On Fresh Baked Bread and Finding The Medium of Identity and Career Aspirations

Image description: A picture of fresh-baked herb focaccia bread. The bread has been sliced into squares.

As a melanated person, a Black person, in white-centered workplaces, I speak from experience when I say a great deal of energy and a sense of grounding and peace comes from not caving into the "norms" and demands of white supremacist workplace culture ideology as a means of survival. It is liberating to work toward finding the medium in your career that allows you to maintain your identity while thriving personally and financially. With that said, I can also say that by doing so, you open yourself up to a great deal of uncertainty in your future employment opportunities.

Everybody isn't going to be too keen on you maintaining who you are, even those who claim that's why they hired you. They'll expect you to be someone different, to change yourself, and make yourself "acceptable." They will verbalize these expectations, putting your job on the line and leaving you feeling like you're inadequate or a "bad" employee. There will be times when you decide to change yourself to protect yourself. Those moments will hurt, and you might find yourself harboring some resentment, anger, or disappointment toward yourself because you won't feel as protected as you thought. You might not feel protected at all. You may feel more unsafe than ever in your workplace. You'll feel alone.

But you're not alone, far from it.

So many people are flipping that same coin every day because of the world we live in and the workplaces our society has cultivated.

Please know that you are not alone. Please know that I do not judge you because I've been in your shoes and see the weight you carry with your decisions. If anything, I wish you the space and energy to find ways not to shrink who you are and what you bring to the workplace into a trail of crumbs instead of the fresh, robust focaccia you genuinely are. It's not easy, but I promise it is worth it.

Sending you energy and love as you navigate the quagmire of career employment.

P.S.: Yeah, I just compared you to bread. Focaccia, to be exact. Your future and needs are decadent fuel for your soul, like focaccia. You know what? Maybe you should have some focaccia and dipping oil and call it a day. You deserve it.

[Image Description: a meme of Spongebob Squarepants getting up from a chair. He has an exasperated look on his face. Above him is the tagline, "Me when white 'professionals' find out that I do anti-racism and equity consulting and want to 'impress me' by telling me they're on the diversity committee at work." A word balloon can be seen coming from Spongebob with the words, "A'ight...I'mma head out."]

Seriously, white "professionals." It's nowhere near as impressive as you think it is. People of color, Black people, are doing heavy, emotionally, and mentally taxing work that often hits trauma points in our experiences as melanated people even when we're not doing equity and anti-racism work for a living. Y'all are attending a 60-minute meeting twice a month.

That don't impress me much.

We are not doing the same work.

[Image Description: a meme of Spongebob Squarepants getting up from a chair. He has an exasperated look on his face. Above him is the tagline, "Me when white 'professionals' find out that I do anti-racism and equity consulting and want to 'impress me' by telling me they're on the diversity committee at work." A word balloon can be seen coming from Spongebob with the words, "A'ight...I'mma head out."]

On Melanin, Mermaids, and Well Water

The white folx out here mad about Black elves, mermaids, and extraterrestrials in television shows and films are the same white folx who are also mad whenever Black folx, Black women, in their workplaces get leadership roles, promotions, and salary increases.

The waters of their hate and intolerance in both instances are pumped from the same well.

Don't act like this hate is about "preserving the source material," "honoring the original novels," or anything like that. It's about white folx preserving what they think is theirs, what they believe is owed to them. It's about believing their identity is the only identity that matters at work and in the media they consume. It's about the unwillingness to sit with the belief that heroes and leaders can be green, orange, pale, have face ridges, pointy ears, fangs, tails, and a whole lot of other incredulous things going on, but them being Black? That's "too much." Why?

Because they believe Black people aren't heroes or protagonists, they believe Black people can't be leaders and experts in their fields. They can't be heroes. They can't be the main character of the story. They can't lead industries and shape workplaces. Why?

For many white people, Blackness being anything more than chattel slavery and centuries of systemic oppression is unbelievable. For them, being Black and a leader and protagonist is more of a fantasy than hobbits, elves, mermaids, explorers, leaders, and superheroes. For many white people, Black folx are and will always be less than, which means that we're not worthy of being heroes, leaders, protagonists, or new interpretations of stories and characters that whiteness has deemed white classics.

Some white people need to own that they want their workplaces, television, films, and literature to prescribe to 3/5 Compromise logic. Own who you are and what you believe. You'll still be foolish and hateful, but you won't look as silly as some white person on the internet raging over a mermaid being Black when their ancestors threw my ancestors' deceased or weary Black bodies off of slave ships to the bottom of the ocean.

Never mind. You'll still look just as silly.

Your white supremacy is showing. Might wanna tuck that in.

On Job Duties, Burnout, and Being "Grateful for the Opportunity"

Workplaces pay people $15 or less per hour and expect the equivalent of a $40 per hour employee's work rate and workload in return with no "guff" from those employees.

Workplaces pay people $40 per hour and expect people to give them the equivalent of absolute subservience while being willing to have no boundaries around separating their work from their life and needs with no backtalk or asking for a lighter load.

Neither situation is equitable.

No position should ever feel so overwhelming that people are in a constant state of burnout.

No position should ever be set up in a way that makes employees feel like if they speak up about how their role overwhelms them, they'll lose their job or face retaliation.

No one should be made to feel they should be "grateful for an opportunity," so they should "earn their pay" and overwork when companies could take the time to distribute job duties among multiple positions to mitigate burnout.

Companies need to quit actin' as if they own us when we agree to work for them and have the right to drain us.

Companies need to build more equitable job descriptions that factor in what a legitimately reasonable workload looks like for a position.

And that has nothing to do with whether you're paying someone $15 or $40 an hour.

RE: On LinkedIn, White-Leaning Double Standards, and the Reverse Racism Defense

Image description: A screenshot of a private direct message sent to me by LinkedIn’s support team in reference to the removal of one of my posts. The message:

"Your LinkedIn Inquiry

Hello Pharoah - I am reaching out to you regarding your recent post: https://lnkd.in/gHPUE_ZK

I can understand the frustrations the removal of this post has caused. Can you tell me if you have taken action to ask our Trust and Safety team for a second look on the post through the link provided in their notice? -DZ"

Yesterday, I posted about my experience on LinkedIn dealing with having my posts reported for "hate speech" and "bullying" by white "professionals" who can't deal with the discomfort of a Black person setting boundaries and calling out white supremacy. The short version of the story is that LinkedIn allowed a white "professional" or two who were uncomfortable with my post to report said post as hate speech. Yesterday's posting removal was the third in two months. You can read the full post here.

Well, my blog post about LinkedIn removing my post went viral. Viral to the point where other folx on LinkedIn started tagging LinkedIn's Help Team and Trust and Safety team in the comments. With the post going viral the way it has, I expected to receive a message from someone working for LinkedIn, hoping to quell the situation. These things usually take a few days. Lo and behold, this morning, I woke up to the following direct message from a member of the LinkedIn Help team in my inbox:

"Your LinkedIn Inquiry

Hello Pharoah - I am reaching out to you regarding your recent post: https://lnkd.in/gHPUE_ZK

I can understand the frustrations the removal of this post has caused. Can you tell me if you have taken action to ask our Trust and Safety team for a second look on the post through the link provided in their notice? -DZ"

My response?

"DZ,

No, you do not understand my frustration. And no, I did not ask the Trust and Safety team for a second look. I did not ask because the last few times I've had my post taken down for alleged "bullying" and "hate speech," the Trust and Safety team declined my appeals. Those other posts were similar in vein and tone to the post y'all took down this week after some white "professionals" reported that my post on setting a boundary for me on your platform was somehow "hate speech." I find it intriguing that most of the Black women and Global Majority professionals on this platform have had similar experiences as my own, yet white "professionals" on this platform get to intimidate and spew vitriol that y'all do nothing about.

I refuse to waste time and energy defending myself on a platform that does not care about Black women, Black and Brown professionals, and professionals of color. I've wasted time and energy in the past defending my post only to receive confirmation that the LinkedIn platform is white-centered and does not care about melanated professionals and their experiences on here. Besides, you're only reaching out to me this morning because my post went viral and someone in the comments tagged your team. Your help isn't wanted because you and your team don't want to help - you want to make this disappear.

Don't bother reinstating my previous post. You'd only be doing so to feel like "good" people. Reinstating my post does not change the fact that thousands of Black women, Black and Brown folx, people of color, and queer-identifying folx face hatred and vitriol on your platform and have learned that you will not stop that harm from happening. Put your energy into making LinkedIn a welcoming environment for more than hateful white "professionals" who know you're their protectors.

Here's to y'all doing something more than reactive damage control.

-Pharoah"

LinkedIn Help and Trust and Safety suddenly only caring about their actions and inactions after they've been outed and gone viral? Not a good look. And not a look I support.

I'm not here to make LinkedIn or any white supremacist-driven platform feel like they're doing the right things when they're not. I don't play those games.

Real talk? They can keep that post hidden. Them hiding the post ultimately made it go viral accidentally. They gave the post 8,000+ more hits and reshares than it would've if they let it be. LinkedIn hides or limits the audience reach of 90% of the posts Black women, Black and Brown folx, Global Majority folx, and queer-identifying folx post on their platform, calling out patriarchal, heteronormative white supremacist workplace culture as it is. They silence melanated and queer voices for white comfort all the time. That's their bread and butter: be a good little "professional," and we'll let you keep playing in our sandbox. But their actions in this situation did the opposite. Technically, my post was another drop in a big bucket for them.

They just don't like that this drop caused ripples they can't soothe or quickly quell.