Why does the scapegoat become picked as the scapegoat?
In today's episode Guilaine reflects on a question she has received in multiple settings about how scapegoating operates, and why specific people might be targeted as scapegoats. This query is very prominent in the work she does and is a major part of her current doctoral thesis. She expands around the thinking previously shared on the podcast about both scapegoating, and the location of disturbance, covering basic definitions, existing psychological theories and her own more group analysis focused thoughts.She covers the ideas around repetition compulsion that locate the reasons people are scapegoated generally within their inner lives and backgrounds, but also calls this out as potentially toxic victim blaming, asking us to consider the structural and systemic factors at play. She doesn’t have a final answer, and perhaps no final definitive answers exist for situations so influenced by many lenses and contexts. But she offers many angles and potential theories along with some advice on how to approach scapegoating within groups. Location of Disturbance and Scapegoating: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/8127268Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
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29:12
The merging of institutions with DEI policy and procedures
In today's episode Guilaine reflects on when Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policies, procedures, rules and regulations, become blockers to achieving, or advancing, diversity, equality and inclusion within the workplace. Or as she prefers to see define it blockers to combating inequality, injustice and oppression getting in the way of achieving liberation.She shares her observations around how these instruments designed for social progress eventually become corrupted by the status quo serving only to maintain the apparatus of oppression or domination. She thinks about how these mechanics function. She isolates three specific ways that DEI policies and procedures operate:Social performanceHelping to ensure (at least in the mind of the institution) legislative compliancePreempting defence and anticipating what charges may be made against the institutionShe also considers how written statements of intention and aspiration can be blurred into being seen as statements of fact, and how this can obscure our understanding of actions taken, and position institutions as over-identified/indistinguishable with these positions.She finishes by considering what can be learnt from this and ways to mitigate these effects.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
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24:57
Students of colour and their invisible labour in higher education
In today's episode Simone reflects on the invisible and unpaid labour that students of colour do within higher education.They use the article The Invisible Labor of BIPOC Students by Stephanie Tavares: https://www.ncan.org/news/560484/The-Invisible-Labor-of-BIPOC-Students.htm as a jumping off point, drawing on their lived experience within higher education.They talk about how activists are often coopted into doing DEI work for universities and how this work is invisible, unpaid, watered down and hindered. And how collage administrations exploit their students around these areas and the impacts this can have on BIPOC students.They then talk about changes that could be made to improve these conditions but also how there is so much resistance to these changes.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
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14:00
More money
Today's episode is a follow up to this previous episode: Money, money, money: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1623760/episodes/13872328Guilaine begins by reflecting on how her specific collection of intersections interact with her relationship to money/worth, considering what it means to be a Black woman from the inner-city and how that collection of identities chimes more with her experience than the term working class. She thinks about how race, migration and class interact with and sometimes obscure each other, particularly when anti-Blackness is added to the mix. And also the very specific experiences, cultures and conditions that are experienced by generations living in the impoverished areas of cities.Then she discusses a recent change she noticed in how she was approaching setting her rates as a speaker and thinker around racial trauma, and how she is going about resetting herself, changing the energy she puts out and reestablishing her boundaries. She then muses on the reasons why people in similar situations might undervalue themselves. Then she speaks to organisations and coprorations about how they need to interrogate their approaches to payment and race, particularly because money is always hot territory around race because of the history that exists there.Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
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22:50
How Black workers experience higher education environments
In today's episode Simone reflects on how racism operates in higher education environments. They begin by thinking about their lived experiences within education both as a student and as a professor. They consider how “gifted and talented” programs are a tool of white supremacy and the obstacles for Black people in terms of attending higher education. Reflecting on the stark contrast between the demographics of the students and the predominantly Black and brown janitorial, maintenance and service workers who keep the institutions running.They then look at the article Black Workers and the University by Lilah Burke https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/27/black-workers-universities-often-are-left-out-conversations-about-race-and-higherThey finish off by looking at activism and union actions that have worked to confront and change conditions for Black workers within the academy. Subscribe, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
The place to reflect on all things inequality injustice and oppression at work. You tell us what is up and will do some thinking will do some research and will propose some possible solutions so that together we can make the workplace work for everyone. Your workplace dilemmas, your challenges and your queries at work. Join Guilaine Kinouani every first and third Monday of every month!To send us your queries, questions and dilemmas please email Atwork@racereflections.co.uk
Ireland