The Working While Black Effect

Hello friends,

This is the second excerpt from Space to Exhale by Lisa Hurley. If you missed it, check out the first one, Expected to Excel. This excerpt talks about a common experience for Black women in the workplace. Read on for details of both the Working While Black Effect and how anti-racism advocates and accomplices can take steps to counter it…

The Working While Black Effect

“Working While Black” refers to the cluster of daily diminishments, psychologically harmful behaviors, and emotionally taxing experiences that Black people – especially Black women – encounter in white-majority workplaces.

Ask any Black person…No matter the variables career-wise, the constant is that they have experienced some or all of the 12 elements that comprise what I have termed the Working While Black Effect (WWBE).

The WWBE is a syndrome composed of an interconnected web of behaviors and occurrences. It includes simultaneously being invisible and hyper-visible; overworked and under-resourced; last hired, but first fired; over-credentialed but under-promoted; managing, but not viewed as management material; being perceived as excessive, yet inadequate. It also includes experiences such as being tone policed, unsponsored, and of course, being called “angry” or “aggressive” just because our faces are at rest.

The Working While Black Effect in Action

Let me give you a few more examples of the WWBE, because my impression is that most minimally melanated people have no idea how much of an additional psychological burden Black people bear at work.

In the lives of public figures, the WWBE looks like former Vice President Kamala Harris, with her stellar reputation, experience, credentials, eloquence, policies, and (ahem) actual plans, losing the 2024 election to an unqualified felon who should never have been allowed to run in the first place. The Working While Black Effect also looks like:

My forever FLOTUS, Michelle Obama, being criticized about her arms, and my forever POTUS, Barack Obama, being criticized about wearing a tan suit.

Actress Taraji P. Henson weeping because even though she is so tenured in her acting career she still has to fight for decent roles and equitable pay. 

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson being publicly flayed for days during her SCOTUS confirmation hearing. Remember that one tear? It still breaks my heart. 

Dr. Bonnie Candia-Bailey, a former Vice President of Student Affairs at Lincoln University of Missouri, being bullied and unsupported to such a degree that she ended her own life in order to get some relief. May she rest in peace.

Those of us who are not so visible also have to navigate the treacherous white-majority waters. Just because the daily race-related paper cuts are not occurring in public doesn't mean they're not occurring at all. Trust me, they are.

The WWBE comprises:

1. Pay Inequity

2. The Broken Rung and the Glass Cliff

3. The Pet to Threat Phenomenon

4. The Black Girlboss Paradox

5. Being the Only

6. Being the Representative

7. Code Switching

8. Hair Discrimination

9. Microaggressions 

10. Misogynoir

11. Intersectionality

12. Superwoman Schema

[Note from Sharon: there are full details of how these phenomena show up in the book, so you know what to do! ;)]

So, What Now?

WHEW!

That's a lot, right? Now imagine experiencing all of the above multiple times a day for decades. Do you understand now why Black women are tired? Why we don't feel psychologically safe? Why we don't trust corporate spaces? 

This is why so many of us are choosing self-employment over the daily professional struggle.

For My Non-Black Readers:

I've shared all this to help educate you about what most of your Black colleagues are going through, with the hope that your empathy and ethics will stir you to do better. Be the person you proclaim yourself to be.

If you had time to post a black square and write a performative caption during the racial reckoning of 2020, then you have time to interrupt bias when you see it. 

Do what you can to help your Black colleagues breathe a little easier. There are so many small but impactful actions you can take as an individual:

• If you have privilege, use it for good.

• Interrupt bias and microaggressions in the moment. Publicly.

• Fight for pay equity for the Black people on your team. Let us end the trend of Black people being the highest qualified and lowest paid.

• Pronounce people's names correctly. If you can pronounce Tchaikovsky, onomatopoeia, or schadenfreude, you can pronounce our names.

• Be a good human. Most of us know what it feels like to be bullied. So let's not bully others. Let the Golden Rule obtain. If you don’t want it for yourself, don’t inflict it on others.

For Organizations:

If you're listed as one of the “Best Places To Work,” my question is: Best for whom?  If you purport to have created a psychologically safe culture, my question is: Safe for whom? Because despite your proclamations, Black people – particularly Black women – do not feel safe at work.

As a corporate entity you have the power and means to make positive changes at scale. I don't have all the answers, but I do have some suggestions for how you can provide space to exhale for your Global Majority employees:

• Prioritize and Fund DEI 

• Prioritize Psychological Safety

• Prioritize Community and Safe Spaces 

• De-prioritize Performativity

For My Black Readers:

I've shared all this to let you know that you are not alone, and what you're going through is not a figment of your imagination. The system, alas, is operating as designed. I've also shared this to hopefully inspire some self-reflection. Given that this is how things are, how do you choose to proceed with your career? What do you want for yourself? How are you going to curate your career to minimize harm and maximize health? How will you create space to exhale in your work life? You don't need to answer these questions now, but at least start thinking about them. In the next chapter, Curating Your Career, we'll explore them more deeply.

That’s the end of our second and final excerpt from Space to Exhale. As you know, my articles on working while Black were some of the earliest ones in this newsletter, so this excerpt has particular resonance. What stood out to you, and what action will you take as a result?

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

Lisa Hurley is an Anthem Award-winning activist, writer, and community builder. She is the author of Space to Exhale and the founder of The Great Exhale, a soft virtual space where Black women can relax, heal, and thrive. Her work centers Black women, and operates at the nexus of self care, community care, joy, and rest. Space to Exhale lands in May 2025, and is now available for pre-order!

Note: poll feedback is private - if you’re happy to share your thoughts in public, then please also leave a comment.

I am an anti-racism educator and activist, the author of “I’m Tired of Racism”, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast.

© Sharon Hurley Hall, 2025. All Rights Reserved. This newsletter is published on beehiiv (affiliate link).