Race Reflections AT WORK

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...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on her relationship with social media. The way she has used social media in the past and transition she is making in how she uses it going forward, and the reasons she is changing how she uses Twitter (or X). She gives some context about what social media has meant for both her and for Race Reflections. She thinks about how Race Reflections began as a blog...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on her recent trip to the Congo. This topic was asked for when she polled people on twitter/x to find out what they wanted her to speak on for this episode. She begins with some context, first for her and then for the country and region in general. Covering how she was born in Bastille and grew up in inner city Paris and is of Congolese descent, specifical...

In this re-released episode first published  on 15th March 2021, Guilaine reflects on why institutions often turn on those who allege racism. She considers some of the group processes at play using as illustration the treatment of Meghan Markle and responses from that interview. Location of disturbance and scapegoating are presented as frames to formulate victimisation and retaliation within insti...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on consent, in relation to her research on whiteness, her lived experience, and the implications of this issue within the workplace She begins with a basic definition of consent, then she details some experiences related to going out dancing that she recently experienced, and links them to the wider issues that her research explores. Part of the theme that...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects around a listeners query asking "how do we get mangers to understand how biased they are when it comes to the feedback that they give to employees of colour."  After briefly questioning the terminology of bias and unconscious bias, she looks at the evidence from organisational psychology, considering how empirical evidence shows that marginalised...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the phenomenon and social dynamic of what has been called whitelash, a combination of white/whiteness and backlash.  The term was coined by African-American journalist Van Jones to describe the backlash of White America coming together to reject what had been seen as a liberalisation of the USA under Obama. And in a more general sense it describes the s...

In today's episode Guilaine continues to look forwards towards Race Reflections path in 2024 and beyond. She announces a future book that will be coming from Race Reflections, our first book as an organisation. That book is Surviving Whiteness at Work: reflections on defiance, resistance and transformation It will aim to describe the working of Whiteness in the workplace through the lived exp...

In today's episode Guilaine looks forwards towards Race Reflections path in 2024. She starts by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, followed by a brief reflection on global violence, specifically in Gaza and Congo, a topic she will return to in more detail in a future podcast later this year. Then she outlines what is planned and being developed for Race Reflections over the next 12 months: As...

In this re-released episode first published  on 4th April 2022,  we explore the relationship between podcasting and power, both how podcasting has replicated and interacted with existing power systems, and how it offers a radical space for marginalised voices to create freely without gatekeepers. We think about how The Podcast Industry has developed into just another industry/workplace incorporati...

In this re-released episode first published  on 21st February 2022, Guilaine reflects on the particular dynamic where a person with power reacts to accusations of structural harm by saying that they feel unsafe. She considers how affect and feelings are conditioned and shaped by social context, histories and structures, and how feelings can play a role in protecting and enforcing social (dis)order...

In today's episode Race Reflections' Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on workplace issues surrounding people's appearance, how appearance is policed, and how that relates to respectability politics and white supremacy. They first discuss how appearing Palestinian or showing solidarity with Palestine during the current genocide intersects with how people's appearances are pol...

In today's episode Guilaine takes us on a freeform reflection and roundup of her thinking and feeling in 2023. From the publication of her second book White Minds to the writing and collating of her third book Creative Disruption she shares her position as someone who doesn’t identify as an academic due to the violence she has experienced as a Black woman in academia and psychology (something...

In this re-released episode first published  on 5th July 2021 Guilaine takes the Tiktok trend of "white women fake crying" as a jumping-off point to consider a slightly different take on intersectionality in relation to white womanhood. She reflects on the reasons why black people and people of colour find these videos disturbing or triggering, and explore "toxic femininity" wh...

In today's episode Guilaine expands on her thinking around money which she has previously covered a little on the podcast and on the Race Reflections website. She specifically reflects on the relationship between money and attachment, considering internalised scarcity, social class and social deprivation, framing her thoughts around her own background and lived experience. This episode was in...

This episode of Race Reflections at Work is about managing anxiety with the help of holistic/ alternative approaches while at work/ in employment, as well as some suggestions TW: Admin, Comms and Engagement Lead Dionne talks about the triggers of anxiety while navigating spaces around her - often being the only minority. Resources to read:  https://www.rtor.org/2019/02/21/mental-health-and-chiropr...

In today's episode Guilaine explore and defines the concept of proximal ambivalence and proximal dynamics. She begins with the recent incident covered in the news that highlighted issues of anti-blackness within communities of colour, specifically in this context south asian communities in the UK. She reflects that whilst it's important to avoid overgeneralising it's also important...

This is re-released episode first published on 5th April 2021 hosted by Guilaine:  There are many challenges black leaders must contend with, that is for certain... In this episode we consider why black authority in the workplace continues to attract resistance, hostility and sometimes sabotage and reflect on some of the challenges of black leadership within white institutions. To do this, we make...

In this re-released episode first published on 1st March  2021 (our first ever episode) Guilaine reflects on what is racial trauma? How does it manifest in the workplace? She considers the distress that racism can cause in the workplace and explores the experience of Harvinder, a research assistant whose well-being becomes so adversely affected by his experience of discrimination and victimisation...

In today's episode Race Reflections' Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on the issues and experiences around disability, mental health and neurodivergence in the workplace. They begin by defining the terms/identities/concepts ableism, disablism, saneism, visible/invisible disability, mental illness, neurodivergence and intersectionality. Then they consider how many of these terms overla...

In this re-released episode first published on 2nd August 2021 we think about the dynamics at play in someone finding themselves in the role of being "The Black Advocate" (or any other position of advocating for marginalised groups) in the workplace.  Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your qu...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the relationship between racism, neurosis and envy. She begins by going over an earlier article she wrote which expanded on Fanon’s theories around these areas and considers neurosis in classic anaylytic theory defining it as phenomena/processes that occur when we can’t confront something in the world, or in ourselves, or in others, because it provokes...

In today's episode Race Reflections' Membership Engagement Coordinator Janedra Sykes talks about Whiteness and White Supremacy Culture as narcissism in (and outside) the workplace. She starts by reflecting on her personal experience in relations to this topic, how she came to consider racism through a public health lens and how her work on this takes Black women as her primary audience a...

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the new book she is writing: White Minds Pre-order: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds She considers the process of writing her second book, gives an overview of the book's focus and thinks about what she has learned about being a writer and author. She talks about how her writing style is difficult to define because it mixes t...

In today's episode Race Reflections' Associate Disruptor Simone reflects on the issues and experiences around being trans and/or non-binary within the workplace. They begin by defining the terms/identities/concepts of transgender, non-binary, cisgender and intersectionality. Then they look at how even before trans and non-binary people reach the workplace they have often experienced disc...