NAVIGATING WHITE SPACES

How to Survive and Thrive by
Raphael Sofoluke

navigate

/ʹnavɪgeɪt/

verb

1. plan and direct the course of a ship, aircraft, or other form of transportation, especially by using instruments or maps

2. sail or travel over (a stretch of water or terrain), especially carefully or with difficulty

References to white spaces are alluded to as circles predominantly excluding those from other ethnic minority groups, often presenting themselves in business and professional settings like the workplace.

As the above definitions highlight, navigation becomes more difficult in choppier conditions, and it reflects well the task that a Black professional may face when “navigating white spaces.” Black professionals often have to “plan and direct the course of their ship”—the ship being their career, and the instruments or maps being the behaviors they must exhibit to successfully navigate the terrain or landscape. The second definition emphasizes “carefully or with difficulty,” a great reminder to us all that, often, navigating white spaces has to be done with caution, in doing so making it an arduous task for the many Black professionals within the space.

Growing up in Surrey Quays and Bermondsey, I knew all too well what it was like to exist in predominantly white spaces. In elementary school, between the ages of 7 to 11, I was one of four Black boys in a class of 30, along with one Black girl. In middle school, I saw more Black people in my year, but it was still not as many as would be expected. However, it was at high school and college where I felt like I could network and liaise with a larger number of Black students and not feel like “the only one in the room”—a term often used by Black professionals feeling alone in white spaces. After I left university and started my career, the realization that the corporate world is a “white man’s world”—an idiom describing the prominence of white faces in the office and professional spaces—dawned on me very quickly.

One instance that has made an indelible mark on my memory is one of a former colleague who changed her name on her resume from Tolu, her traditional African name, to Tallulah. On making this change, she received callbacks within days from the same companies who had not given responses to her application months previously, when she had used her real name. Now maybe it was a coincidence, and maybe the companies just didn’t have vacancies when she applied under the name Tolu, but when it’s three or four companies who have previously not responded, it starts to look a bit peculiar.

Interview processes are fascinating. When you think about it, you’re competing against people that you don’t know, nor do you know how smart they are or how well their interpersonal skills are. In spite of this lack of knowledge, the aim is always to outperform them. Whenever I talk about the term “twice as hard,” I always explain my belief that the only way for me to get a job is to prepare twice as much as anyone else. I have always held a notion that preoccupies my mind, which is that if at some stage my interviewer has to decide between two candidates, myself, a Black man, and another candidate, a white person, the interviewer is more likely to choose the latter.

This is not to say that overt racism is always the reason for such an occurrence, but naturally people tend to gravitate to others who remind them of themselves. This can have a negative effect when the basis of hiring decisions should come from a pure assessment of ability and capability, but rather are mixed with added subconscious bias.

By preparing myself extremely well for interviews, even if there was potential that they might relate more to the other candidates, I would make sure I was so good that the interviewer would have no other choice but to hire me.

Now I know this chapter is about navigating white spaces and the struggles actually within those environments, but it’s equally as important to highlight the challenge of actually getting into these spaces. With so much unconscious bias; lack of support from senior leaders; and unfair interview processes, which might often be carried out by white middle-aged men, the barriers to entry for Black professionals into any white spaces are somewhat limited.

Gillian B. White in The Atlantic states that “There’s data that demonstrates the unfortunate reality: Black workers receive extra scrutiny from bosses, which can lead to worse performance reviews, lower wages, and even job loss.”¹ We hear a lot about being your “authentic self” at work, yet with the added pressure on Black employees to simply stay in their job, it’s hardly surprising many Black professionals don’t feel like they can be truly real at work.

The article further states that “employers invest more heavily in monitoring Black employees, this could be everything from instructing supervisors to closely watch a new hire, or more directly monitoring job performance.”² Because Black workers are more closely scrutinized than their non-Black counterparts, the chances that error, whether large or small, will be caught and magnified by employers increases.

Research shows that it’s more likely that a Black employee would be fired for minor errors than a white employee.³ With the margin of errors being much smaller for Black professionals than their white counterparts, it is no surprise that there are not many Black professionals at senior-level positions in companies in the United States and UK.

Looking back at my own career, something that I always remember was when a former white manager of mine who hired me said: “When you started at the same time as Chris (a white man), we really thought he would be the better one out of the two of you.” He didn’t offer any further explanation and, thinking about it now, maybe I should have pressed him for one. Nonetheless, one thing I did know was that Chris was a white, posh male with blonde hair, and he spoke exceptionally well. What wasn’t exceptional though was Chris’s work rate—he sat next to me and would watch Suits all day.

Chris had been at the company for six months and had not made a single sale, and I would always wonder if I would have been given the same amount of time to deliver on my targets. Probably not.

We spoke with Shellye Archambeau, Fortune 500 board member, advisor, author, and former CEO of MetricStream. Shellye is an experienced CEO with a fantastic track record of accomplishments building brands, high-performance teams, and organizations. As a Black woman who is a board member at four companies in one of the most underrepresented sectors in the world (technology), Shellye is well placed to be able to accurately share her insight into the challenges of navigating white spaces.

Shellye spoke of her experience of how she made her voice heard among predominantly white males in her industry. “So when I first started serving on boards, not only was I the only Black person, I was the youngest by probably a decade,” she says. “I got my first public board seat at 42 years old, so I was pretty young. I show up, the youngest, Black, and a woman, and, initially I did feel that I wasn’t necessarily being heard, and so I drafted allies to help me.”

Allyship and finding allies is something we will delve deeper into in Chapter 8, but the definition of “allies” in the context I’ll be using it here is generally to describe someone from another race who is supportive of your goals and uses their position of privilege to vouch for and help you in ways in which you are unable to do for yourself.

Shellye tells us that she drafted allies and utilized them in meetings when she had something really pertinent to say. She would reach out to one of her allies on the board prior to meetings and say, “Hey, based on what’s going on, I’m planning on raising these points in the meeting. What do you think?” If her ally believed it was a good idea, she would say, “Great. When I say it in a meeting, if you would just reinforce it, I’d appreciate it.”

Shellye did this a few times and, after a while, people listened to her because they believed in her work, not just because it was being co-signed by one of her white allies.

The majority of the time, it’s not that you don’t have good ideas or solutions—it’s just that sometimes people are used to listening to a certain type of person, maybe with a certain type of voice. Shellye told us that to navigate white spaces, you have to learn how to communicate in different environments, as different cultures listen differently.

The Muller-Lyer Illusion,⁴ Figure-Ground Perception,⁵ and Dynamic Decision Making⁶ are three models that explain how mental, and sometimes emotional, processes that happen within a certain culture are influenced by the experiences we have living in a specific cultural environment. Therefore, although we think we make unbiased decisions, it is in fact cultural experience stored in our brain that makes the decisions. We may not be aware of it, but cultural influences shape how we see the world, the decisions we make, how we approach problems, and how we solve them.⁷ Shellye’s understanding of these concepts helped her become a force to be reckoned with in her industry.

Mathew Knowles also shared similar views, and referencing his book The DNA of Achievers,⁸ explains that he has looked into the exercise of navigating white spaces; “There is a cultural difference between Black people and white people. How we approach critical thinking is different, and being around white people at a young age allowed me to understand their communication process and the way that they critically think, which helped me and taught me to navigate corporate America.”⁹

When we spoke with Trevor Nelson about the highlights of his career, he explained how his personality was key to navigating white spaces. He also speaks about how he continues to be a success in a predominantly white industry: “I think your personality is so key to this. There are some genius Black businesspeople who don’t have social skills. If you’re a white genius and you don’t have social skills, you can probably still make it, but it’s more difficult if you are Black. I have a big personality, which is everything, and if I didn’t have it, I think work would be very tough for me.”

As an entrepreneur, you may not be working in predominantly white spaces, but it is still very likely that those you might need to engage with externally, such as other companies, partners, banks, or other institutions, are more likely to have majority white representation than not. Sadly, the reality is that the corporate world is a white one, and whether you are a working professional or entrepreneur, it is essential to learn the skills to navigate these spaces.

There are many challenges that come with navigating these spaces, but in this chapter, we hope to give you some practical advice about how to do it while also addressing many of the problems. If you are a non-Black person reading this, I hope this chapter opens your mind up to the many struggles your Black colleagues and Black entrepreneurs encounter while at work or in the business world.

Challenging Stereotypes

According to the Harvard Business Review, challenging stereotypes threatens people’s status and relationships with supervisors and co-workers.⁹ Speaking up has also been directly related to negative performance evaluation, undesirable job assignments, and even job termination.¹⁰ Not only is it difficult to speak up, but according to what is referred to as the “bystander effect,” when a person is in trouble, those who are present often fail to intervene in a situation where someone or something is discriminatory and people don’t call it out, either because they assume other people will or because they think it’s not their place to act—and the more costly the perceived effect of intervening is, the less likely they are to do so.¹¹

India Gary-Martin, leadership expert and coach, told us, “It’s really hard to stand up in spaces that are tied to your livelihood because you know you need money to support yourself and your family and to be happy.”

As you can see, it’s not as simple as you think to just challenge stereotypes and to speak out against injustices at work or in business. When I’ve spoken to professionals who have challenged stereotypes or who have challenged the status quo, it often resulted in them leaving the company (by force or choice), or no further action was taken to resolve the problem that they boldly spoke out against.

In one of my previous roles, I raised that I was being treated differently by my white South African line manager—I was pretty distressed when I spoke to my director about the treatment I was suffering and, honestly, it was probably one of the toughest working moments I have experienced. When I told my director about what had been going on, I prepared a letter with all the facts, time stamps, and people who had also seen or witnessed my manager’s discriminatory behavior, and in the end, for some reason, this exchange ended with me being put on a performance review, despite the fact that I was actually performing well at the time. I had made a complaint about something that wasn’t right and nobody had complained about the efficiency or quality of my work, but it was me who was punished. This is a clear-cut example of my experience of being brushed aside and disregarded by senior management in the workplace, and unfortunately, I know I am not the only Black person who will have experienced something like it.

Hearing about outcomes like this gives others little confidence to challenge some of the most audacious comments, microaggressions, and stereotypes displayed at work. Speaking to some of our contributors made me realize that, although it is difficult to speak out or challenge stereotypes, it is necessary for progress and there are a number of ways to do so successfully.

When we talk about stereotyping, one recent incident comes to mind: on May 25, 2020, in Central Park in New York, a white woman by the name of Amy Cooper called the police, falsely accusing an African American man called Christian Cooper of threatening her life after he asked her to leash her dog.¹² Thankfully, the incident was recorded. It went viral online because it displayed such a clear example of everyday racism. This particular case brought up other incidents of racism to the forefront of common consciousness where many white people had treated Black people unfairly in the United States. Some of these experiences included white people calling the police to report Black people for doing regular day-to-day activities, such as jogging and swimming.

The issue with Amy Cooper also highlighted another area of concern that many Black professionals face—it is very difficult to prove incidents of racism when there is no tangible evidence. Amy Cooper was Head of Insurance Investment at Franklin Templeton, a global leader in asset management at the time of the incident. It’s a scary thought to think that someone who has openly exhibited such racist behavior could be in such an influential position of power. Fortunately, in this instance, the world was able to see her behavior, but unfortunately there are many people like Amy Cooper in the corporate world who have not made overtly racist comments, but instead display such behavior at work through microaggressions and unconscious biases. In the corporate world, there are people who have unfairly denied Black professionals the chance to be promoted or to advance their career simply because of the color of their skin. Amy Cooper was eventually fired from her job at Franklin Templeton, but it’s important that we examine this situation as an example of how some white senior leaders can have such negative opinions of Black people based on stereotypes.

When we spoke with Omar Wasow, an Assistant Professor in Princeton’s Department of Politics, he too also mentioned the Amy Cooper situation, expanding on some of the workplace stereotypes for Black men. He says, “Everybody has different challenges that are specific to their case. So, you know, I’m coming to these questions as a man because they’re clearly different to the challenges that women face.” Omar then discussed the stereotype and assumption that follows many Black men and women throughout their career: “Black men can be perceived as angry in a way that is not at all reflective of what they might be feeling,” he says. Stereotypes such as this can and do have many extreme and often dangerous consequences for Black men and women outside the workplace. According to research, “aggression” and “violence” is probably the strongest stereotype that is associated with Black men.¹³ In the workplace, Black men being labeled as aggressive can be very problematic and often leads to them being unable to be truly comfortable expressing themselves at work.

“The angry Black woman” stereotype is also something that you may be familiar with. Shellye spoke with us about how she deals with situations in an attempt to avoid it. Shellye ensures that she does not come across “angry” specifically when challenging biases in the workplace, regardless of what has been said or done to her; she takes an approach of asking questions, which causes the person she is engaging with to reconsider whether what they have said is appropriate.

“Ask questions in a very nice way, like: ‘I don’t understand?’ [or] ‘What do you mean by that?’ People usually get it, but they can’t accuse you of being angry, right? Or aggressive, or anything else,” she says.

Further to what Opeyemi discusses in Chapter 1, Shellye considers the idea of what hairstyles are deemed “professional” in the workplace. “They’re used to seeing white women’s hair that is usually straight. So they think straight hair is ‘normal hair,’ which they think is neater, which is another way of calling it ‘professional,’ right?”

Having experienced microaggressions in reference to her hair, such as “Let’s make sure everybody looks professional tomorrow,” Shellye reiterates the importance of asking questions like, “What do you mean by that?” After asking those questions, in an attempt to not make the other person feel uncomfortable, Shellye turns the situation into a joke. She believes it’s important to make light of the situation so as to not create an “ongoing awkward thing” at work, and so that the other person also doesn’t feel awkward every time they see her.

Shellye adds, “They realize, ‘oh, gosh, that was probably not the right thing to say,’ then it’s really easy to come back with ‘like yeah, one of the cool things about having this hair type, is that I can change it all the time.’”

Comfort is important at work, and regardless of the confrontation you have or the stereotype you challenge, I feel that it is important that your colleagues still feel comfortable around you and you do around them. It is important to realize that there are white people who are genuinely interested in learning about you and may not know how, so give them a chance. With that said, it’s also important to call things out when necessary; it may create an unsettling feeling among your colleagues, but those conversations need to be had. This was backed up by Christina Okorocha, whose business was the first agency to focus solely on the representation and development of Black talent in the digital industry. VAMP is recognized for generating sales through impressive marketing for film releases in the UK, including Blank Panther, Girl’s Trip, Queen & Slim, and many more. Christina says, “I think that it’s so basic to tell someone to ignore these things that affect their everyday life. I know it’s difficult to do, but honestly just keep believing in yourself and don’t let it affect your performance.”

India Gary-Martin shared a similar idea to Shellye with regard to not making anyone feel uncomfortable. “I would tell any Black person in these spaces not to assume others know anything about your culture, because they really don’t,” she says. “If they know nothing, this makes understanding you challenging.”

Talking about white people who are trying to understand our experiences but may not know how, India says, “Many white people are shocked and appalled by our experiences but do not have the language to discuss it, so I say—grant them some grace for not having the language right now.”

India makes an interesting point. Sometimes, when we don’t understand things, our words may come out in the wrong way—especially when it comes to race. It’s okay to not understand and maybe sometimes get things wrong. What’s important to me is that the person is open to correction and learning. Unless we start to have more conversations with one another, we will never truly understand each other’s cultures. It is also important to highlight that you need to be aware when someone is clearly making an insulting comment and when someone is truly trying to understand your culture. If they are trying to better understand your Black heritage, then use this as an opportunity to educate them. We will go into this further when we discuss microaggressions.

Not only do we have to face the battle of being discriminated against because of our features, background, and natural attributes, we also have to deal with the issue of colorism. India was very honest in telling me that because of her “lighter” complexion, she was much more palatable than darker-skinned women. She recognizes that she has a degree of privilege when it comes to speaking up at work compared her darker-skinned colleagues. Referencing colorism, India says, “It started in slavery and colonialism. Colonizers favored the people who looked more like them and they treated people who looked less like them very badly. While that isn’t a practice that is exposed in the same way today, it’s still in the DNA of our societies. People want to put the blame on Black people for colorism, but it’s not something that we created.”

“For white people, I am much more palatable,” India continues. “Both of my parents are Black, but because of my lighter complexion, I’m closer to what white people see as being acceptable. People will accept what I say and my being more angry than they will accept a darker-skinned woman saying the same things.”

Because of the respective privilege that her skin tone awards her, India tells us that she has made it her mission to continually speak up for Black women of all shades. I find this truly admirable.

Rondette Amoy Smith tells us of an experience with a senior member of staff at a previous job who said to her, “You’re really good at what you do, and you’re safe.” Rondette responded, saying, “What does that mean?” In response, the lady said, “Well, you know, you’re smart, and you’re pretty, and you’re not like the others.” Rondette continued to dig for answers: “Not like the other who?” The lady replied, “You’re not Black Black.”

In shock, Rondette suggested she and her colleague grab a coffee and go for a walk to have a deeper conversation around what was meant. Rondette found out that colorism was actually at the root of it all. Because Rondette wasn’t “darker” and perceived to be loud, confrontational, aggressive, or angry—all the negative stereotypes associated with Black women—her colleague believed she was “safe” in her role.

Though scary in the way it was articulated, Rondette actually feels that the situation with her colleague taught her something. “It made me realize that there are dozens of other senior members of staff who think that way and don’t say it,” Rondette says. “I was actually proud of her for owning up to that because it meant I could teach her what was wrong in what she’d said.”

“But equally, it made me feel terrible for darker-skinned Black women and those who potentially have names which are perceived as more complicated than mine because they aren’t getting opportunities because of their skin color or their origin.”

Jay-Ann Lopez, co-founder of the online platform Curlture, shares her frustration with people relating to her in a way that she doesn’t relate to them, such as stereotypical greetings like “fist bump” and “hey gurrrrl.” Jay’s straightforward advice is to under no circumstances endorse this behavior.

“I think letting certain behaviors slide is more harmful than actually pulling someone up on the brand that they’ve tried to ‘create’ for you—whether it’s your business or who you are as a person,” she says.

A lot of the struggles in navigating white spaces is that there is already a brand identity which was created for you before people even get a chance to truly know who you are.

We talked about personal branding in Chapter 1 and actually, a lot of the struggles in navigating white spaces is that there is already a brand identity that was created for you before people even get a chance to truly know who you are. You’re already “the angry Black girl,” “the aggressive Black guy,” “the cool Black guy,” the one they fist bump instead of shake hands with, and this is extremely problematic. Thinking of my own experiences, I’ve had many people attempt to fist bump me, but instead, I leave my hand out for a handshake. I don’t fist bump at work, so why do you assume I do? After a while, people began to notice that it wasn’t something I appreciated, especially when it was only done to me.

Trina Charles, fellow co-founder of Curlture, reflects on what she would do in similar situations: “‘In some situations where I haven’t needed to necessarily say anything, I give blank stares instead. Sometimes you will really just get ‘that look’ from me.”

This works for Trina, as constantly saying something can be draining. If you’re able to master “the look” like Trina has, it can also be an effective nonverbal way of getting your point across.

Imposter Syndrome

I’m sure you’re familiar with the term “imposter syndrome.” If you’re not, let me break it down for you before we get into it. Coined by psychologists Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes in 1978, the term describes, “A collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success. ‘Imposters’ suffer from chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual fraudulence that override any feelings of success or external proof of their competence.”¹⁴ Now, of course, imposter syndrome is not limited to those from the Black community, but I certainly can echo Jolie A. Doggett’s statement in her Huffington Post article, where she said, “For people of color, imposter syndrome isn’t just an imaginary voice in our heads. We receive almost daily messages from society that we don’t truly belong.”¹⁵ The feeling of imposter syndrome is something that definitely resonates with the Black entrepreneurs and professionals we have spoken with.

The feeling of not being good enough, or worthy enough, to be in a certain position is a horrible yet common feeling. Studies show that everybody feels imposter syndrome at some point, and women feel it more than men. Shellye Archambeau, who sits in the boardrooms of companies like Verizon, told us about her battle with imposter syndrome and how she continues to overcome it. “I have been fighting with imposter syndrome forever—my whole life—and still do, and that’s what I tell people because it isn’t something that goes away,” she says.

Explaining further, Shellye says, “First thing is to realize that you’re in great company, to take nothing personal—it’s not just you.” Shellye compares the feeling of imposter syndrome to headaches when she says, “Remember, everyone gets one; it’s just something you have to overcome and deal with because when people offer you a job or invite you into the room, they do so because they believe that you’re capable. Believe them, and remind yourself of why you are there. There was something special about you that made you a better candidate than ten others interviewing for the role.”

Trevor Nelson echoes this sentiment—he states, “As long as you know that you merit being where you are, that’s where the power comes from. BBC Radio 2 is massive and I believe there’s a reason I’m here.”

Take Shellye’s advice, who says, “Put your shoulders back and say, ‘Okay, today, I’m a Fortune 500 board member and I’m going to play that role, and eventually, I’m going to figure out what I’m doing.’”

Hyping yourself up is important. Having an awareness of where you are going to be and the sort of persona you need to adopt in certain environments is key to not feeling overwhelmed in big spaces, such as boardrooms, on stage, and around mostly white people.

Get yourself some cheerleaders. Through singing and dancing, we can all see the energy and positivity cheerleaders give to a sports team when they are entering the field. Shellye emphasizes how important cheerleaders are to her. “I’m a big believer in cheerleaders because honestly, the world tells us every day in so many ways how we are not quite smart enough, not quite technical enough, not quite financially astute enough, not quite pretty enough. So we need people around us to say ‘yes you are,’ to remind you of all the things you have done and all that you’ve accomplished.”

I particularly loved this advice; it’s something I’ve never thought of, and in fact you may find you already have cheerleaders in your life. Embrace these people when you need that boost of confidence or that reassurance that you deserve to be in these spaces as much as anyone else.

Microaggressions

Microaggression, a term first coined by Harvard psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce in the 1970s, can be directed at members of any marginalized group. For the purpose of this book, we will be discussing it in relation to race and the Black community. We will break it down into three categories: microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations.

Microassaults

Microassaults are overtly discriminatory actions that are intentional. With microassaults, the person committing the microaggression is acting intentionally and knows that their behavior might be hurtful.¹⁸ Using a derogatory term to refer to a person of color would be a microassault.

Rondette Amoy Smith was able to give us a clear example of a microassault she experienced in one of her previous roles. “I was leaving a work party and I hadn’t been drinking, but all these senior people around me had. I was heading home because I didn’t feel like networking at the time. As I was leaving, this super senior white guy was like ‘Where do you live?’ I told him I lived in Brooklyn and he said, ‘Oh, good luck dodging the bullets on your way home.’ He said this in front of 15 people, and they all had their glass in their hand just laughing and chuckling—I just remember being mortified.”

This sort of microassault is very common in the workplace and is often disguised as being a joke when it certainly is not. This scenario was totally out of order and left Rondette really embarrassed about where she came from.

Opeyemi once shared an example of a microassault she experienced at work with me. She says,

“I was in the office pantry and my colleague, a white man, began a conversation with me. He asked me where I lived and before giving me the chance to reply he started listing areas in London that are considered Black areas: ‘Peckham, Camberwell, no you’re probably a Brixton girl.’ I was so shocked at the way he spoke but I was also keen not to give him the reaction I felt he was looking for, so I just replied, ‘No.’ He clearly didn’t get that I didn’t want to entertain this conversation and went on to ask me whether all my friends were in gangs. He thought this was funny. Honestly, by this point, I was actually angry that he felt comfortable to be so overtly racist but I made sure I didn’t show how I felt.”

People often display microassaults under the guise of a joke, but such behavior is unacceptable and is certainly not funny.

Microinsults

Microinsults are defined as “verbal and nonverbal communications that subtly convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person’s racial heritage or identity.”¹⁶ Common examples of microinsults are comments about how someone is not like others of their ethnicity, or how articulate or well-spoken someone is “given their race.” It can also include touching a colleague’s hair without permission (a regular occurrence for Black women specifically), not attempting to say someone’s name correctly, and offering a more Anglicized nickname. There are many more.

Asmau Ahmed, founder of Plum Perfect, spoke about some of her experiences of microinsults and remembers times when she would ask questions that would be labeled as “dumb,” or “stupid,” but other people would ask the same things, and it wouldn’t be received in the same way. We have already discussed how Asmau graduated in the top 5 percent of her class yet found herself facing microaggressive behavior when she entered the working world alongside some of her classmates, who were perceived as smarter than her just because of the color of their skin. Can you imagine how discouraging that would be?

Asmau instead showed courage and decided that she would use these microaggressions as her motivation to succeed at work.

Microinvalidations

Lastly, microinvalidations can be described as “communications that subtly exclude, negate, or nullify the thoughts, feelings, or experiential reality of a person of color.”¹⁷ An example of this would be a white person telling a Black person that racism does not exist.

Though they are often so subtle, keeping your eye out for microaggressions in your working environment is very important. If you are a senior leader and these things are reported to you, it is important that you listen to those describing their experiences and do not dismiss them.

Being You in White Spaces

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of talk about bringing your authentic self to work and making workplaces more diverse and inclusive. But in reality, within environments catered heavily toward a particular race, how is that even possible?

As much as it may be difficult, I would encourage you to bring your authentic self to work as much as you can. This helps you figure out what sort of organization you actually work for. The ones that accept you and your culture are organizations you will enjoy working in and feel comfortable adding to their success. Employees should be allowed to be themselves at work and not have to hide or cover up the differences that make them unique. It’s important that you understand where you are working.

We spoke with June Angelides about being yourself at work. On the point of navigating white spaces, June recommends, “See it as an opportunity to educate and help people understand your culture.” June offers a couple of ways to do this successfully in the workplace, including bringing in food that reflects your culture or suggesting that you have a culture-themed day to help those from outside your race better understand your heritage.

Reflecting on her time in the corporate world, Jamelia Donaldson explains, “I didn’t really feel like I was restricted. I just felt like I couldn’t be bothered to bring my full self to work and always answer questions. I wouldn’t bring my leftovers in because I just felt like it was going to take this extra amount of energy to answer questions posed by my colleagues and I couldn’t be bothered.” For many Black professionals, it often feels like too much hard work to have to explain things about our heritage, which explains why many people opt to avoid these types of situations altogether.

For me, “being yourself” is an important step toward being truly comfortable with being in white spaces, but it can involve breaking through your fear, and the onus should be on the organization as well as individuals to make all their employees feel like they can be themselves at work.

Code Switching

Code switching is one of the key mechanisms in which Black professionals and entrepreneurs navigate white spaces. It may be something you do but didn’t actually know there was a term for it. Code switching is defined as “the process of shifting from one linguistic code (a language or dialect) to another, depending on the social context or conversational setting.”¹⁸ Language, however, is only one element of code switching. Today, the term includes any behaviors we exhibit to fit certain social circumstances or into an environment.

You may remember the video of former President Barack Obama entering a US basketball locker room in 2012.¹⁹ The clip was very popular, as it showed how he greeted Black staff differently to white staff. Although it’s amusing to watch, this is a clear example of how many Black professionals adapt their behavior toward their white counterparts and, in general, in white spaces. When we code switch, we adjust our behavior, appearance, and speech in ways that will make others feel comfortable. Sometimes we do this consciously and other times we do this subconsciously in an effort to gain fair treatment and increase employment opportunities in these spaces.²⁰

Dave Chappelle, a hugely successful comedian who often integrates a “white voice” into his stand-up routines, once said that: “Every Black American is bilingual. All of us. We speak street vernacular, and we speak job interviews.” Here, Dave emphasizes the fact that we have to be able to switch it up—it’s almost an essential skill to be able to survive.

According to research, code switching often occurs in spaces where negative stereotypes of Black people are present. As much as the Black professional may see it as a skill to be able to successfully code switch, it emphasizes the clear disparities of inclusivity within the workplace.

Work drinks are especially an occasion where the Black professionals I have spoken with felt that they had to code switch for long periods. Though we may have interactions with other colleagues in the office, it’s limited, whereas during work drinks, you are required to speak and interact with your colleagues without breaks and it can really expose the differences between cultures for a Black professional.

If a company was truly inclusive, then there would be no need for Black employees to code switch. I visited the Legacy Centre of Excellence in Birmingham, Europe’s biggest Black-owned event venue, and the feeling entering it was very different from what I was used to in London. It was only after I had left and reflected on the experience with my colleague that we noticed how big the difference was.

In this space, we didn’t have to suddenly change our behavior to adapt to our environment—there was no awkwardness, the music was of Black heritage, the drinks behind the bar were popular to our culture, and all the staff were Black. It reminded me of a trip to Nigeria in 2017, when I visited for the first time as a 27-year-old man. Going from being in a country where I was in the racial minority to Nigeria, where I was in the racial majority, was a new feeling that I can’t even describe. It was really refreshing.

The same feeling can be compared to when you enter the UK Black Business Show; here, you find a space where there is no need to code switch, there is no tolerance for microaggressions, no feeling of imposter syndrome—just Black professionals hungry to learn, network, and promote their brands.

Unbalanced Relationships and “The Nod”

We all know that building good relationships takes time; they require honesty and opening up to each other. When Black professionals are in white spaces because of the problems we mentioned earlier, such as imposter syndrome, code switching, and challenging stereotypes, it’s sometimes very hard for us to also be our full selves, which limits the opportunity to develop strong relationships. Relationships that are unbalanced are generally described as those where one party is more invested than the other. Surface-level relationships rarely go any deeper than trivial conversations and may be because both parties are not interested in developing a strong relationship with each other.

When I say “strong relationships,” I mean a relationship with a colleague who you would speak to on the weekend—someone who you would genuinely consider a good friend. Now for an ally who believes that maybe their relationship with a Black colleague is surface level and wants to improve it, I would make a few suggestions. Ask questions, find out what they are interested in outside work, suggest doing activities they enjoy, show an interest in their culture, ask them to pick the venue for the after-work drinks, involve them in conversations, and, finally, just be open to really learning about them.

“I see you” is a small phrase that sums up “the nod,” given from one Black professional to another in white spaces. For those who are not familiar with “the nod,” it goes something like this: you’re walking down the corridor and as you look in the same direction you lock eyes with a stranger, and a nod takes place. The nod can either be the simple nodding of the head or in some cases just the lifting of the head. In both cases, they are symbols of respect, acknowledgment, and solidarity. This acknowledgment is often done between Black professionals who do not even know each other within the workplace.

When you’re a Black professional, you are one of only a few, and it’s very easy to pinpoint how many Black people there are in a company, even from the first week. You may not even speak to them, and it might not even be someone who you build a relationship with, but that nod is an appreciation that you are both in this space and are potentially experiencing the same struggles. When you’re Black, having the skills to navigate white spaces is key to being successful, whether you’re someone at the top level of your career or not; at some point, you may have felt the need to code switch, felt like an imposter, and experienced microaggressions. Being “Black, but not too Black” in certain spaces is a challenge that we have to endure, as is the sense that we must find ways to make those who are not Black feel comfortable. If you read this chapter and relate to any or all of the struggles discussed, my advice would be to reflect on the advice from some of the industry pioneers who we have spoken with to write this book. Just because navigating these spaces is difficult does not mean it is not achievable. Keep working hard, and remember: you deserve to be in these spaces. We see you and we believe in you.

Charlene White on Being Yourself

Charlene is a well-respected news reporter in the UK. On April 9, 2014, White became the first Black woman to present ITV News at Ten. As well as being the lead presenter of ITV News London’s primetime 6 p.m. program, she is also a cast member of ITV’s popular magazine show Loose Women. On being yourself, Charlene says,

“A lot of people will feel that by being themselves, you become the other. You want to become like everybody else so you don’t necessarily stand out, because you know you already stand out because you’re Black. You wouldn’t want to become the loudest person in the room, even if that’s your character, because sometimes the assumption is that you’re loud because you’re Black. You then instinctively become a quieter version of yourself. With me, the more comfortable I became at work, the higher up I got because I was able to be my whole self.”

Next Steps and Reflection

• What do you find hardest about navigating white spaces?
• What action can you take to overcome this?
• Do you suffer from imposter syndrome? What steps will you take to manage this?
• Whether you’re an ally or Black professional, how can you challenge racial stereotypes in your workplace moving forward?
• If you’re an ally, how can you make white spaces more inclusive for all?