#onthisday

6 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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Black women in professional settings often shift from being treated as valued "pets" to being seen as threats when they gain confidence and assert themselves. The speaker describes how this dynamic leaves many unaware they're being pushed out for the same qualities that initially made them seem appealing.

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So the phenomenon of pet to threat typically happens to women, particularly Black women, when they are embraced and groomed by organizations until they start demonstrating high levels of confidence and excel in their role, a transition that may be perceived as threatening by employers. So having experienced that phenomenon a lot in my career, I understand how you can go from a pet to threat, and many Black women experience this in their work Lives, but they don't recognize what it is because we don't talk about it. But yeah, this is how you become an issue or a problem or difficult to work with, because you excel at your job and they don't like that. They like you to stay as a pet. But once you show up as yourself and show up as the great phenomenal self that you are, then you become a problem.