There’s an unspoken truth in many professional spaces: sometimes it isn’t your work ethic, your qualifications, or your experience that shapes your career trajectory. It’s whispers. It’s phone calls behind closed doors. It’s being labeled “difficult,” “not a team player,” or “troublemaker” simply for daring to speak up.

In many industries, blacklisting has become a sophisticated tool of modern white supremacy.

While it rarely looks like formal bans or written records, the impact is just as devastating. It thrives on coded language, informal networks, and silent agreements to shut certain people out. And too often, those people are Black.

The Intent Behind the Smear

Smear campaigns often start not because someone was unprofessional or incompetent, but because they disrupted the status quo. Maybe they challenged a racist comment. Maybe they questioned a biased policy. Maybe they had boundaries. In a white-dominated workplace culture that values compliance over conscience, accountability is punished, not welcomed.

Smear campaigns are deliberate.

They may start subtly: exclusion from meetings, vague negative feedback, or being left off key projects. But they grow. Stories are shaped and reshaped. Reputations are weaponised. And the person at the centre is often unaware until opportunities start disappearing.

It’s not just that people talk—it’s what they say, who they say it to, and what doors quietly begin to close as a result.

The Intricacy of Informal Power

White supremacy in the workplace doesn’t always operate through official policies. It often works through social capital and unspoken influence. It’s in who gets the benefit of the doubt, and who is believed without evidence.

In this system, informal whispers about a Black professional can travel faster and carry more weight than any formal performance review.

This is why Blacklisting is so hard to prove. It’s not always in writing. It’s not always traceable. But it functions like a quiet quarantine, slowly boxing someone out of their career.

The Impact on Wellbeing and Social Mobility

The psychological toll of being blacklisted is enormous. Being ostracised, misrepresented, or silenced can lead to anxiety, depression, and burnout. It fractures self-esteem and isolates individuals who once believed in the merit of their work.

More than that, it limits social mobility. When someone is informally blacklisted, job offers dry up. Networks retract. References go cold. Their trajectory stalls. And this isn’t just about one job—it’s about the cumulative effect on wealth building, economic opportunity, and long-term professional fulfilment.

It sends a chilling message to other Black employees too: “Stay in line. Don’t challenge us. Look what happened to them.”

What Employers Must Do to Break the Cycle

To be on the right side of equity, employers must refuse to be complicit in blacklisting. Here’s how:

1. Conduct fair and independent hiring processes. Don’t rely solely on backchannel references. Judge candidates based on their actual performance, not unverified gossip.
2. Create mechanisms for anonymous reporting of smear tactics and retaliation. Protect those who speak up.
3. Educate hiring managers on how bias manifests in informal influence. Ensure they understand the racialised impact of language like “not a good fit” or “a bit too outspoken.”
4. Audit who gets called back and who doesn’t. Look for patterns in how candidates from marginalised backgrounds are filtered out.
5. Publicly commit to fair hearing policies. Let candidates know they will be assessed on their merits, not informal narratives.

Let the Work Speak, Not the Whispers

People talk. That will never change. But what must change is who we believe, what we tolerate, and whose voices we trust.

Black professionals should not have to trade their truth for their livelihood. We need workplaces where accountability is not punished, where integrity is not a liability, and where excellence isn’t quietly erased by bias.

White supremacy evolves. So must our awareness, our policies, and our courage to challenge it—even when it hides behind a smile and a “quick call.”

Truth doesn’t need a backchannel.

Stop the whispers. Break the cycle. Hire with integrity.

Don’t let bias block Black brilliance.