05/25/2021

The Emotional Tax of Deficit Thinking

A pervasive fallacy imposes a heavy emotional toll on employees from underrepresented groups

Soon after being recruited by The Washington Post in 1992, reporter Michelle Singletary asked the newspaper’s business editor if she was hired because she was Black. Then 29 years old, Singletary had come to the job with years of reporting experience. Yet she repeatedly found herself justifying her qualifications to her colleagues. When the editor told her that her race was indeed a reason for hiring her, he confirmed her worst fears. “So, the newsroom colleagues probing how I came to get the job so fast were right after all,” she told herself, fighting back tears. According to Singletary’s recent account of the incident, the editor added, “I also hired you because you’re a woman. I hired you because you come from a low-income background and, most importantly, because you are a good reporter. I also hired you because you have enormous potential and I want to mentor you.”

I am not Black and, as a university professor and an academic leader, I have not spent a day in a newsroom. But Singletary’s story sounds painfully familiar to me. Born and raised in India, I moved to the United States to earn my doctorate and then immigrated to Canada, joining its “visible minority.” In my three-decade professional journey, I have heard many talented people I have recruited ask the same question as Singletary: Was I hired for my talent, or to check a box?

This feeling of being treated as a token, as a person whose value is minimal to the organization, is pervasive across disciplines and demographics. A 2017 report on Indigenous members serving in the Canadian Federal Public Service, for example, confirms that “participants expressed a sense of being ‘tokenized.’” They explained this feeling through experiences of having to justify themselves, their identities, and their cultures. “They felt that they must constantly defend or explain Indigenous histories and cultures to non-Indigenous colleagues,” the report explains. “Indigenous employees mentioned that senior leaders seek them out for photo opportunities. However, they did not feel they were called upon to share their Indigenous experience and knowledge when it really matters, for example, when designing a policy or program intended for Indigenous communities and peoples.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from SSIR.