Dr. Ifeanyi Ukpabi, Post-Doctoral Fellow, St. Louis Anchor Action Network, and Affilaite Faculty at UMSL Dept of Sociology.

While many black professionals understood that their merits could earn them success in their workplaces, they repeatedly acknowledged that their racial status would present difficulties in climbing the corporate ladder. To address this concern, Black professionals doubled down on racialized self-management practices to challenge racial ideologies that diminish their value in the workplace.

This research complicates DEI efforts by arguing that racial equity initiatives must work in tandem with the reevaluation of profit-centered stratified labor relations to ensure meaningful inclusion for Black employees.