Atmospheric and Seismic Turbulence in HRD

What happens when the rains of racial disdain flood and disturb the plane of the workplace? What happens when prejudicial and discriminatory events unfold and shake the ground beneath one’s feet? Atmospheric pressures, dangerous tempests, and earthquakes of great magnitude erupt and are the language forms of an unsettling racial reality. Utilizing meteorological and geological expression I aim to deliver a lesson on racialized experiences in the workplace that is rooted in my own lived experience as a Blackened being. Here, the main character is revealed to be a Blackened man who remains in conflict with his environment—unforgiving social and workplace milieus. Though the setting for this tale is the ivory tower in the American South, the applicability to other arenas is encouraged. And this text aims to explicate, through meteorological and geological terms, the intricate details of the racist/anti-Black grammars and imaginaries that are birthed and perpetuated in the spaces many Blacks labor. For many a Blackened laborer, the environmental conditions in the arena of the workplace are a critical unfolding that become the dispiriting record of one’s institutional days. Illuminate we must the conditions which inspire atmospheric and seismic disturbances for Blackened peoples. Ultimately, the story’s charge is one that aims to encourage human resource development professionals and scholars to meditate on how they might maneuver the winds, alter the thermostat, build storm shelters, or construct sturdier foundations for those most susceptible to the violent environmental theatrics of the workplace. Also, human resource development (HRD) scholars must reflect and consider the factors which are the catalyst for powerful environmental disturbances. Specifically, HRD scholars must consider their role in perpetuating atmospheric violenceatmospheric violence.