...When I first heard Black American coach Greg Pennington speak at the ‘Black Voices in Coaching’ research conference, held at the University of East London, in June 2024, I was struck by stating, ‘I’ve evolved into a digestible black man’ (Pennington 2024). There was a moment of silence where we took in the reality of what that meant for us, followed by some unpacking of the impact of that sentence.
Pennington then asked us to consider the idea that it would be easy for the hegemonic individual to listen to him if he was ‘digestible’. His provocation: ‘when I exercise the power of that relationship, will you listen to me?’ (Pennington 2024) gave voice to the unspoken reality that the flow of power is primarily one way from those in the hegemonic groups of power to those who are marginalised. This impacted my entire being. Finally, I had language to describe the extra effort I put into simply existing and being accepted. At the conference of primarily Black coaches, the lingua franca of Christianity was sprinkled into most conversations—I did not relate and felt like an outsider even within the conference for my demographic. Adapting Pennington’s idea into my context gives the phrase ‘digestible Muslim woman’ which starts to articulate what I have become in order to be somewhat accepted. Sharing this with colleagues enabled me to voice something that had thus far been unspoken and resulted in my conference colleagues further exploring the nuance of othering/including and belonging with me.
Featured research · Open access An autoethnographic study of how one Muslim woman is received in practical theology, executive coaching and coach training, and the “emotional tax” she describes paying to take up leadership roles.‘Every One of You Is a Leader’: Investigating the Experience of Being a Brown British Muslim Woman in Professional Contexts
