2025-05-19
23 分钟This is The Guardian.
Today, how not to get pigeonholed.
There's a place no one wants to end up.
The pigeonhole.
No one wants to be the token black person.
the only senior woman,
the wheelchair user who ends up front and centre in the company picture but can't seem to catch a promotion.
Gary Young knows that feeling all too well.
As one of the few black columnists in Britain,
he's carried what he calls the burden of representation for more than 30 years,
including almost 27 spent at The Guardian.
He's now a sociology professor at the University of Manchester.
But many of you...
And definitely I remember him as one of the paper's most thoughtful and interesting opinion writers.
Earlier this month, he delivered a fascinating lecture in London,
entitled Pigeonholed, Creative Freedom as an Act of Resistance.
And in it, he outlined all the dangers of the pigeonhole.
But, he says, quoting the Black British artist Chris O'Feely, pigeons can fly.
From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pidd.
Today in Focus, Gary Young on how to cope with the burden of representation while keeping your job,