Race Reflections AT WORK

In this re-released episode first published on 17th November 2025 Guilaine reflects on how, seemingly paradoxically, when Black people (and other marginalised groups) are idealised in the workplace it can put them at risk, and result in their denigration and/or devaluation. She begins by looking an an example, a Black doctor mentioned in Black Skin, White Masks by Franz Fanon: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/313127/black-skin-white-masks-by-fanon-frantz/9780241396667 She expands on this concept to detail the ways that this doctor might be exceptionalised and idealised due to being a competent and skilled person from a group that is not seen to have those qualities. And how this sets them up to fail when any mistake is made on their part resulting in a pendulum swing where they are often seen as betraying the person or institution that was idealising them. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on some research work that looks at AI hiring algorithms. They begin by looking at an article on how AI creates bias when screening resumes because it is designed to generalise (ie stereotype). They continue by looking at a study of racial bias and systemic rejection in AI hiring tools, and some other articles around this topic. The conclusions they come to from all of this is that these algorithms don’t just regurgitate the racism from within their programmers, and the culture that surrounds them, they also create bias as part of how they function. These algorithms and the tools that use them are "pervasively adopted, highly consequential and opaque to the public”, and whilst they are presented as objective and neutral that is very much not the case. References: AI is more likely than humans to form biases when hiring by Michelle Kim https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/07/20/1140655/ai-biases-hiring-humans/ AI Hiring Tools Can Yield Racial Bias and Systemic Rejection https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-hiring-tools-can-yield-racial-bias-and-systemic-rejection AI is reinventing hiring — with the same old biases by Emilio J. Castilla https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/ai-reinventing-hiring-same-old-biases-heres-how-to-avoid-trap Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine shares some news about changes and developments for the Race Reflections Foundation Course in Group Analysis & Racial Trauma (IGA Approved) ahead of the launch of its next iteration. There will be an Open Day/Launch Event on 14th September at 4pm UK Time to cover the updated course: https://racereflections.co.uk/events/launch-event-foundation-course-in-group-analysis-racial-trauma-iga-approved/ Here is a Curriculum Overview: https://racereflections.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Curriculum-Overview-2027-PDF-1.pdf These are previous podcast episodes about the course from last year: Introduction to the certificate in working with racial trauma and race based injuries using the foundation of group analysis https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/15148619 Opportunities for support within Race Reflections Foundation Course in Group Analysis that centres racial trauma https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/17930974 Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on why the absence of thinking and theorisation around injustice and psychological distress/racial trauma troubles her. She begins by thinking back to when she began her training and she was taught that within CBT expectation of justice is considered dysfunctional. Although she found this troubling in ways she couldn’t articulate at the time it got her thinking, and since then she has spent time coming up with more thoughts around this and some alternatives to it. Which is what she covers on the rest of this episode. Article on the Race Reflections website: On Injustice and Racial Trauma: https://racereflections.co.uk/on-injustice-and-racial-trauma/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine shares some news about changes and developments for the Race Reflections Foundation Course in Group Analysis & Racial Trauma (IGA Approved) ahead of the launch of its next iteration. There will be an Open Day/Launch Event on 14th September at 4pm UK Time to cover the updated course: https://racereflections.co.uk/events/launch-event-foundation-course-in-group-analysis-racial-trauma-iga-approved/ Here is a Curriculum Overview: https://racereflections.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Curriculum-Overview-2027-PDF-1.pdf These are previous podcast episodes about the course from last year: Introduction to the certificate in working with racial trauma and race based injuries using the foundation of group analysis https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/15148619 Opportunities for support within Race Reflections Foundation Course in Group Analysis that centres racial trauma https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/17930974 Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Dave reflects on their lived experience as a white person navigating school life and the things that might be able to tell us about schools as a sight of patriarchal, hetronormative and racialised violence. Dave’s past work around patriachy and masculinity: What About the Men? Mansplaining Masculinity: https://soundcloud.com/standuptragedy/sut-presents-what-about-the-men-mansplaining-maculinity Liberating Men: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07x5vsh What is Masculinity? Why Does it Matter? And Other Big Questions by Jeffrey Boakye and Darren Chetty (which Dave contributed a chapter to): https://www.hachetteschools.co.uk/book/what-is-masculinity-why-does-it-matter-and-other-big-questions/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on the class action taken by indigenous former employees of IOGC alleging systemic racism, abuse of power and workplace misconduct at this federal agency. Discrimination class action lawsuit against Indian Oil and Gas Canada dismissed by Federal Court by Matteo Cimellaro https://ottawacitizen.com/public-service/class-action-lawsuit-indian-oil-and-gas-dismissed Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this re-released episode first published on 7th October 2024, Guilaine reflects on White Liberals, and on her past inclination to take people straightforwardly based on the words they write and the face they present to the world. She considers how experiencing the duality and complexity of people presenting as anti-racist publicly who in their personal interactions reveal themselves to be anti-black, has led to her trying to be more cautious about her tendency to trust people. She thinks about her lived experience, widens it out to consider how people can understand and even agree with the theory but fail consciously or unconsciously to enact the practice. And she also ties this duality to her own experiences visiting the Congo. She concludes by considering how this duality and complexity impacts the workplace and encourages people, particularly in relation to tribunals, to remember and consider this when addressing issues around race where for example a white person accused of race discrimination may be presenting as polite, reasonable and an outstanding member of the community. The episode "Reflections on a trip to the Congo" is referenced in this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/14947769 If you would like to send us a question, query or dilemma that we could reflect on and respond to on the show please email atwork@racereflctions.co.uk or contact@racereflections.co.uk Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine, who is in the writing up stage of her PHD thesis, reflects on her journey and the reasons why she is launching a new Race Reflections space to explore racial trauma and decolonial thinking. This will be a semi open monthly meeting that takes place online, the current start date planned for it will be 28th September at 6.30-8pm UK time. More info: https://racereflections.co.uk/new-reflective-groups-on-racial-trauma/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this re-released episode first published on 6th May 2024, Guilaine reflects on her (then) recent trip to the Congo. This topic was asked for when she polled people on twitter/x to find out what they wanted her to speak on for this episode. She begins with some context, first for her and then for the country and region in general. Covering how she was born in Bastille and grew up in inner city Paris and is of Congolese descent, specifically descending from Congo-Brazzaville. She then gives a brief overview of the history of colonialism, slavery, war and genocide experienced by Congo-Brazzaville and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Then she talks about her experience there, being confronted by this paradox of death and life, beauty and horror, poverty and people thriving, learning more about the colonial atrocities that were committed but also at the same time being exposed to the pure beauty of the landscapes. She explores the complexity of these powerful dualities and contradictions, the paradox of life and death almost intertwined and dancing, the invitation to ask how do we hold these dualities at the same time, remembering the pain of the past but imagining alternative futures, the abundance and wealth of nature contrasted with the poverty of neocolonialism. It invites you to be deeply reflective about the possibility of life. She finishes by thinking about her writing and research around trauma and transference and how when talking to people on her travels and looking into cosmologies and autologies of the region she realised that a lot of what she had been writing corresponded with the thinking and cosmologies of this land. And so brings her back to her question of “what we know without knowing?” And to issues of ancestral communication and memory and how echoes form between generations, particularly within the African diaspora, particularly when it comes to issues of thinking about African consciousness in the context of Black suffering, and thinking about all of this within the Kikongo frame, Kikongo being the language, people and culture of the Congo. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email atwork@racereflections.co.uk

In this re-released episode first published on 1st June 2024, Guilaine reflects on extraction, the process of which touches on ancestral vulnerability, blackness, colonial dialectics and coloniality in the workplace and generally racialised dynamics, and echoes her (then) recent trip to the Congo. She offers an aside on how plagiarism as an accusation can be weaponised and racialised against people of colour, particularly women of colour and Black women in particular; and how they can be on one hand mined quite heavily by institutions and by society at large, and on the other hand they tend to be the most vulnerable when it comes to those kinds of accusations. But she then focuses on examples of extraction she has experienced recently, looking at some of the reasons she has altered her use of social media and the phenomena of high earners approaching Race Reflections to be considered for the low income courses we have offered for our recent certificate. And she considers the response of some people to her sharing an article "Racial trauma as bodily archive: The Griot & The Nzonzi” freely to wider community for 48 hours, but after that making it membership only. She was asked not just to make it permanently freely accessible but was also asked to send people files of the article for their use for free. She then thinks about extraction in the workplace and considers some ways to navigate and mitigate these issues. This podcast brings together many strands from other podcasts for example: Introduction to the certificate in working with racial trauma and race based injuries using the foundation of group analysis: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/15148619-introduction-to-the-certificate-in-working-with-racial-trauma-and-race-based-injuries-using-the-foundation-of-group-analysis.mp3 Social Media Policy Change: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/15059341-social-media-policy-change.mp3 Reflections on a trip to the Congo: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/14947769-reflections-on-a-trip-to-the-congo.mp3 Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on the findings of three surveys on racism in the UK that were released in 2025: Workforce Race Equality Standard Report 2025 from University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust https://www.uhb.nhs.uk/media/fdajabjz/workforce-race-equality-standard-report-2025.pdf Racism and bigotry - the modern migrant experience in the UK a survey from Unite the Union https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2025/december/racism-and-bigotry-the-modern-migrant-experience-in-the-uk Business in the Community - Race at Work 2025 https://www.bitc.org.uk/race/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on the aftermath of the intersection of disability and race/racism at the BAFTA awards 2026. Specifically the institutional choice to air the involuntary words shouted by John Davidson, a white Tourette's syndrome campaigner, towards two Black actors, the lack of accommodations and planning around the event, the lack of accountability and adequate apology around the impact of racism from both BAFTA as an organisation and by the individual involved. Simone considers the intersection of these two systems of oppression from the point of view of a white disabled person who has been paying attention to the voices of Black disabled people, specifically referring to the work of Imani Barbarin, a Black American writer, public speaker, and disability rights activist who goes by the username Crutches and Spice: https://crutchesandspice.com/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on some issues surrounding the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), its employees, its roll-back of food safety surveillance and that decisions inherent racism. They begin with this article as a jumping off point: The CDC quietly scaled back a surveillance program for food-borne illnesses by Aria Bendix https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-quietly-scaled-back-surveillance-program-foodborne-illnesses-rcna227089 They first consider the general impacts of CDC cuts. Then they think about racism in the food system using this article as a reference point: DC Hunger Solutions: Racism in the Food System by Bridget Kelley https://www.dchunger.org/updates/racism-in-the-food-system/ And then they consider the specifics of racism in food safety within the current moment in the US. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on her experience of community engagement, development and research, building on a post she wrote about this topic on Race Reflections. She particularly considers her earliest experiences in terms of her engagement with race, mental health, race inequality and racial trauma comparing them to a conversation she had with an early career community worker at a conference last year. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on what she calls White Women Gaze. This is a topic she has thought about before in her work on Race Reflections and in her book White Minds. She was inspired to speak on this by watching a tictok video of an African woman talking about cross-cultural friendships and relationships between Black and White women. She discusses the video in question, and then shares some of her own experiences of these dynamics from within her working life. She thinks about how these dynamics play out in the workplace, concluding that racialised violence is also gendered and gendered violence also racialised. The TicTok video: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNR9QrQA4/ White Minds: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/white-minds Race Reflections - White womanhood, intersectional violence and racialised boundaries: https://racereflections.co.uk/white-womahood-intersectional-violence-and-racialised-boundaries/ The White Female Gaze: A Formulation: https://racereflections.co.uk/the-white-female-gaze-a-formulation/ Previous episodes - The Invisible Gaze of White Women: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/9739129-the-invisible-gaze-of-white-women Toxic White Feminity: https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/1623760/episodes/8807980-toxic-white-femininity Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine responds to a question about her updated biography, specifically her interest in fashion, beauty and aesthetics and how that informs or relates her academic and clinical work. She goes over the personal history of her passion for fashion, considers the relation between Black Feminist thinking and joy, the erotic, desire, self authorship and survival, thinks about how when you look at injustice, atrocity and suffering it is an act of resistance to also focus on pleasure, beauty and life, and she finishes by considering how her interest in fashion challenges normative bias, racialised expectations and so it becomes an act of rebellion. Guilaine’s updated biography: https://racereflections.co.uk/about-the-author/ Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Simone reflects on the “brand driven culture war” supposedly ignited by Sydney Sweeney’s racist advertising campaign with American Eagle. They also look at the flip-flopping on Cracker Barrel’s choice of logo. They consider how when a companies commitment to diversity is shallow it is very easily dismantled, especially when aided by the media and the American President. Articles referred to: American Eagle doubles down on controversial ad campaign: https://www.axios.com/2025/08/07/american-eagle-sydney-sweeney-backlash Cracker Barrel reverses course and will scrap new logo after intense backlash: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/26/cracker-barrel-logo-apology Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the first 100 episodes(!) of Race Reflections AT WORK. She talks about what she’s learned from the process, considers some areas to develop, and picks out her top three episodes using the criteria of which episodes resonated with her the most. The episodes Guilaine picks out: Episode 61: Reflections on a trip to the Congo: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/14947769 Episode 2: Location of Disturbance and Scapegoating: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/8127268 Episode 23: Thinking critically about feelings: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/10099716 This is a good opportunity for us to say thank you to all who have listened to the podcast. From the statistics we see through our podcasting platform we know that we’ve had over 160K downloads since we launched with people listening from all over the world. Do please continue to let people know about the show and to let us know if there are things we could do to improve what we are doing (and also what you have enjoyed or valued about what we do.) Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today's episode Guilaine reflects on the last year, both for Race Reflections as an institution and for herself personally, and thinks forward towards the year to come. Wishing you a Happy New Year from all at Race Reflections! Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.