The Ways Being Authentic at Work May Transform Into a Trap for People of Color
Within the opening pages of the publication Authentic, speaker Jodi-Ann Burey poses a challenge: typical injunctions to “be yourself” or “show up completely genuine at work” are not harmless encouragements for personal expression – they’re traps. Burey’s debut book – a mix of memoir, research, cultural critique and interviews – seeks to unmask how organizations co-opt identity, moving the weight of corporate reform on to employees who are frequently at risk.
Professional Experience and Wider Environment
The impetus for the publication lies partially in Burey’s own career trajectory: various roles across retail corporations, startups and in worldwide progress, viewed through her experience as a Black disabled woman. The dual posture that Burey experiences – a push and pull between standing up for oneself and aiming for security – is the engine of Authentic.
It lands at a period of collective fatigue with organizational empty phrases across the United States and internationally, as resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs mount, and many organizations are scaling back the very structures that once promised change and reform. The author steps into that arena to contend that backing away from the language of authenticity – that is, the organizational speech that reduces individuality as a set of aesthetics, quirks and hobbies, leaving workers focused on handling how they are viewed rather than how they are handled – is not an effective response; rather, we should redefine it on our own terms.
Marginalized Workers and the Performance of Self
By means of vivid anecdotes and conversations, the author demonstrates how employees from minority groups – people of color, LGBTQ+ people, women workers, employees with disabilities – quickly realize to adjust which persona will “be acceptable”. A vulnerability becomes a drawback and people overcompensate by attempting to look acceptable. The practice of “showing your complete identity” becomes a projection screen on which all manner of expectations are projected: affective duties, sharing personal information and continuous act of thankfulness. As the author states, we are asked to share our identities – but lacking the safeguards or the reliance to survive what arises.
‘In Burey’s words, workers are told to expose ourselves – but without the defenses or the confidence to withstand what emerges.’
Illustrative Story: An Employee’s Journey
The author shows this situation through the account of Jason, a employee with hearing loss who chose to teach his team members about the culture of the deaf community and communication norms. His willingness to discuss his background – an act of transparency the workplace often praises as “sincerity” – for a short time made everyday communications more manageable. But as Burey shows, that advancement was precarious. When staff turnover wiped out the informal knowledge Jason had built, the environment of accessibility disappeared. “All the information departed with those employees,” he states tiredly. What stayed was the weariness of being forced to restart, of being made responsible for an institution’s learning curve. From the author’s perspective, this illustrates to be told to share personally absent defenses: to face exposure in a framework that praises your openness but fails to institutionalize it into procedure. Authenticity becomes a snare when companies rely on employee revelation rather than institutional answerability.
Literary Method and Idea of Resistance
The author’s prose is simultaneously clear and lyrical. She blends intellectual rigor with a style of connection: a call for readers to participate, to interrogate, to oppose. According to the author, workplace opposition is not loud rebellion but ethical rejection – the effort of opposing uniformity in environments that expect gratitude for mere inclusion. To dissent, in her framing, is to interrogate the narratives organizations describe about fairness and acceptance, and to decline engagement in customs that perpetuate unfairness. It might look like calling out discrimination in a discussion, choosing not to participate of unpaid “diversity” effort, or defining borders around how much of one’s identity is provided to the institution. Opposition, she suggests, is an declaration of individual worth in spaces that often praise obedience. It is a practice of principle rather than defiance, a method of maintaining that a person’s dignity is not based on institutional approval.
Reclaiming Authenticity
She also refuses inflexible opposites. Authentic does not merely discard “sincerity” completely: rather, she calls for its redefinition. For Burey, sincerity is not the unfiltered performance of individuality that organizational atmosphere frequently praises, but a more intentional correspondence between individual principles and individual deeds – a honesty that opposes manipulation by organizational requirements. As opposed to treating genuineness as a requirement to disclose excessively or conform to cleansed standards of transparency, Burey urges followers to keep the aspects of it rooted in honesty, personal insight and principled vision. In her view, the aim is not to give up on sincerity but to shift it – to move it out of the boardroom’s performative rituals and to relationships and organizations where confidence, justice and responsibility make {
