Belonging is a Practice

Not a Performance

I’ve been in spaces charities, schools, organisations, that claim to care about trauma, about inclusion.

On their websites. In glossy brochures. In mission statements.

But behind the scenes? Staff from Global Majority backgrounds are told to just hold it in, to smile through micro-assaults, to push through without the support structures they were promised.

That is belonging performed, not lived.

And that pattern mirrors what our nation does on a bigger scale: insisting we’re Christian, insisting we’re inclusive, insisting we’re developers of community, while hoarding power, denying truth, raising flags but not lifting burdens.

Performance vs Practice

Performance is the tidy picture.

The Instagram post. The “diversity award.” The anthem sung under flag-waving photo-op.

Practice is the hard work when no one’s watching.

Practice is checking who’s really supported when systems get tough.

Performance asks for applause, practice demands accountability.

I remember being in a workplace that called itself “trauma-informed.”

Their posters said it. Meetings said it. But when a staff member from a Global Majority background spoke up about emotional labour, the response was silence and sometimes hostility.

That’s performance with a veneer of values.

It’s what belonging looks like when words are used to soothe guilt, not to fix harm.