo white supremacy that is baked into U.S. culture of "professionalism"?
This is a hot topic at my organization of employment, and I would like to learn more and better understand.
I understand conceptually how white supremacy is baked into the system (I wrote a dissertation grounded in theories of structural violence), and I think that our organization has made huge strides in recognizing this and making changes. However, we are still grappling with things like deadlines and dress codes.
The people who say that these things are racist/white supremecist don't say how or why, and I know it's not their job to teach me -- but I also cannot find anything online that does more than state that these things are steeped in white supremacy. I accept, for example, the premise that the professional dress code reinforces white supremacy, but I also at the same time don't really understand why, nor do I know how to craft a dress code that everyone can accept because no one will name what is right or wrong with telling people, for example, that a skirt is too short for work -- unless the very idea that a skirt length would be too short is racist -- and then I struggle to see how it's racist if it applies to everyone universally.
I'm looking for references to books/articles I can read but also suggest to others to help them learn more. If you are going to name those things here, thank you, but I also need resources I can bring my colleagues other than "archimago from Metafilter said . . ."
This is a hot topic at my organization of employment, and I would like to learn more and better understand.
I understand conceptually how white supremacy is baked into the system (I wrote a dissertation grounded in theories of structural violence), and I think that our organization has made huge strides in recognizing this and making changes. However, we are still grappling with things like deadlines and dress codes.
The people who say that these things are racist/white supremecist don't say how or why, and I know it's not their job to teach me -- but I also cannot find anything online that does more than state that these things are steeped in white supremacy. I accept, for example, the premise that the professional dress code reinforces white supremacy, but I also at the same time don't really understand why, nor do I know how to craft a dress code that everyone can accept because no one will name what is right or wrong with telling people, for example, that a skirt is too short for work -- unless the very idea that a skirt length would be too short is racist -- and then I struggle to see how it's racist if it applies to everyone universally.
I'm looking for references to books/articles I can read but also suggest to others to help them learn more. If you are going to name those things here, thank you, but I also need resources I can bring my colleagues other than "archimago from Metafilter said . . ."
This article and the references it uses might be useful to you.
Also: I think you really need to bring in at least one POC to help create inclusive standards and dress codes.
posted by yellowcandy at 8:45 AM on August 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
Also: I think you really need to bring in at least one POC to help create inclusive standards and dress codes.
posted by yellowcandy at 8:45 AM on August 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
This article mentions several examples, including speaking standard English, not showing emotion, etc.
posted by pinochiette at 9:14 AM on August 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by pinochiette at 9:14 AM on August 22, 2022 [4 favorites]
AnswerLab: redefining "professionalism"
Research illuminating ways that white supremacy culture may be expressed in the remote workplace to provide tools and guidelines to help allies move forward with cultural workplace change.UCLA Law Review: Professionalism as a Racial Construct
This Essay examines professionalism as a tool to subjugate people of color in the legal field. ...posted by virago at 9:14 AM on August 22, 2022 [5 favorites]
This Essay examines three main aspects of legal professionalism: (1) threshold to withstand bias and discrimination, (2) selective offense, and (3) the reasonable person standard. Each Subpart starts with a day in my life as an attorney to illustrate how these elements play out. The final section details ways to disrupt professionalism as a racial construct.
Here's an overview from Aysa Gray in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, which talks (briefly) about the many ways racism is expressed under the guise of professionalism (with lots of links to other resources). Here's a more personal (and very powerful) essay by Leah Goodridge in the UCLA Law Review that focuses on white supremacy & professionalism in the legal field.
Reading between the lines, it sounds like you've encountered or are expecting pushback in this effort ("I need resources I can bring my colleagues"). If that's the case, it might end up that no number of published resources will be sufficient, and you'll have to fight against perfectionism as another expression of white supremacy in the workplace. Here's an article about that by Delvin Edmond in Answerlab.
posted by miles per flower at 9:34 AM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
Reading between the lines, it sounds like you've encountered or are expecting pushback in this effort ("I need resources I can bring my colleagues"). If that's the case, it might end up that no number of published resources will be sufficient, and you'll have to fight against perfectionism as another expression of white supremacy in the workplace. Here's an article about that by Delvin Edmond in Answerlab.
posted by miles per flower at 9:34 AM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
Would it help to start from the organization's mission, and build up from there? The mission is accomplished through defining projects, goals, deliverables, teams, and roles. This requires communication, cooperation, and shared timeframes.
Also consider the constraints: budget, time, and the fact that team members aren't always the same: life happens, and people come and go. Each of your procedures and standards can be linked back to the mission.
If you start with a diverse committee, and do a few rounds of community feedback, that might get you to a workable common ground.
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:08 AM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
Also consider the constraints: budget, time, and the fact that team members aren't always the same: life happens, and people come and go. Each of your procedures and standards can be linked back to the mission.
If you start with a diverse committee, and do a few rounds of community feedback, that might get you to a workable common ground.
posted by dum spiro spero at 11:08 AM on August 22, 2022 [3 favorites]
Best answer: I found Tema Okun’s 1999 essay on White Supremacy Culture [pdf] very useful. There is now a web site that expands on the original article.
posted by mbrubeck at 11:25 AM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by mbrubeck at 11:25 AM on August 22, 2022 [2 favorites]
Seconding the article that piniochiette mentions--my organization uses it as part of our training.
posted by box at 12:44 PM on August 22, 2022
posted by box at 12:44 PM on August 22, 2022
I struggle to see how it's racist if it applies to everyone universally.It’s important to note that rules like dress codes are never enforced equally, in practice.
posted by mbrubeck at 12:47 PM on August 22, 2022 [20 favorites]
Some of this, too, is because "professionalism" is just a vague term. How would you measure if someone were "professional"? Is there a percentage of "professional" that's acceptable to be? How would you convey that, in an equitable way, to everyone in the organization?
Because it's so vague, it's generally used as a way to dismiss people who fall outside accepted cultural norms and to praise people who do, often for characteristics that are outside, or mostly outside, their control (like their hair texture or body type). Or to insist on practices for the sake of insisting on practices, rather than because they're necessary (like many deadlines).
posted by lapis at 2:22 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
Because it's so vague, it's generally used as a way to dismiss people who fall outside accepted cultural norms and to praise people who do, often for characteristics that are outside, or mostly outside, their control (like their hair texture or body type). Or to insist on practices for the sake of insisting on practices, rather than because they're necessary (like many deadlines).
posted by lapis at 2:22 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you type in "professionalism + race" or "dress code + racist" a lot of sources come up.
Skirt lengths and cleavage restrictions can be racist because they penalize curvy bodies. So for instance, many Black and Latinx women find that they're sexualized in a skirt suit simply because they have an hourglass figure, large breasts, or a curvy butt. Button-down shirts may gape and pull over large breasts where they hang flat on small breasts. This is also true for white or Asian women's bodies but Black and Latinx women are usually stereotyped as hypersexed so their clothing is coded as "sexy" rather than, perhaps, just "ill-fitting". It ties into fatphobia's root as fear of Black women's bodies.
Black hair is also often deemed "unprofessional", as are certain jewellery and nail polish styles that are a part of Black culture. And it goes beyond workplaces - have you ever seen a nightclub with a sign saying "no ball caps, no sneakers, no low pants"? What that sign is actually saying is "whites only". Not that Black people never dress in high pants or dress shoes or whatever, of course they do. But think about who that sign is intending to exclude.
It's important to read between the lines a little. Like all racism, there's a level of "plausible deniability" at play, because it's considered uncouth to be outright racist, so you have to find "approved" ways to pretend it's a "fair rule". Nobody SAYS "I'm racist so I don't rent to ___". Instead, they find ways to convince others, or even themselves, that it's because of some "justified reason".
The thing is, these rules are NOT enforced fairly, so even if they pretend to be not about race or class or gender or whatever, they are consistently used to enforce norms and preferences of race or class or gender or whatever. Nobody runs around measuring everyone's skirt length; only some people's skirts count as too short. Subjective rules like dress codes (and busted headlights, loitering laws, weed on the street, bus fare ticket checks, etc) are weaponized by racist authority figures against "undesirables" they want to oust.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:53 PM on August 22, 2022 [17 favorites]
Skirt lengths and cleavage restrictions can be racist because they penalize curvy bodies. So for instance, many Black and Latinx women find that they're sexualized in a skirt suit simply because they have an hourglass figure, large breasts, or a curvy butt. Button-down shirts may gape and pull over large breasts where they hang flat on small breasts. This is also true for white or Asian women's bodies but Black and Latinx women are usually stereotyped as hypersexed so their clothing is coded as "sexy" rather than, perhaps, just "ill-fitting". It ties into fatphobia's root as fear of Black women's bodies.
Black hair is also often deemed "unprofessional", as are certain jewellery and nail polish styles that are a part of Black culture. And it goes beyond workplaces - have you ever seen a nightclub with a sign saying "no ball caps, no sneakers, no low pants"? What that sign is actually saying is "whites only". Not that Black people never dress in high pants or dress shoes or whatever, of course they do. But think about who that sign is intending to exclude.
It's important to read between the lines a little. Like all racism, there's a level of "plausible deniability" at play, because it's considered uncouth to be outright racist, so you have to find "approved" ways to pretend it's a "fair rule". Nobody SAYS "I'm racist so I don't rent to ___". Instead, they find ways to convince others, or even themselves, that it's because of some "justified reason".
The thing is, these rules are NOT enforced fairly, so even if they pretend to be not about race or class or gender or whatever, they are consistently used to enforce norms and preferences of race or class or gender or whatever. Nobody runs around measuring everyone's skirt length; only some people's skirts count as too short. Subjective rules like dress codes (and busted headlights, loitering laws, weed on the street, bus fare ticket checks, etc) are weaponized by racist authority figures against "undesirables" they want to oust.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 2:53 PM on August 22, 2022 [17 favorites]
>bring in at least one POC
1. Be careful with this "POC" or "BIPOC" generalizing. Racist dress codes are not leveraged against many "POC"s, like East and South Asians, for instance. They're leveraged against Black and sometimes Latinx people. So a "POC" who isn't Black likely has nothing to contribute to the conversation and may well be anti-Black themselves. "POC" is not an interchangeable term with "Black".
2. One BIPOC in the workplace is a token whose job is in jeopardy. "Bringing in" a POC isn't the solution here. Hiring a consulting firm helmed by Black women would be a more appropriate solution. (Black women are the ones against whom these dress codes and hair expectations are usually levied, and their experience can encompass that of Black men whose hair or clothing are also judged unfairly)
Before anyone flags / deletes my comments in this thread, please consider how this thread would go if it were about gender and white women were commenting with exasperated smackdowns at the racism in some of these comments. They'd get a flurry of likes; by contrast I'll likely be flagged and deleted. Because "dress codes" aren't enforced equally.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 3:03 PM on August 22, 2022 [18 favorites]
1. Be careful with this "POC" or "BIPOC" generalizing. Racist dress codes are not leveraged against many "POC"s, like East and South Asians, for instance. They're leveraged against Black and sometimes Latinx people. So a "POC" who isn't Black likely has nothing to contribute to the conversation and may well be anti-Black themselves. "POC" is not an interchangeable term with "Black".
2. One BIPOC in the workplace is a token whose job is in jeopardy. "Bringing in" a POC isn't the solution here. Hiring a consulting firm helmed by Black women would be a more appropriate solution. (Black women are the ones against whom these dress codes and hair expectations are usually levied, and their experience can encompass that of Black men whose hair or clothing are also judged unfairly)
Before anyone flags / deletes my comments in this thread, please consider how this thread would go if it were about gender and white women were commenting with exasperated smackdowns at the racism in some of these comments. They'd get a flurry of likes; by contrast I'll likely be flagged and deleted. Because "dress codes" aren't enforced equally.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 3:03 PM on August 22, 2022 [18 favorites]
Here is an example of a white supremacist dress code - a young Indigenous man had to cut his long hair to be accepted into commercial pilot training. I don't believe female pilots of any race have to do the same.
posted by Tamanna at 7:27 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Tamanna at 7:27 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
I suggest the book ‘Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights’ by Kenji Yoshino.
“Against conventional understanding, Kenji Yoshino argues that the work of American civil rights law will not be complete until it attends to the harms of coerced conformity. Though we have come to some consensus against penalizing people for differences based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, and disability, we still routinely deny equal treatment to people who refuse to downplay differences along these lines.” It’s part memoir and very readable.
posted by bq at 9:49 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
“Against conventional understanding, Kenji Yoshino argues that the work of American civil rights law will not be complete until it attends to the harms of coerced conformity. Though we have come to some consensus against penalizing people for differences based on race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, and disability, we still routinely deny equal treatment to people who refuse to downplay differences along these lines.” It’s part memoir and very readable.
posted by bq at 9:49 PM on August 22, 2022 [1 favorite]
I struggle to see how it's racist if it applies to everyone universally
The trick to this, and related problems (eg is it sexist, homophobic, transphobic, if it applies to everyone universally) is to recognise that everyone should be equal but that does not mean everyone is the same. If your dress code requires straight hair, then it is racist. If your dress code requires men to have a certain hair length, then it is probably racist. Rules about hair in particular are likely to be racist, specifically against Black people. If your dress code requires clothes that do not fit well on some types of bodies then it is likely to be racist (or sexist or both) because body shape is correlated with race. Some rules that relate to gender presentation can be racist, even though they are more about enforcing a gender binary (which is unhelpful in and of itself). In Europe, racist dress codes tend to be relatively less targeted against Black people than in the US and relatively more targeted against Muslim people. An example might be requiring women to wear skirt suits and saying that ankle length skirts are 'unprofessional'.
If people are arguing back, however, I might as a tactic choose to describe something as 'unfair'. Particularly if my goal is to get it changed rather than to educate people about white supremacy culture in general. I have found some people more amenable to fairness arguments.
posted by plonkee at 5:47 AM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
The trick to this, and related problems (eg is it sexist, homophobic, transphobic, if it applies to everyone universally) is to recognise that everyone should be equal but that does not mean everyone is the same. If your dress code requires straight hair, then it is racist. If your dress code requires men to have a certain hair length, then it is probably racist. Rules about hair in particular are likely to be racist, specifically against Black people. If your dress code requires clothes that do not fit well on some types of bodies then it is likely to be racist (or sexist or both) because body shape is correlated with race. Some rules that relate to gender presentation can be racist, even though they are more about enforcing a gender binary (which is unhelpful in and of itself). In Europe, racist dress codes tend to be relatively less targeted against Black people than in the US and relatively more targeted against Muslim people. An example might be requiring women to wear skirt suits and saying that ankle length skirts are 'unprofessional'.
If people are arguing back, however, I might as a tactic choose to describe something as 'unfair'. Particularly if my goal is to get it changed rather than to educate people about white supremacy culture in general. I have found some people more amenable to fairness arguments.
posted by plonkee at 5:47 AM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
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