Decolonize Your Mind: Healing from Workplace Racism and Cultural Erasure
- sherry jerimie
- Jan 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 31
Cultural Healing & Identity
The Invisible Ceiling: When Racism Wears a Suit
Understanding the hidden costs of professional success while Black or Brown, and reclaiming your wholeness without shrinking
ENRICH Global | Psychoeducational Series
You did everything right. The degrees, the credentials, the careful code-switching. You learned to read rooms, anticipate concerns, and make yourself palatable before anyone could question whether you belonged.
And still. Still, there's a ceiling you can feel but can't quite name. Opportunities that go to others with less experience. Promotions that require you to be twice as good while someone else is good enough. The quiet exhaustion of being the only one in the room who looks like you.
This isn't imposter syndrome. This is systemic exclusion wearing a professional smile.
"You're the 'safe Black face'...the one who gets invited to the table but never handed the mic. And you're tired of pretending that seat is enough."
The Four Pressures of Elite Spaces
When you're Black, Brown, or from the diaspora navigating predominantly white professional spaces, you encounter specific forms of pressure that rarely get named:
The Hidden Architecture of Exclusion
The Glass Cliff: You get the high-visibility assignments, but without the support, mentorship, or margin for error that others receive. Set up to be exposed, not elevated.
The Mentorship Mirage: People praise your potential but never open doors. Encouragement without access. Recognition without real investment.
The Cultural Tax: You're expected to speak on diversity while also being labeled "too political" or "always making it about race." Asked to educate, then punished for doing so.
The Double Bind: If you're assertive, you're intimidating. If you're quiet, you lack leadership presence. There's no way to win a game that was designed for you to lose.
The Lie of Respectability
Somewhere along the way, many of us learned the respectability formula: If you just work hard enough, speak well enough, dress well enough, tone it down enough, you'll earn your place.
But respectability doesn't dismantle racism. It just makes you more palatable to it. And the exhaustion of constantly managing how you're perceived, while watching less-qualified colleagues move ahead, takes a toll that is rarely acknowledged.
The Truth Nobody Tells You
Your professional struggles aren't a character flaw. They're not evidence that you need to work harder, network better, or shrink smaller.
They're evidence that you're navigating a system that was never designed for your success, and that you've been doing it remarkably well, often alone, for a very long time.
Reframing the Narrative
Healing from workplace racism isn't about developing thicker skin or better coping strategies. It's about telling the truth about what you're experiencing, and reclaiming the parts of yourself you've had to suppress to survive.
"I must have imposter syndrome."
→
"This is systemic exclusion, not internal deficit."
"I need to try harder to fit in."
→
"I refuse to shrink for spaces that won't grow."
"Maybe I'm being too sensitive."
→
"My perception is accurate. This is real."
"Colorism tried to make me envy light. Now I know: night skies birth galaxies." Ancestral Wisdom, Reclaimed
The research on post-traumatic growth shows that people who face adversity can develop not just resilience but genuine transformation, new meaning, deeper relationships, and a clearer sense of what matters.
For those navigating racialized trauma, this looks like moving from survival mode to something more expansive: from coping to thriving, from performing to being, from seeking approval to building your own table.
Signs of Post-Traumatic Growth
New Clarity: You stop questioning whether racism is real and start trusting your perception
Boundary Setting: You stop over-explaining yourself to people who refuse to understand
Values Alignment: You prioritize environments and relationships that honor your wholeness
Ancestral Connection: You draw strength from those who came before; your existence is their dream fulfilled
Joy as Resistance: You reclaim play, rest, and pleasure as political acts, not just survival mechanisms
Affirmations for the Diaspora Soul
"I am not an immigrant in Europe; Europe imported my ancestors. I am not out of place. I am owed."
"My existence is reparations. Every dream I manifest is a slave revolt fulfilled."
"I honor my ancestors by resting, not just resisting. My breath is a revolution."
"I do not need to prove my intelligence to people who profit from my doubt."
Healing from racialized workplace trauma isn't a solo project. It requires community,
people who see you, believe you, and reflect your reality back when the gaslighting gets thick.
It requires rest that feels revolutionary. It requires rage that has somewhere to go. And it requires a willingness to stop performing excellence for people who will never see your humanity.
The clarity you're developing, the ability to see what's systemic, not personal, is not a weakness. It's a sign of healing.
You don't have to climb the ladder they built. You can build your own. And you don't have to do it alone.
© ENRICH Global. This content is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional mental health care. If you're experiencing workplace discrimination, consider consulting with an employment attorney or HR professional in addition to seeking therapeutic support.
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