Beyond the Mess: What The Breakfast Club Reveals About Black Women and the Workplace

Jun 29
4 min read

The recent on-air tension between Jess Hilarious and Lauren on The Breakfast Club may look like your average radio drama, but beneath the surface lies something far more urgent: a reflection of how systemic inequities show up in the lives of Black women at work. What played out over airwaves is not just entertainment, but a case study in how Black women are often set up to clash, coded as “angry,” and left to resolve complex dynamics without institutional support.

It is important to understand that this is not gossip. This is a moment of cultural clarity. The entertainment lens may blur the lines, but what happened on The Breakfast Club is a mirror of the power struggles Black women face in boardrooms, classrooms, hospitals, and other workspaces across America.

The Loaded Language of “Unprofessionalism”

The label "unprofessional" serves as a potent and hazardous instrument for controlling Black women in professional settings. Jess Hilarious, recognized for her forthright, humorous, contentious, and spontaneous character, qualities for which she was presumably hired to generate controversy, has been branded with this term. However, a critical question arises: unprofessional in whose eyes?

Black women’s tone, facial expressions, “ghetto actions”, or confidence are often misread as defiance. According to the 2021 Lean In report, Black women are more than twice as likely as women overall to be described as 'too loud' or 'too aggressive' in the workplace. This isn’t a coincidence. It’s a continuation of a long history where Black women are punished for refusing to shrink themselves.

“Unprofessional” is often a stand-in for “too Black,” “too direct,” or “too confident.” In reality, it’s the weaponization of respectability politics, rooted in white supremacist standards that reward assimilation and punish authenticity.

Internal Conflict as Clickbait and a Corporate Pattern

In the case of Jess and Lauren, the dynamic is layered. Jess, returning from maternity leave, found her temporary replacement now permanently installed and given an on-air voice. Understandably, she felt blindsided, perhaps even displaced. While some of her reactions were sharp and emotionally charged, they weren’t “unprofessional.” They were human. And more importantly, they were shaped by a deeper context: Black women are too often 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣-𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚, only to be gaslit when they react.

Media companies, like many corporations, are not innocent here. They often exploit moments of internal tension for ratings and virality. This isn’t just about The Breakfast Club, it’s a broader issue of how Black women are pitted against one another in environments that benefit from our division, not our solidarity.

Yet, in the midst of conflict, we saw something powerful: Lauren setting boundaries with grace, and Jess ultimately acknowledging those boundaries. Their exchange became a rare, public glimpse into what healthy conflict resolution can look like when Black women are given the space to own their feelings and grow.

A Call to Black Women

The path forward doesn’t lie in performative professionalism. It lies in collective care and community building.

Black women deserve workplaces where they don’t have to choose between being real and being respected. We need structures that value healthy disagreement, not weaponize it. We need to be seen as multidimensional leaders, not threats.

Here’s what that looks like:

Affirming Our Right to Be Vocal: Black women should never be shamed for expressing frustration or setting boundaries. Emotional expression is not aggression, it’s agency.
Refusing the Trap of Comparison: We can reject the narrative that there's only room for one of us at the top. Collaboration, not competition, is our resistance.
Building Sisterhood in Every Space: Whether it's mentoring another Black woman, advocating for a colleague, or just checking in, relationships rooted in care disrupt systems designed to isolate us.

Everyone Has a Role to Play

The workplace won’t change unless people inside it decide to change it. Here’s how individuals and companies can take meaningful action:

For Individuals:

Challenge “Unprofessional” Bias: Ask what’s really behind that label. Who gets to define professionalism? Whose culture is being centered?
Amplify Black Women’s Voices: Share the mic. Credit ideas. Make space.
Model Respectful Dialogue: Conflict doesn’t have to mean disrespect. Show what accountability and growth look like.
Stand in Solidarity: Use your position, whatever it is, to advocate for Black women’s full humanity.

For HR and Leadership:

Establish Real DEI Accountability: Not just one-off trainings. Long-term strategy with measurable outcomes.
Improve Transparency: Keep employees informed about changes that impact them directly. Trust starts with honesty.
Center Black Women in Policy Creation: If you’re making rules about inclusion, include the voices of those most excluded.

Culture Shift Starts with Us

If we only focus on the drama, we miss the lesson. The moment between Jess and Lauren wasn’t a media circus, it was a teachable moment. One that exposed the fault lines of race, gender, and power in corporate and creative spaces.

It’s time to reimagine professionalism.

To move beyond respectability.

To create environments where Black women are 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙙, 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙙, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙖𝙞𝙙.

This is bigger than The Breakfast Club.

This is about all the rooms we walk into and who gets to speak, who gets to stay, and who gets to lead.