Black Tax: What is it and How Does it Relate to Workplace Discrimination?
“If you could do it, anyone can!”
“It’s not a race thing. It’s a work ethic thing.”
“I’ve never once seen someone be racist at this company — that just doesn’t happen here.”
“We had a Black president. Black people have every opportunity white people do now.”
One of the most maddening things about being a Black professional, particularly if you’ve found relative success and stability, is the idea that “anyone can make it now.” Sometimes people will say it out of ignorance, thinking they are offering you a genuine compliment signaling your perseverance and accomplishments. But much too often, it’s used as a bargaining chip in the discussion of equity in the workplace. It’s meant to deflect against viable statistics and powerful anecdotes given by “disgruntled” Black employees that point to discrimination and a lack of equity in the workplace. To treat privilege as a theory rather than fact is dismissive, damaging, and inaccurate. Truth: Black professionals are, and have been, paying a Black tax just to “play in the same sandbox” as other professionals.
If privilege, albeit gender, race, class, or other grants someone a head start, the Black tax is the extra weight tied to your shoelaces before the race even begins. It’s a reality for Black professionals and a distant — if not completely non-existent — idea worth debating to others. It’s time to bring what has been ambiguous and blurred to the forefront, and shed light around the Black tax, who is paying it, and how we can collectively work to evolve past it.
What is the Black Tax
Conversely, the Black tax is the additional work, late hours, and performance against fatal stereotypes that a Black employee has to give in order to be on par with their white peers. If a white man works 50 hours at his job, the Black man gunning for the same promotion is working at least 60 just to have his name spoken in the same sentence as his peer. As for Black women, one could argue that the tax is doubled, if not more.
Author Robert T. Palmer of Diverse Education explains it as “Black tax is the psychological weight or stressor that Black people experience from consciously or unconsciously thinking about how white Americans perceive the social construct of Blackness.” For better or worse, perception is everything.
For example, both a Black and white team member may have access to a company credit card. To illustrate my point, we’ll call the former employee “Cassandra” and the latter employee, “Brenda.” Both women are thoughtful when providing their detailed expense reports and using their card. Both women are timely with their reports and using the card only as needed. The change in psychological behavior comes in very small moments. Cassandra will underuse her card, fearing each purchase could come into unnecessary questions. She keeps meticulous track of her card and receipts because she knows if Brenda loses her card, it’s “an honest mistake.” Still, suppose Cassandra loses her card or accidentally buys a $5 latte on it. In that case, it could be cause for a lengthy investigation, a demotion, or even termination due to unconscious biases. Cassandra’s “taxed” on her organization and psychological safety. She understands she must do more to be “just as trustworthy” as Brenda.
Perhaps this is your first time hearing the phrase, and you may feel quick to offer a rebuttal against the idea of Black tax and claim that it is not something “issued” at your workplace. But similar to microaggressions, just because the Black tax isn’t something we can always hold, see, or quickly correct, it doesn’t mean it’s not real. The success you see of a former Black president or the Black executive leading a team at work does not signal a post-racial society. It has nothing to do with “bootstraps.” According to one 2019 report, college-educated Black professionals are more likely to face adversity, especially at work. “Black people that had attended college are more likely than those without college experience to say they have faced a number of these incidents: people acting as if they were suspicious of them (71% vs. 59%), people acting as if they were not smart (67% vs. 52%), or being subjected to slurs or jokes (58% vs. 45%).” So yes, there is still a Black tax being paid even if you’re working at a big-three consulting firm, as an essential worker, a minimum-wage worker, a summer intern, or a VP at a tech company.
Why Is the Black Tax Harmful
Rather than accept this idea as the status quo, we must examine it and its consequences. Having to pay a discriminatory tax affects an employee’s psychological safety, equity, and opportunity at work and perpetuates the message that non-violent discrimination is OK and tolerated.
More often than not, employees of color feel pressured to overcompensate for their skin color to succeed. This can come in the form of code-switching, cultural assimilation, or the internal fear to be authentic or noticed at work.
Fortune recently interviewed a group of Black professionals on what it’s like “working while Black.” Azizza, 30, had this to share, “It becomes alienating as there’s a constant reminder that we are not equal. I have to work harder than my white counterparts just to get equal respect, all while suppressing my big personality to dispel the “angry black woman” stereotype or not be called “sassy.” If you want to create a truly diverse and inclusive workspace, you have to stop thinking that a splash of color here and there is the best you can do.”
Further, when the Black tax isn’t examined or leaders aren’t actively creating a sense of belonging, diversity, and meaningful equity, the workplace remains a breeding ground for covert racism and microaggressions. Black employees won’t feel comfortable addressing the issues they face, in fear it could jeopardize their good standing for a promotion or raise, and the back-handed remarks or pressure to perform continues. Employees of color are enduring and suffering longer hours and more mental demands, and their white counterparts are getting to “fail up.”
How Can We Accelerate This in the Workplace?
The dissolution of the Black tax won’t happen overnight, and frankly, it will be difficult to measure its extinction over time. Still, we can take steps to ensure employees feel psychologically safe, are provided equitable opportunities for success, and aren’t subjected to more work or mental pressures.
The first step can be hardest for most; we must acknowledge that a Black tax exists. If we are Black, it can mean coming to grips with a reality we wish were in our rearview mirror. It can look like us exploring feelings of inadequacies or sacrifice. It can be struggling with a system that we resent but must learn to survive in any way. For those who do not experience such a tax, the first steps include shrinking your ego to ensure the big picture isn’t missed. Even if silently at first, it’s knowing that your Black colleagues are putting in more work, albeit it mentally, emotionally, or strategically, to be seen at the same level as their white peers. It’s accepting that when Black, you have greater pressures to represent a race, outperform your peers, and overcompensate negative stereotypes. It’s not taking their smile or word that “everything’s fine” at face value.
Examining your own bias, conscious or unconscious, and fostering objectivity amongst team members is one of the greatest aids in fighting discrimination in the workplace. I recently took a deep dive into this topic in an earlier piece when discussing the dangers of having people “fail up.”
Though there are many other concepts to apply in practice, the first step is admitting we have a problem. Though it’s impossible for non-BIPOC to understand our struggles first-hand, we need everyone to leverage their various privileges to unpack the heavy weights society has shackled to marginalized communities. To believe a person of color’s story isn’t without turmoil, double standards, and sacrifice is to dishonor the Black experience entirely.
Continue Reading: How to Leave a Legacy You’re Proud Of: An Open Letter to Professionals at Every Career Stage
