Sistas Rebuilding Sisterhood: Navigating Microaggressions & Emotional Labor (February 2026)

Navigating Microaggressions, Bias, and Emotional Labor When Working With Non-Black Women is a 90-minute virtual conversation within the Sistas Rebuilding Sisterhood series, hosted by Conversations in Color and facilitated by Lana Reid.

Many Black women find that cross-cultural working relationships — even in well-intentioned, progressive, or “inclusive” spaces — require an uneven amount of emotional regulation, self-monitoring, and relational labor. This exhaustion is not always rooted in overt conflict, but in repeated patterns that require Black women to explain, soften, translate, or absorb discomfort in order to keep collaboration moving forward.

This February 2026 conversation creates space to thoughtfully examine these dynamics without blame or defensiveness. Together, participants will reflect on lived experiences, identify recurring patterns, and explore ways to engage more clearly and sustainably.

Conversation themes include:

• How microaggressions often show up through curiosity, compliments, or “helpful” corrections

• The gap between intent and impact in cross-cultural collaboration

• Emotional labor that goes unnamed but is consistently expected

• Generational approaches to navigating bias, silence, and self-protection

• When allyship feels conditional rather than reciprocal

Rather than centering grievance, this session emphasizes discernment, boundaries, and shared understanding — asking how Black women can protect their energy while remaining effective, grounded, and whole.

This conversation is part of Sistas Rebuilding Sisterhood, a monthly virtual gathering for intergenerational Black women committed to honest dialogue, reflection, and rebuilding community on our own terms.

Facilitated by Lana Reid, founder of Conversations in Color and creator and host of The Male Perspective, this session offers a grounded space for naming reality, exchanging strategies, and reducing the isolation many Black women experience in cross-cultural environments.