Professional Documents
Culture Documents
And as adults, shaving your Afro off or spending a fortune to chemically straighten or
hide your real hair to fit in or to look professional as two of our panellists
explained isnt ever just about looking smart. Just as Johny wondered if growing
an Afro at 16 was about reasserting his identity, or Phyllisea questioned whether
having natural hair would look bad at work, I think shaving my head at 9 years old
on the Isle of Wight was an attempt to appear less black and minimise my difference.
These unconscious thought processes travel with you into the workplace and can
impact how confident you feel, how able you are to build rapport with others and how
safe you think a workplace culture is. Its a voice saying You automatically stand
outDO YOUR BEST TO ASSIMILATE!
And thats exactly why its more important than ever that we continue to make
progress on inclusion and build a workplace as free from bias as possible.
Unconscious bias in all its forms impacts extraordinary people even after theyve
made peace with their hair.