Book

Alcalde, M. Gabriela, author.

What your comfort costs us : women of color reimagining leadership and transforming workplace culture to promote dignity, equity, and liberation for all / M. Gabriela Alcalde, MPH, DrPH.

Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2025]

©2025

xxv, 225 pages ; 23 cm

"Leading for survival, leading for liberation -- how to uplift women of color, transform cultures of complicity, and upend white supremacy culture at work. Workplace leaders: white comfort comes at the safety of women of color -- and it costs lives and livelihoods. Microaggressions, structural barriers, unpaid emotional labor: WOC in leadership disproportionately bear the burdens of white supremacist work cultures, even as they're expected to take charge of reforms. But building better workplaces -- less toxic, racist, and misogynistic workplaces -- is everyone's responsibility and for everyone's benefit. And letting it fall solely to women of color is causing real harm. The stakes are high, and it's past time for change. What Your Comfort Costs Us offers essential reading and transparent advice for leaders who are ready to address structural inequity at work. With chapters like "Talking About Racism is Hard," "Checking the Boxes," and "Uncovering the Added Burden and Toll of Unpaid and Unseen Emotional Labor," anti-supremacist philanthropic and nonprofit leader and author M. Gabriela Alcalde challenges us to rethink how we engage power -- and take radical action toward reorienting it toward collective liberation. You'll learn: How research-backed analysis and practical solutions can transform workplace culture; How systemic racism and structural violence show up at work (in ways you may not expect); What happens when workplaces shift to prioritizing WOC's material safety over white comfort; Insights and real-life wisdom from 10 women of color in leadership; How white allies and accomplices can show up and step up authentically. Interwoven with Alcalde's own experiences, professional expertise, and proven recommendations on how to do better, this book is a necessary guide to nurturing empathy, challenging complacency, and activating meaningful allyship. Alcalde awakens your potential to transform workplace cultures beyond business-as-usual bandaids, offering critical wisdom for systemic change and authentic collective empowerment at work." -- Back cover.

Racism in the workplace.

Discrimination in employment.

Sex discrimination in employment.

Diversity in the workplace.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-213) and index.

Introduction -- Section 1 : Claiming space by telling our stories -- Understanding the difference between safety and comfort -- Talking about racism is hard -- Checking the boxes -- White people tell me who I am -- (Invisible) structural barriers to leadership and leadership resources -- Section 2 : Supremacist origin stories -- Don't tell me about it -- White supremacy is the air we all breathe -- Divide and conquer -- Having the last word -- When white women do white supremacy's dirty work -- Section 3 : Silence and inaction as harm -- You just sound so confident and competent -- Complicit silence -- I'll just take equity out! -- The added burden and toll of unpaid and unseen emotional labor -- Section 4 : The system will not be complicit in its own demise -- Understanding and recreating the container -- Containers of culture -- Inspecting the scaffolding -- Leading for survival, leading for liberation -- Section 5 : Leading outside the lines -- Dreaming of a new way -- Dimensions of care, rest, and healing -- Beyond us and now -- Appendix : Survey findings.

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