In her debut book Authentic, Jodi-Ann Burey argues the call to ‘bring your full self’ can leave people of color exposed
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n the opening pages of Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, the writer Jodi-Ann Burey issues a provocation: the commonplace injunctions to “come as you are” or “bring your full, authentic self to work” are not benevolent calls for self-expression – they’re traps. Burey’s debut book – a combination of memoir, research, cultural commentary and interviews – seeks to unmask how companies co-opt identity, shifting the burden of institutional change on to individual workers who are already vulnerable.
The impetus for the book lies partially in Burey’s own career trajectory: various roles across corporate retail, startups and in international development, filtered through her experience as a Black disabled woman. The dual posture that Burey experiences – a push and pull between asserting oneself and seeking protection – is the engine of Authentic.
It lands at a moment of collective fatigue with institutional platitudes across the US and beyond, as backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs mount, and many organizations are scaling back the very structures that once promised change and reform. Burey enters that terrain to argue that retreating from authenticity rhetoric – that is, the corporate language that trivializes identity as a collection of aesthetics, quirks and hobbies, keeping workers preoccupied with managing how they are perceived rather than how they are treated – is not a solution; we must instead reframe it on our own terms.
