It’s been nearly 200 years since white performers first started painting their faces black to mock enslaved Africans in minstrel shows across the United States. It was racist and offensive then, and it’s still racist and offensive today.
jenniferrockdiversity-ca
The portrayal of blackface–when people darken their skin with shoe polish, greasepaint or burnt cork and paint on enlarged lips and other exaggerated features—is steeped in centuries of racism. It peaked in popularity during an era in the United States when demands for civil rights by recently emancipated slaves triggered racial hostility. And today, because of blackface’s historic use to denigrate people of African descent, its continued use is still considered racist.
Black women and men have high aspirations to be successful at work, and outworking and outperforming others is the norm for many. But what happens to the minds, bodies, and spirits of Black employees when unrealistic expectations are too much to bear—if, despite their hard work, they remain set apart and undervalued?
At the age of 17, from April 2016 to September 2016, I worked part-time at a yacht club on Toronto Island as a maintenance worker. I worked alongside another individual in the maintenance department, and we were both of Afro-Jamaican descent. The club had a predominantly white membership, with few customers who were people of colour. The staff was also mostly white, and there were only five other people of colour who worked there besides us, and none of them were black either. I found that, while interacting with members, I faced racialised remarks and assumptions based on my position as a maintenance worker and as a young black woman.
“Emotional tax” is what a new study from researchers at Catalyst—a nonprofit organization that seeks to accelerate progress for women through workplace inclusion—calls this phenomenon, this psychological burden placed on women of color because of microaggressions and other exclusionary behavior.
A study performed by Catalyst, a non-profit organization focused on creating inclusive workplaces for women, unpacks this question with a term called "emotional tax", which is defined as "the heightened experience of being different from peers at work because of your gender and/or race/ethnicity and the associated detrimental effects on health, well-being, and the ability to thrive at work."
From remembering birthdays to offering service with a smile, life has a layer of daily responsibility that is hardly discussed – one which falls disproportionately on women. Finally confronting it could be a revolutionary step
The problem is particularly glaring for women. In fields dominated by white men, women of color often battle exclusion, microaggressions and murmured insults.
This fact sheet is the second in a
series focused on anti-Indigenous
racism in Canada. The first fact
sheet examined the concept of
race and racism, exploring the
various forms it takes. In this fact
sheet, the focus is on the lived
and structural forms of racism.
We begin by providing a brief
overview of what racism is, how
it intersects with other forms
of discrimination, and how it is
manifested. The fact sheet then
moves to a discussion of how
the dominant racialized group
(i.e., European settlers) expresses
racism in historic and current
contexts and how Indigenous 1
people in Canada experience
jenniferrockdiversity-ca
[tawkto]
