"Why Don't You Want to Work for a Black Publication?"

Hello {{ first name | friends}},

It's funny how time gives you perspective. For example, in a podcast interview earlier this year, I talked about a job I held as an editor for a national organisation in the UK. In the main, I've always thought of it as a pretty positive experience, but even then I realised there were days when I experienced microaggressions and racism, so was it really that positive?

Perhaps I should have known when a member of the interview panel for that job asked me the question in the title. Here's the backstory…

I'd been living in London, and had decided that if I were ever to afford a house I needed to move. Since I had close friends in the Midlands, and didn't intend to spend my whole life as a hermit, I started looking in that area. As luck would have it, an opportunity came up to work for a national organisation focused on education, and the CEO did a first interview with me when I was in London. That went swimmingly and I was invited for a second and final interview with the board.

As boards do, the board consisted of several men and two women. And the board chair had an attitude from the time I entered the room. I presume that the CEO had told him I was a Black woman but he still seemed surprised when I turned up. There was a definite double-take.

Then, after the usual run through of my credentials for the job, which weren't really in question, he asked:

"Why don't you want to work for a Black publication". He added "like The Voice" - which was and is still, I believe, the top Black-focused publication in the UK.

Now, bearing in mind how previous questions of this ilk had temporarily floored me, I could have been flummoxed, but this was an interview, so I quickly replied:

"Because I'm a human being who's interested in everything, not just those things that might seem to be relevant because of my skin colour."

He didn't know what to say, and the interview was over soon after that. Not long after, I was informed that I'd got the job.

But again, this idea that Black people must be pigeonholed into "allowable" areas is ridiculous. This idea that we might only have competence in those areas is also ridiculous.

In me, they were getting someone with almost a decade of journalism experience at that point, adept at both writing stories and managing publications, plus someone who was well versed in the then newish digital publishing technology (learned, by the way, in two Caribbean countries).

He was willing to put all that aside because the colour of my skin was a bridge too far for him. Silly man!

I was grateful that I'd made a great impression on the CEO and on the rest of the board (because, you know, I'm soooo articulate - eye roll). But I have to say that the person who'd asked that question (with whom I then had to work regularly as part of the organisation's editorial board) never warmed to me.

In fact, he made it his business to ask tough questions to try to make me look bad. And I made it mine to always be fully prepared, if not over prepared, so he never succeeded in that aim.

The things we go through....

Here's a point of reflection for you all.

If you're a person of the Global Majority, how have you dealt with this kind of question.

If you're not, ask yourself if you've ever been more suspicious of or unfriendly to job applicants simply because of their identity. And promise to do better from now on.

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

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I am an anti-racism educator and activist, the author of “I’m Tired of Racism”, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast.

© Sharon Hurley Hall, 2025. All Rights Reserved. This newsletter is published on beehiiv (affiliate link).