When White Women Hire Other White Women To Teach Them About Racism

Just another telltale sign of closet racism

I was going through LinkedIn the other day when I came across a post from a white female acquaintance of mine. In it, she sings the praises of an antiracism consultant she recently hired to run a workshop in her organization.

At first, I was elated because here was someone that was totally oblivious to racism before George Floyd, and today she was championing antiracism in her place of work. Wow, I was impressed, I felt good inside. Maybe this blog and all this antiracism education work that I and so many others do, was paying off after all.

I noticed she had tagged the consultant in the post, so I joyfully clicked on the link, expecting to find one of the many Black or brown antiracism or diversity and inclusion consultants I have come to know over the years and whom this same lady had praised for their work. Nope, none of them appeared on the page. None had been retained on the lucrative project to help drive antiracism in this white lady’s organization. The consultant she had chosen was another white woman just like her. I was surprised.

I reached out to a number of my Black and brown friends to tell them about what I had witnessed. Many weren’t surprised and told me that this lady’s behavior was one of the tell-tale signs of closet racists. She didn’t hire a brown or Black consultant because they would have told her certain truths about her own racism and bias that she didn’t want to hear.

By hiring another white woman, she knew there was a far lesser or even zero chance that she would ever feel uncomfortable and that is why she took that path.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the whole antiracism workshop might have been a performative activity.

My acquaintance works in a field that has come under a lot of heat for its interpersonal and systemic racism. In order to survive, organizations need to show that they aren’t racist or that they are trying to stamp out racism.

What better way to do this than to hire a consultant, go on a weekend antiracism retreat, and then check the box to say that you are an antiracist organization. Your white consultant is sure to certify that for you, while a Black and brown one might not.

I reflected further on the reasons why she didn’t hire a Black professional. Yes, she was more concerned about her comfort and the comfort of the white people in the room more than anything else, but maybe she just didn’t think that Black and brown consultants were any good.

That’s also part of the way racists think.

Hiring a white consultant to run racism and antiracism programs is a situation that happens a lot more than you think.

Before, white people could go around and say that there was not enough Black and brown talent in the field. That has always been rubbish by the way.

Post George Floyd however, there are hundreds of Black and brown consultants around the world ready to offer their services to make organizations antiracists. Because we, Black people, are the most discriminated against group, we can credibly and truthfully talk to what it means and feels like to be oppressed. We don’t need to pretend.

To organizations that hire only white consultants to educate their employees about racism and work toward antiracism, you aren’t fooling anyone. People outside your company know that you’re not serious and the racists within your company know that they won’t be dislodged anytime soon.

But as the world evolves, you’ll see that your performative actions will soon catch up with you.

Thank you for reading my perspective.