Professionalism is often presented as a universal, apolitical framework for conduct in the workplace. It is framed as a set of expectations designed to promote efficiency and competence but it’s deeply intertwined with colonialism, racial hierarchy, and the construction of social norms that privilege certain identities over others. 

At its core, professionalism governs how people are expected to speak, dress, behave, express emotion, and relate to others in institutional settings. These expectations are treated as common sense but they are ideological impositions that disproportionately regulate and suppress marginalised identities.

The modern concept developed within European and North American institutions and as a result, many of its foundational assumptions reflect the values of those who historically held power: white, male, economically privileged, and neurotypical populations.

The roots of professionalism can be traced to back to Enlightenment ideals that elevated reason, restraint, objectivity, and individualism as the highest forms of human behaviour. European thinkers frequently portrayed themselves as embodying rationality while depicting colonised peoples as emotional and impulsive. The "civilised" subject became synonymous with the disciplined white European man, while those who differed from this model were marked as inferior.

Professionalism inherited this legacy. It continues to define legitimacy through standards that closely resemble the characteristics historically associated with white European norms. The ideal professional is calm, controlled, emotionally restrained, articulate according to dominant linguistic conventions, and able to separate personal experience from objective judgment. The consequence is a system that privileges those who naturally align with these norms and punishes those who do not.