Running head: PROFESSIONALISM WILL NEVER SET US FREE

Professionalism Will Never Set Us Free

Point of View Essay
Eric Lopez
SDAD 5760 Leadership and Governance
March 9, 2015
Seattle University

PROFESSIONALISM WILL NEVER SET US FREE

I remember growing up my family members engrained into me that was going to be a

professional of some sort and make our family proud. They insisted I was going to be wearing a
suit and have my own office because I had brains. I come from a family of Mexican
immigrants who are all laborers that can only dream of sitting in an air-conditioned office. To
them that was not part of their reality. They did not have the opportunity I had. I internalized
those messages and told myself I was going to make it big and be a professional one day. That
goal is becoming a realitysort of.
Fast forward to 2013 when I was sitting at my first and only NUFP Pre-Conference and
having presenters and organizers stress the importance of professionalism and networking with
higher education professionals during the NASPA national conference. They stressed it was vital
to start establishing connections because these were the higher education leaders that would help
us get connected to the field of student affairs. I felt an innate anxiety staring at the networking
bracelets they wanted us to use to help build connections. I sat there thinking how would I
network? What did that even look like? Why do I have to look professional? How did I as a
first generation, low income, queer Chicano male fit in this White notion of professionalism? I
could not figure it out. I spent the remainder of the conference attempting to force myself to
network because it was what I had to do. This experience really made me question whether or
not I truly wanted to choose this as my career path.
When I hear act or look professional I hear act White and fit into a narrative that
was not built for people like you but do it so that you can be taken seriously. Professionalism is
a social construction that was constructed and embedded in Whiteness as a tool to maintain and
hold power. The origins of it are inherently oppressive. Its used as a tool to uphold White

PROFESSIONALISM WILL NEVER SET US FREE

heteropatriarchy. Constructed and used by White males as a tool to network and get ahead in
their careers. Professionalism is and will continue to be inaccessible to marginalized
communities (women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, (dis)abled folks). Professionalism asks
these folks to rework their identities to fit into this narrative. Unless we deconstruct the problems
with professionalism, it will continue to uphold and perpetuate White supremacy.
As marginalized folks, we often have internalized our oppression so much that we begin
to adhere to respectability politics to fit the narrative and to get ahead. Professionalism is deeply
tied to politics of respectability. The politics of respectability are a set of rules and guidelines
that people of color must adhere to in order to be deemed respectable and be taken seriously.
These are unwritten and normalized rules where people must speak more eloquently, dress more
professionally, act reserved, not raise their voice and other behaviors in order to be deemed
respectable. We often start to believe that the only way to triumph is to appease to the standards
that people who hold the power have set. This will never work. I repeat. This will never work.
Marginalized folks who center respectability often make claims like if people of color stopped
dressing like thugs or stopped acting ghetto then people would take us seriously. Appeasing
to the standards of people who hold the power will never truly set marginalized folks free.
People who hold the power have never taken us seriously. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed
and he always wore a suit. I know why people do it and where the implications come from but
we must learn to think critically about this concept. Marginalized communities adhere to these
rules and guidelines to be seen as human. By centering and prioritizing professionalism we will
continue to perpetuate these politics and not really deconstruct what the root of the issue is.
There is also something inherently classist about professionalism. It creates a dichotomy
of desirable and undesirable jobs. During a time where folks are making barely livable incomes

PROFESSIONALISM WILL NEVER SET US FREE

the last thing they need is the financial stress of needing to purchase professional clothes. By
upholding professionalism we are looking at how well people adhere to codes and rules rather
than looking at their character and assets. Professionalism creates a culture where low-income
folks do not see themselves as having access to these jobs and professions since they do not fit
the narrative. That is why changing this culture of professionalism is essential.
In addition to that, professionalism is very restrictive, especially in higher education. It
controls people from being able to be their authentic selves by policing behavior and creates a
culture of fear. In higher education, it can build a barrier for people to be able to effectively
create a community amongst their students and establish human connection. Creating this
atmosphere can become toxic and does no good for the educational experience. The power
structures inherently embedded in professionalism help influence the way we approach our work.
Creating this culture of professionalism does not support the experiences of first-generation, low
income, LGBTQ students, and students of color.
I have heard many times from student affairs practitioners that they want people to show
up to work as their authentic selves. That becomes difficult to do when conceptualizations of
professionalism cause us to change and rework our identities to fit the mold. To this day, I will
dress up a little more when I know I will be meeting or seeing someone with a lot of power on
campus. I do it because if I do not, I feel people will attribute it to my race or another salient
marginalized identity I hold. I do not have the luxury of existing in the world every day without
carrying those identities with me so I constantly negotiate how if I do not play the game how it
will be perceived by others. I have been socialized to code switch my entire life. It becomes
painful, exhausting, and violent.

PROFESSIONALISM WILL NEVER SET US FREE

I hold a lot of privilege in being able to take this stance against professionalism. I am
very immersed and part of the culture and perpetuate it by continuing to watch the way I speak,
the persona that I give off to my peers, and how I am being perceived by students. We need to
establish a culture where folks can come to work and be unapologetically themselves. I
completely understand why there is a culture of professionalism when working with students. I
get it. But as educators and social justice advocates we need to think about the oppression we are
perpetuating. Networking is important in the connections and coalition building we are making
to better serve our students. But it must be reworked and looked at differently so that that it is
encompassing of all identities. I think back to that experience I had at NASPA and how it shook
me. How I felt it was not welcoming of whom I was as a person and the way I walked the world.
We need to rethink professionalism as it does more harm than good. Professionalism will never
set us free. Respectability will never set us free. For the masters tools will never dismantle the
masters house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never
enable us to bring about genuine change. Audre Lorde