How ‘authenticity’ at work can become a trap for people of color

Brianna Holt, The Guardian

[…]

In the opening pages of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, the writer Jodi-Ann Burey issues a provocation: the commonplace injunctions to “come as you are” or “bring your full, authentic self to work” are not benevolent calls for self-expression – they’re traps. 

It lands at a moment of collective fatigue with institutional platitudes across the US and beyond, as backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs mount, and many organizations are scaling back the very structures that once promised change and reform. Burey enters that terrain to argue that retreating from authenticity rhetoric – that is, the corporate language that trivializes identity as a collection of aesthetics, quirks and hobbies, keeping workers preoccupied with managing how they are perceived rather than how they are treated – is not a solution; we must instead reframe it on our own terms.

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