The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards

The standards of professionalism, according to American grassroots organizer-scholars Tema Okun and Keith Jones, are heavily defined by white supremacy culture—or the systemic, institutionalized centering of whiteness. In the workplace, white supremacy culture explicitly and implicitly privileges whiteness and discriminates against non-Western and non-white professionalism standards related to dress code, speech, work style, and timeliness.

About the Author: 

Aysa Gray is a thinker-organizer who travels around Brooklyn exploring the nature of social healing, wholeness, and communal joy. In her spare time, she is the fellowship director at the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding at Queens College, where she teaches college students how implicit race, gender, and class biases impact their ability to speak truth to power and listen to the truth from people who lack power.