Posted on 10/31/2005 2:11:10 PM PST by Graybeard58
Minorities can have their careers derailed by their tone of voice or hairstyle, a new study shows.
During her years as an attorney for one of the top international law firms in the United States, Angela Williams looked forward to defending clients. But sometimes she was not given the chance.
"When it came time for an opportunity to represent Fortune 500 companies on huge cases, even though I might have had trial experience over and above my white male colleagues, they were chosen," says Ms. Williams, who is African-American.
In an age of diversity, when many companies point with pride to their multicultural workforce, a sobering reality remains: Minority professionals often find their career ambitions thwarted by hidden bias - what workplace experts call the new face of discrimination. "Acting white," they say, can be the price of promotion in a business world where white men account for 98 percent of CEOs and 95 percent of top earners in Fortune 500 companies. Diversity does not always extend to the executive suite.
"Minorities are getting stuck in the early stretches of career structures," says economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett, whose study of minority professionals appears in the November Harvard Business Review. "They are not getting promoted and advanced at a rate commensurate with their weight in the talent pool."
In a survey of more than 1,600 minority professionals, Dr. Hewlett and Princeton professor Cornel West found that sterling credentials can be overshadowed by personal and cultural traits. Everything from cornrows, ethnic jewelry, animated hand gestures, and certain manicures can leave colleagues thinking, "You're different."
Forty years ago, it was very easy to see prejudice, Hewlett notes. "People wore it on their sleeve and enshrined it in law. Today, it's much more subtle, but it's pervasive. Whether it's a tone of voice or hairstyle or accent, the cumulative impact can be brutal and can derail a career."
The study comes just weeks after Neil French, the creative director of WPP Group, reportedly explained the small ranks of female advertising directors by saying that "they don't deserve to make it to the top" because of their family obligations. He resigned over the flap.
While the proverbial glass ceiling remains one obstacle for women and minorities, Hewlett identifies another barrier - a "Jell-O floor" that keeps them mired in negative stereotypes.
Over 40 percent of minority professional women in large corporations say they feel excluded and constrained by "style compliance" - the need to blend into a corporate culture dominated by white men. More than a third of minority men feel the same way.
"The pressure is added for minority professionals because we don't necessarily come from the same background as those in leadership positions, and we haven't had the same experiences," says Williams, a vice president of Sears in Chicago.
A quarter of minority businesswomen worry that they are perceived as "affirmative action" hires. In addition, nearly a third of minority female executives are concerned that their speaking style labels them as lacking leadership potential.
"Asian women executives were convinced that they weren't commanding enough in their tone of voice, and were not assertive," says Hewlett. "African-American managers were quite sure they spoke too loudly, were too threatening."
One woman, a native of India who works as an IT executive at a Fortune 500 company, learned that colleagues regarded her as quiet. "There are people who talk just to be talking," says the woman, who asks not to be identified to protect her job. "That's not my style. People said, 'She's quiet.' Management perceived that I didn't have leadership quality. Eventually people said, 'But when she says something, it's valuable.' The last few years, I haven't heard them talk about this 'quiet' thing."
Both whites and minorities must adapt, she says. "People like me coming to Western society and working here have to figure out that there are certain things you have to do, that you have to project certain things. That becomes part of the norm of being a successful professional leader."
Referring to Americans' views of professionals from India, she says, "There's a stereotype that they're very good technically, you can rely on them, but they're not really the leaders of tomorrow." Yet she is encouraged by changes at her firm. "They're looking for diversity candidates like me who can grow."
Invisibility - not being heard or seen - remains an issue for women of color, says Ella Bell, an associate professor of business at Dartmouth. "If a woman of color speaks up to make her point, it will just plop. A white male will pick it up and all of a sudden it's bells and whistles." White women might have similar experiences, she adds, but not to the same degree.
Professor Bell also notes a reverse challenge: "You become visible when they need an affirmative action poster child to show that they're making a good attempt to connect to minority communities. That kind of visibility doesn't contribute to the bottom line, so it doesn't help when it comes to promotions."
Another form of invisibility occurs outside the office. To a much greater degree than their white peers, minority professionals spend off-hours doing charitable work. One-quarter are religious leaders. Nearly 30 percent are mentors to needy young people. Forty percent engage in a variety of social outreach activities. Yet many remain silent at work about this service.
"The work they do in minority communities, which is leadership, is very important, but their corporate managers never know about it," Bell says. "It doesn't get counted. Meanwhile, John Doe, who happens to be Caucasian, is on the United Way board or the arts council. It's a big deal."
Hewlett tells of a young woman who formed Girl Scout troops at homeless shelters in Washington, D.C. She received an award at the White House for her work but had not told her boss about it.
"She was afraid to," Hewlett says. "She thought it would imply that a homeless shelter was the kind of background she came from, and she didn't want to be stuck with that label."
Being open about outside activities can bring rewards. When Sears hired Williams as chief compliance and ethics officer, she was told that part of the reason she was hired was because she was both a successful lawyer and an ordained Baptist minister. "The general counsel said to me, 'Who better to be the conscience of the company than a lawyer and a minister in one person?' If people really felt free to let corporate America know the things they are involved with outside their 9-to-5 jobs, that can be an enhancement to their performance on the job."
Williams, who counts fewer than five minority CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, sees progress. But, she adds, "We still have a long way to go."
Eral Burks, CEO of Minority Executive Search in Cleveland, also finds bias camouflaged.
"Companies talk about bringing on more minority board members and senior executive staff, but they're always finding excuses why they won't hire a prospective candidate," he says. "They weren't really interested in hiring, but it looks good that they brought people in. A lot of companies don't think there are qualified minority candidates."
Some firms are designing strategies to combat hidden bias. These include benefits that serve extended families.
Pointing out that minorities have spending power, Mr. Burks says, "They're going to be buying your product or service. They're starting to look at companies and say, 'Why should we spend our money here if your senior staff looks a totally different color?' "
Some CEOs, he adds, "are becoming aware that it makes good business sense to get senior-level staff on their team. They're very positive about wanting to hire more executive minorities and women candidates."
They may not even be conscious of it. My wife noted that whenever I "go home" to the South and start talking with old friends, that I immediately "revert" to "Southern-speak".
Problem was, I had no idea that I was doing so---it was totally subconscious.
I want you to show me where I was "whining about reverse discrimination".
The truth is that minorities are unfairly given opportunities they do not deserve, because of affirmative action. If they want to correct the situation, then eliminate affirmative action and all minority set asides. When there is fair acceptance, then people will know you got the job legitimately, and not because your only qualification was skin color. The minorities should do what white males do, when they are discriminated against, they start there own companies.
Also, why do these cry pieces never mention, Oprah Winfrey, or Bill Cosby, or the sport figures who are some of the richest people in the country. They have seemed to do just fine and did not need affirmative action.
Negative stereotypes, like 'women are more likely to sue for sexual harassment'?
I know many of these folks personally, and all of them found out the hard way that you can't act like an "NWA" if you want to get ahead in the white collar world. A female friend of mine was frustrated by this at first, but learned to adjust.
That comment wasn't directed at you.
I catch myself doing that too, then I just tell myself, "well, I must be bilingual"
"I'm dying to know what "acting white" is..."
It means being educated and competant.
"In a survey of more than 1,600 minority professionals, Dr. Hewlett and Princeton professor Cornel West found that sterling credentials can be overshadowed by personal and cultural traits. Everything from cornrows, ethnic jewelry, animated hand gestures, and certain manicures can leave colleagues thinking, "You're different." "
racism is a word used by some to try and take advantage of other people-those that pretend not to be racist are in state of confusion-charles rangel is the perfect example-if i don't want to do certain things does it make me evil-hell no-it makes the person or group trying to force me to do what they want arrogant-if GOD had of intended us to be the same he would have made us that way-don't never let groups such as churches, clubs, gov'ts tell you what you must do not to be racist-because if they do they are the racist not you-communisn in the form of democracy is evil
See, now, that's what I want to do . . . the question is where the market exists for someone with my skill set to be used as a consultant.
Believe it or not, when not before cameras Bush speaks much more sharply and with almost no discernible regional accent.
Total manure.
When you have "educated" lawyers who still use slang and mispronunciations like "aks" for ask or pronouce the "t" in often like an illiterate, of course those will be picked up.
It has nothing to do with skin color, it has everything to do with proper english.
I don't think you'll see many white professionals rising to high positions while sporting complicated hairdos (whether cornrows or mounds of artificial curls), large/loud jewelry (whether of a "minority ethnic" style or the stuff WASPy and Jewish grandmothers are notorious for), or "certain manicures" that obviously interfere with the use of the hands and advertise that the wearer is very determined that people focus attention on her fingernails. And "animated had gestures" are for people who have trouble expressing themselves orally -- also a career-killer for for anyone of any racial or economic background.
I would SO buy a t-shirt that said "Kill the Honkeys."
This has far more to do with socioeconomic class than it has to do with ethnic group.
What is apparently invisible to the ethnic minorities quoted herein and, seemingly, the authoress, is that the very same thing happens to working class and middle class whites in upper crust law firms, corporations, and brokerages. And it has always been that way.
There are all sorts of little cultural cues that people give off which, if one is not a member of the particular "inside" class or caste are all but invisible, but if one is, are all but impossible to miss. These are not taught, but they are learned. They have to do with clothing choices, eyeglass frames, jewelry (more accurately, the lack of jewelry), verbal syntax, accent, conversational topics, interests, body language, and on and on and on. It is another form of education, and it begins very shortly after birth.
That lack is what the authoress, and her subjects, are missing but do not realize that they are missing. And at this point in their lives they are highly unlikely to be able to learn enough to be able to "pass", even in the allegedly classless American society. This, too, has always been this way. There may be tutors who are able to convey and teach theses cultural cues available - think about the character of Professor Higgins in "My Fair Lady" and you get close to the mark - but I doubt that there are very many.
where's the projectile vomit alert?
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