Dr Kathomi Gatwiri

Korean adoptees worldwide are grappling with a devastating possibility: they were not truly orphans, but may have been made into orphans.

For decades, adoptees were told they were “abandoned”, “rescued” or “unwanted”. Many were told their Korean families were too “poor” or “incapable” to raise them – and they should only ever feel grateful for being adopted.

But these long-held stories are now under scrutiny.

Our recent research interrogates the narratives that have obscured the darker realities of intercountry adoption. Rather than viewing adoption solely through the lens of “rescue”, our work examines the broader power structures that facilitated the mass migration of Korean children to western countries, including Australia.

Racial microaggressions in the workplace are “passive” or “casual” racism. They occur within the parameters of what is considered appropriate within a work culture. In my research on racial microagressions, participants reported experiencing relentless patterns of disrespect that they described as being so subtle that it made them question whether it was ‘all in their minds’. Microagressions can be enacted through comments, jokes, humour, and subtle acts of exclusion. Despite their hidden and subtle nature, there is nothing micro about microagressions. In this article, I discuss six common forms of racial microagressions in the workplace

My recent study published in the British Journal of Social Work has found workplaces can be “battlegrounds for racism”. Racial microaggressions in the workplace generally take covert or subtle forms, and may be conceptualised as “everyday” or “passive” racism that serve to invalidate or inferiorise the expertise of Black people while positioning white expertise as the standard of “best practice”. In this article, I offer a brief synopsis of my research which reported on the experiences of racial microagressions for highly skilled Black African professionals at work and the ways in which these are expressed.

Race informs how Black parents raise their children in Australia. Our study, published in the journal Child and Family Social Work, found it complicates parenting in ways that non-Black parents might not have to consider. We interviewed 27 highly skilled professional African migrants from eight different Sub-Saharan African countries about their experiences of employment, belonging and parenting in Australia. Parents of Black African children told us they had to consider how race affected the identity, perception, opportunities and well-being of their children.