Adele*, a Londoner in her early 30s, remembers finally getting a job interview in 2021 after sending out hundreds of job applications for administrative and personal assistant roles. Prior to the interview, she was told on the phone that her CV “looked amazing” and that the employers were really looking forward to the interview. When she arrived on the day, there was only one woman interviewing her.

“I went in, and upon arrival, she realised I wasn’t white,” Adele tells Stylist. “The interview process took a complete turn. She kept maximising the job role and was just going through the motions. She was never going to give me a job.”

At another job interview, Adele used the last of her money to travel on the bus. “I was desperate,” she describes. “I wasn’t eating properly. I was in debt. I was behind on rent. But when they saw I was Black, the interview lasted 10 minutes. You can’t find out about me in 10 minutes. It was demoralising.” On the bus ride home, she thought about how she’d probably go hungry that night because she forfeited her food money to travel to a job interview she didn’t get.

Adele eventually secured a job as a customer service clerk and was the only Black woman in the department. She experienced frequent microaggressions, including being told that her lunch smelled. “They tried to get rid of me – to sack me for things I didn’t do,” she says. “I didn’t realise until after I’d left that they had paid me £1,000 less than my white counterparts who were doing the same role as me. I mentioned it to my manager, and he just dismissed me.”

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