PODCAST EPISODES

Recognizing that traditional workspaces cause mental, physical, and financial harm for many Queer Transgender Black and Indigenous People of Color, Bianca Shaw, a Licensed Social Worker, co-founded TRIBE Co-Create, a cooperative business focusing on connecting Black and Brown small business owners, creatives, and doers in the Bronx, New York. Bianca has dedicated her career to amplifying the voices and power of marginalized communities and through TRIBE, she has created a healing space for the community that also promotes innovation. We chat about how traditional workspaces and values around productivity may cause harm and why Bianca believes people of color, particularly Black people, need their own spaces. 

Topics Covered: 

• How workspaces can be detrimental to our health
• How capitalism and individualism influence our views around productivity and work structures
• The impact of workplace stress on our health
• How white supremacy shows up in the workplace 
• The intersection of race, class, gender in the workplace
• Why people of color need their own spaces
• The healing and transformative potential of Black spaces 
• Whether spaces for and by people of color are segregationist
• The difference between a cooperative and co-working space
• Why Bianca created TRIBE Co-Create
• Business principles of TRIBE Co-Create
• How TRIBE competes with gentrification in the Bronx
• Challenges in creating a cooperative workspace

Highlights:

• “We have adopted this idea that our value is intrinsically tied to what we can produce. We are taught that what we are able to create in this world gives us our value.”
• “All people of color need a space where they can be their whole Selves, where they never have to question whether how they show up is being policed or surveilled by someone else.” 
• “When we center and honor the experiences and the needs of Black folks, particularly Black women and transwomen, everyone benefits.”
• “You don’t have to work within traditional constructs of businesses to be successful.”

Connect with Bianca: 

On Twitter: @tribecocreatebx

On Instagram: @tribe_cocreate

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tribecocreatebx

Other References: 

• Jeff Pfeffer, How your workplace is killing you, BBC, May 2, 2018.
• Shana Lynch, Why Your Workplace Might Be Killing You, Stanford Business, Feb. 23, 2015
• Brigid Schulte, The Way We Work Is Killing Us, Slate, Apr. 24, 2018
• Kelsey Blackwell, Why People of Color Need Spaces Without White People, The Arrow, Aug. 9, 2018

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