This is the way I feel whenever I walk into a room where I feel I am being judged. Even though I may wear a suit and tie to work, there are days where I feel like I am in an orange jumpsuit waiting for my indictment. Is this an exaggeration? It might be. I could have easily used another analogy but we all know the majority of people still see us as some sort of criminal.
Now I often ask myself if it’s normal to feel like this. Personally, I have never been victimised as far as I’m concerned, I would say up to this point in my life I’ve been judged pretty well if you want to see it as that.
Maybe it’s because of a certain lack of diversity you feel that you are the representative of a race. So, this leads to the mentality of “damn I got to show that I’m the real deal” and not be a part of any negative generalisation that could explain the lack of black leaders in business.
There seems to be a certain theme that is common whether it relates to work or normal day to day life we feel justified to have to “show” something to prove ourselves every day. This theme can continue amongst the black community.
Let’s take the viewpoint away from the workplace for a moment when you see black people come into a bit of peas (find some riches). We must spend it and show we are spending it which can be seen to further perpetuate that “ignant” (not ignorant, word to Kanye) mentality.
There are many questions that can stem from this topic, one could say does the feel to prove ourselves come from a lack of pride or sense of belonging. Regardless of your background, most people will need to prove themselves. However, how is that really possible on an uneven playing field?
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Just trying to make it 