The production of difference and “becoming Black”: The experiences of female Nigerian doctors and nurses working in the National Health Service

Nkechinyelu Ann Edeh, Sarah Riley and Patrizia Kokot‐Blamey

Gender, Work and Organization, 2022, vol. 29, issue 2, 520-535

Abstract: In this article, we combine theory from cultural theorist Stuart Hall with phenomenological psychology to analyze the experiences of female Nigerian doctors and nurses working in the National Health Service (NHS). Drawing on 32 interviews with 24 nurses and doctors, our empirical analysis demonstrates how encounters with patients, colleagues and the structures of the NHS collapsed these health care professionals' identities into a single category of Black that produced them as racially different and inferior – a process we describe as “becoming Black.” In this analysis, we emphasize the utility of Hall's legacy to organizational analyses of experience, and the importance of centering race in such works, thereby adding to the wider literature on discrimination and identity. Hall's contributions offer us a framework for conceptualizing identity as in process, as arising in dialog with another, and framed in a historical context shaped by colonialism. Through a phenomenological lens we explore these identity processes, drawing out racialized experiences, and demonstrating “becoming Black” as a form of symbolic violence with real effects related to psychological distress and workplace precarity.

Date: 2022
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