Northeastern’s co-op program grants all students the opportunity to gain work experience before graduation. However, despite having a generalized preparatory course for co-ops, some students have complained about less formal support upon actually starting in their positions. Various minority groups face particular difficulties from perceived and actual biases and discrimination.
Since these common difficulties can impact long-term mental, emotional, and physical health, it is important to look into the obstacles minorities at Northeastern face. In this case, we looked into the women of color (WOC) in our community. Female students of color in particular have little specialized preparation or support for maneuvering the effects that implicit biases and underlying discrimination have on their wellbeing, despite heavy evidence of its existence and long-lasting impact.
Insecurity in Sense of Belonging
Journalism graduate student Brandi Griffin is an African American woman from Atlanta currently working at a local Boston news station. “When you’re not seeing people who look like you … it’s too easy to have the mentality of ‘Oh I don’t belong here,’” Griffin said. She expressed that this initial moment creates a sometimes momentary, sometimes constant feeling of not belonging or a feeling that others don’t believe you belong.
While working in the newsroom, Griffin once wore a particular skirt she believed was more than appropriate for work. Nonetheless, her boss pulled her aside to explain someone had reported her attire to HR. That same week, a white female coworker wore a skirt slightly shorter than Brandi’s, but received no complaints or criticism.
Whether or not race played a part, situations like this spark a sense of distrust in employees. Either way, the event made her feel as though she was being treated differently due to her race. Now, she’s even more cautious in what she wears and continues to be hyper-aware of disparities in the workplace.
Stereotype Threat/Cementing
Northeastern chemistry professor Oyinda Oyeleran has received her PhD in both chemistry and chemical biology from Harvard University. Even with so much prestige, Dr. Oyelarn explained that the “stereotype threat” remains regardless of achievement.
Dr. Oyelarn was not the only one: Throughout my interviews, this term was continuously coined to describe the phenomenon of one person representing an entire race in social spheres. Dr. Oyeleran describes it as the constant feeling of “everybody think[ing] I’m going to validate whatever stereotype about whatever group.”
In other words, Dr. Oyelarn, being the “Only One,” says “I have to be careful.” She had to ensure that her actions did not confirm any previous negative biases that her co-workers had towards black people. It causes WOC to be more wary with each step they take for fear that it will further justify and confirm negative attributes that would then spread to characterize every single person within their own race or ethnicity.
While Dr. Oyelaran says she’s learned to dissuade that pressure over time, each student interviewed explained that she felt a responsibility to represent her entire racial and ethnic group as well. The Catalyst reported that “not only do [WOC] carefully choose their words for fear that their opinions will be attributed to their entire race or ethnic background, but they are also careful about their appearance and even their personal purchases.”
Loss of Identity for Assimilation
This theme is usually done subtly through something as simple as code-switching. Code-switching happens when WOC often change a part of themselves — how they express themselves and what they choose to express — in order to better fit the culture of the work environment, which is created to fit white narratives and lifestyle. While it’s normal and natural to choose to be more professional in the workplace, there’s an added distinction between the code-switching that those who are and aren’t WOC enact. It comes in various forms, from no longer playing cultural music at work to changing the pronunciation of their names to make it more digestible.
A fourth-year biology and English major, who asked to remain anonymous, is aspiring to attend medical school and works at a hospital in her free time, where she finds herself to be the only Pakistani Muslim on her team. Her unique perspective to every situation — especially as a WOC treating WOC — is typically silenced out of fear. Even when WOC are being mistreated or misunderstood, she finds she doesn’t want to perpetuate and become the stereotype of an overly-sensitive and nitpicking WOC who over-exaggerates race-related issues. She feels it will antagonize her boss and coworkers, and she believes her perspective won’t catalyze a change anyway because, like many others, she is alone. This means the hospital is unable to process her perspective and improve. It also causes patients to suffer and forces her to carry that emotional burden and the deep-rooted guilt alone.
This woman experiences a more extreme loss of personal identity in her position at the hospital. She feels as though everything from her tone to her style is starkly different than everyone around her and as a result, she is treated differently. So she changed how she dresses, how she talks, what she talks about, and even how much she speaks altogether.
“I had to adapt to another culture to be viewed in a better light so that my work was seen in a better light,” she said. Looking back, she realized she had sacrificed her entire identity, including both her ethnicity and religion, to become a person at work that would better fit the culture of the workspace.
“As a South Asian woman, I have the option to adopt the culture and become one of them … [and not] challenge certain topics,” she said, referring to being viewed as more likable and a better employee. However, as a result of adapting to their culture and habits, she felt that her true, authentic self would continue to feel left out. Furthermore, she felt her authentic self wasn’t good enough, but she continued to work so as not to risk her current and future positions.
Each woman interviewed explained her own issues related to being the Only One in the workplace, and each woman was impacted differently. The Catalyst revealed that 58 percent of all WOC in various levels of differing career fields experience this feeling of being the Only One, and are subsequently on guard because of it. Over 40 percent of WOC reported being on guard not only because they feared racial or ethnic bias, but because they anticipated it. This leads to sleep problems and increased exhaustion (which can in turn lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes), increased anxiety and self-doubt, and many other issues that follow them after co-op ends.
So, with such strong evidence of these discrepancies even within the Northeastern community, it is imperative that Northeastern’s co-op preparatory program addresses these issues by acknowledging their existence, providing tools to manage them, and facilitating support groups to cope with them. These women have shared stories from before college, during co-ops, and post-grad. Tackling these problems early on can minimize the effects on students, so there’s no reason not to.