Black Flight: On the Mass Exodus of Black Professionals From Predominately White Work Spaces
As the only black professional at my job, I am tired. Tired of bearing the weight of having to constantly justify my presence within predominately white work spaces. Tired of feeling like my presence is merely tolerated as opposed to genuinely celebrated and supported. Tired of having to defend basic concepts simply because of the color of my skin and the silent biases that are attached to it. Tired of feeling alone in my blackness with no one to reinforce the beauty, intelligence and excellence that is my melanin. Tired of being used as a diversity symbol and as a poster-child for a false reality that is not commensurate with my experience as a black professional. Tired of being scrutinized, watched under heavy surveillance and deemed “suspect” by my white co-workers and upper management alike. Tired of being dismissed and given polite optics as a tactic to avoid litigation. Plainly stated: I am tired of the nonsense!
As black professionals, many of us do not have the privilege of working with other black professionals. In fact, many of us work within predominately white spaces where we are rarely seen or heard. Our opinions, suggestions, ideas and thinking are still seen as “caricatures of whiteness” as it is the biased belief that only white people possess qualities like intelligence, charisma, creativity and ingenuity. All we as black people know how to do is die and we do this so well don’t we? Whether it be on crowded street corners or in Wall Street offices, we die every single day at the bloody hands of white supremacy.
Many of us are tired of dying. We are tired of fighting the empty wars of white dominance. We are tired of trying to crack the code to glass ceilings and effectively navigate the minefield that is white fragility in an effort to make a living. We are tired of relying on the plantation and subsisting off the generous leavings thrown to us as flimsy measures to ease white guilt. We are sick of walking around our offices with a litany of apologies in our footsteps, struggling with imposter syndrome daily as a result of our own conditioning. We are what we need to believe in and here, within these predominately biased spaces, our faith in ourselves is murdered daily.
I’ve often asked myself: just what does it mean to be a white professional? Being a white professional means never having to wonder if you are the only white person in the office as there is a good chance you will at least have three other white people working with you. As a black male social worker who works in what is considered a predominately white and female-dominated profession, the chances of me working with another black person is slim next to none and the chances of that person being a black male? Even slimmer.
I have noticed that many black professionals who work within predominately white spaces have often struggled to maintain their resolve to work within these spaces. Some have even elected to leave such spaces in search of blacker pastures. They realize the importance of representation within work spaces and understand that not having such representation can negatively impact not only their motivation but also their work performance.
In an effort to address their dissatisfaction with working in predominately white spaces, many black professionals have engaged in a phenomenon that I refer to as “Black Flight” where they have either decided to leave predominately white agencies in search of predominately black spaces or have decided to try their hand at entrepreneurship as being their own boss eliminates many challenges that are associated with working within such limiting spaces. Working within predominately black spaces, you do not have to wonder all the time whether race is an issue in why you did not get that promotion or why your ideas never seem to get off the ground. Also with respects to having your own business, you can hire as you see fit and incorporate the true meaning of diversity into your practice. You can write a mission statement that honors the richness of multiple perspectives and is not simply a tool to generate funding but is something living and in step with the true definition of equality.
The more I work within predominately white spaces, the less I see myself. After years of not seeing myself and wondering where I have been, I am starting to crave more of myself and more spaces that are a reflection of the faint outline that has become my blackness. Although confident in my black identity, I still need to see people that look and sound and act like me as a way to validate the beauty of the black mystique. This in my opinion is how we as black people truly get free!
