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The idea of what is "professional" in any working environment is essentially a collection of cultural biases formed by the in-group. It is inherently gendered & racialised. Often (not always) the concept of being "unprofessional" is the flimsy facade of a more nefarious bias.
It's an amorphous concept which has such limited utility. We shouldn't care about people being professional - we should care that they are authentic. And if their authenticity creates problems, then treat this as a moment of reflection and discussion.
I'm writing this reflecting on when I first worked in London and was pulled to one side & reprimanded when I... expressed to my colleague that I felt she'd been rude to me in a meeting. Not very British, I was told. Talk to your manager instead. Better to "be professional".
Achieving "diversity" (in the reductive sense that's become most pervasive) doesn't mean hiring some marginalised folks & calling it a day. An actual diverse workplace guides different people with different norms towards a place of acceptance & understanding with each other.
Interrogating how we project our sense of "professionalism" onto others is a great starting point to doing the excavation required to understand how discrimination becomes institutionalised. Most collective concepts we readily accept are not neutral and never were.
