The Paradox of the Black Professional: Whitewashing Blackness through Professionalism

Abstract

Discrimination against Black workers in the United States workplace is an ongoing problem. This study explores one understudied type of discrimination—the paradoxes and contradictions that create untenable situations for Black professionals who work in largely white-dominant organizations. Through in-depth interviews with self-identified Black professionals, we developed a novel theoretical concept we term the paradox of the Black professional. The participants uniformly identified white assumptions underlying the meaning of professionalism and were forced to navigate the impossible expectations of needing to be white while inhabiting a Black body. The findings suggest that organizations expressing a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity need to rethink the meaning systems and expectations that drive the professional and organizational discourses around which work is organized.