Monday's Opening Thought: April 4, 2022

This week's opening thought: I've been hearing the words "psychological safety" lately in my work with organizations. Like, a lot. And by "a lot," I mean multiple times a week. I'm sure you can guess the race and power and positionality of those who keep saying these two words to me. I'm also sure you can ascertain why they're saying it too. The more I dive into walking white people with power through how necessary it is to sit with and process discomfort around whiteness and its need to consciously and unconsciously uphold white supremacist ideology, the more white people bring up "psychological safety."

"Shouldn't our [white people's] psychological safety matter?"

"But what about the psychological safety of [white] people who want to have these conversations but are uncomfortable?"

"They're [white people in the workplace] scared of you because you aren't prioritizing their psychological safety."

Guess what, white people? Your white supremacist needs are showing. You might want to tuck ‘em in. Tan France from Queer Eye can help you with that front tuck.

No one owes you "psychological safety" around dismantling your views and being a better person and community member, white people. Especially not people of color. Especially not Black people. And especially not when you enthusiastically hire people of color, Black people, Black women for your company's equity and inclusion jobs and then turn around and treat them as if they are oppressing you by pushing you to unpack your hot messes.

Something y'all need to understand: you're not oppressed in these situations where you push for your "psychological safety." You are the oppressor. Your workplace culture is a tool of the oppressor, and you're wielding it with aplomb. Every time you open your mouth and ask for "psychological safety," you hammer home how necessary your white supremacist workplace culture ideology is for you to be present at work, to have peace of mind. You want "psychological safety," but you don't want it for everyone because you only mention these words when it centers on you and yours. No one is coming to me saying that the people of color they work with or report to them are asking for "psychological safety." This is a whiteness-centered request.

Unless we're discussing building, fortifying, and maintaining a safer and braver space for all employees, especially marginalized employees and employees of color, we're not talking about anything helpful. You're building, fortifying, and maintaining an electrified barbed wire fence for white people to keep discomfort out – and you're asking people of color to help you build it.

I suppose that's par for the course, though, seeing how whiteness has been enslaving and trying to force people of color to build things for white people's comfort for generations now.

Maybe white people at work should focus on breaking the cycles of abuse at play in the workplace created by their forefathers and less on how they don't want to deal with unpacking their perceived right to comfort. Maybe you wouldn't have to bring up your "psychological safety" all the time, and we could get some actual meaningful work done at work.

Maybe.