Supporting your Black coworkers

James Baldwin once said, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time...”

Although Baldwin was quoted saying this in 1961, his words still resonate in 2020 concerning America’s state of affairs. Imagine being Black and waking up nearly every day to a new case of police brutality against Black people, with protests erupting from supporters of Black lives lost and brutalized and still having to go on with your regular routine.

Work. It is that place where we spend most of our time and forge formidable relationships that we sustain throughout life--or at least until we move on to the next job. Work is the routine we must keep up in these trying times. We have lifestyles to maintain, which depends on whether you are earning a livable wage.

Still, the most prominent obstacle in keeping up with the day-to-day is dealing with how Black people are treated in America and how current events affect Black people in the workplace. We become mad, sad, numb, sometimes desensitized, and a whole host of other feelings. Black people are constantly working to cope with what’s happening to them in the streets. We consider taking time to embrace the care needed surrounding being Black in America and seeking support from other Black people­-–specifically family and close friends. But how do we perceive and receive support from the place where we spend most of our time: the workplace?

Navigating the workplace as a Black employee is trying during times of civil unrest. Many organizations have become hyper-aware of these circumstances and are taking steps to address the issues to support Black people. The workplace’s response to what’s happening in America with Black people is crucial in maintaining a healthy space where we can feel safe with our thoughts, feelings and actions. We spend much of our life in the workplace, and emotional safety is becoming something that we need more and more of because Black people are emotionally drained. The support of leaders and coworkers is essential to the productivity and deliverables expected of our time spent at work.

Here are some ways you can support your Black employees and coworkers:

• Allow space. Be empathetic to the needs of Black people and their need to take a break and be silent. We don’t always want to talk about it.
• Recognize your privilege. Don’t be so comfortable in your privilege that you alienate the people with whom you work closely.
• Get educated. Don’t expect Black people to educate you on what’s going on with the state of Black people in America. Educate yourself beyond what you see in the news and on social media.
• Broadcast your support. Be an ally and an anti-racist. Call people out when they say or do racist things because your silence is complicit.

Now let’s revisit the quote by James Baldwin, but this time in full: “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost, almost all of the time — and in one’s work. And part of the rage is this: It isn’t only what is happening to you. But it’s what’s happening all around you and all of the time in the face of the most extraordinary and criminal indifference, indifference of most white people in this country, and their ignorance. Now, since this is so, it’s a great temptation to simplify the issues under the illusion that if you simplify them enough, people will recognize them. I think this illusion is very dangerous because, in fact, it isn’t the way it works. A complex thing can’t be made simple. You simply have to try to deal with it in all its complexity and hope to get that complexity across.”

Now, let’s sit with that, welcome these suggestions, and make impactful change in the world.

This blog written by De’Trice Fox at the Job Help Center at Main Library of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library