Obama’s and Romney’s Microaggressions: Part One

Posted on May 19, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

Vic H., I remember him well.  Vic was in my class in high school in Pleasantville, New York.  Yes, there is a town by that name.  Vic’s clothes weren’t considered stylish and he buttoned the top button of his shirts, definitely not cool at the time.  It seemed Vic was agitated much of the time.  He would come up to you and ask you your birthday, and usually we told him.  From then on, Vic would refer to each of his classmates by his birth date, and that would elicit a laugh and typically some pretty weird looks.  I think back to Vic, and we were not very nice toward him.  We viewed him as an oddity; my friends mocked him and I did nothing.  Vic had virtually no friends.

I am not proud of how I behaved around Vic.  Interestingly, Vic’s autistic-like behaviors are similar to my son Jimmy, who was diagnosed as autistic early in his life.  But when I was in high school, we had never heard of autism.  And if we had, I am not sure it would have mattered.

Vic encountered microaggressions each day in high school.  Microaggressions are those daily insults and indignities that we engage in, often unthinkingly, that can make life difficult if not painful for “others.”  Others are those people who are different.  Sometimes the spotlight is on them, whether they like it or not, and sometimes they are invisible.

During the past few weeks, Mitt Romney made headlines because of his alleged bullying behavior in high school.  While attending prep school in Michigan, he was a prankster, and played jokes at other people’s expense.  And his classmates described how Mr. Romney, on one occasion, allegedly helped hold down a student who was “different” and cut his hair.  Romney does not recall this microaggression.

A few years ago, President Obama was on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.  Leno asked him about putting a bowling alley in the White House and Obama scoffed at that idea, responding with a big smile that “his average bowling score of 129 was like the Special Olympics or something.”  The White House later apologized for this microaggression, on behalf of the President.

Next week:  Part Two (Responding to their Microagressions:  Obama and Romney)

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Tweeting Hidden Bias

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

What do we make of tweets that are racist, sexist, or perhaps homophobic?  Are these people ignorant?  Are they simply “blowing off steam,” without thinking of the consequences?  Or might they be signs of hidden bias, bias that typically remains hidden and is buried beneath our consciousness?  In recent weeks, racist tweets have been directed at a movie, The Hunger Games, and the only black player on the the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Some would argue that these individuals are not racist, rather, they are simply venting without really thinking about what they are saying.  Isn’t that the definition of hidden bias?  For those of you who are not aware of the concept hidden or implicit bias, you might want to access the Implicit Association Test (IAT) dealing with race – the Race IAT (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ )  The idea behind this test is this.  When you see pictures of people of different races, do you tend to associate positive images with one race and negative images with another.  In other words, do you make certain negative assumptions about people simply based on the color of their skin?  The test is timed, so that you do not have much time to dwell on your answer.  Rather, it is spontaneous.

Aren’t many tweets like this?  In a moment of anger, we tweet away.  Or after we have drunk one too many and relax, we tweet something that we later regret.  Or maybe, these words and images are just so imbedded in our psyche that we don’t even think about it, especially if we are not in a formal setting.

While some would write off these racist, sexist, and homophobic tweets to stupidity, insecurity, or immaturity, it is more likely that hidden bias is at work.  Maybe these tweets are more reflective of how some people really think and feel.

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Racism: A More Inclusive View

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

Racism is one of the most powerful words in the English language.  Trouble is, racism tends to conjure up different images in the minds of Whites and Blacks.

Consider the circumstances surrounding the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, the beating of Rodney King in L.A., and the murder of James Beard in Jasper, Texas.  In each instance, Whites have been inclined to play down racism as a factor.  On the other hand, Blacks are significantly more likely to see racism at work.

Forget Blacks and Whites for a moment.  Social marginality has a significant influence on our perceptions.   We might be marginalized because of our social class, our appearance, our gender, our religion, our age, or maybe our sexual orientation.  When we are marginalized or on the “outside looking in,” we see things that we might not see if we were insiders.  We see beyond the individual.  We see beyond random occurrences.  We see history, we see patterns, we see things rooted in the larger society.

Back to racism.  If we see it as an anomaly in a so-called post-racial society, an isolated occurrence, a character flaw, then we see one thing when we look at the Trayvon Martin case.  But if we see what happened in Sanford, Florida and the Stand Your Ground Law as systemic, as institutional, as behavior that is embedded in how we conduct business everyday, then we see something quite different.

When evaluating racism, it is important to closely examine the individuals involved, their motives and their past history.  But by the same token, it is equally important to broaden our focus, and examine the historical and social context of what took place.  Only then can we appreciate why Blacks and Whites often see different things.  And only then can we get a better feel for racism, and whether it is relevant to a particular situation.

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Dick Clark’s Diversity Consciousness

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

Dick Clark will be remembered for many things -American Bandstand, his business acumen, host of game shows, his broadcasts on New Year’s Eve, and the like.  However, it is worth noting that his diversity consciousness helped make all of these ventures successful.

His communication skills, and specifically his ability to connect with a variety of audiences, were noteworthy to say the least.  He established a rapport with teens and adults alike.   And he found that by wearing a suit,  tweaking his pitch, and presenting a non-threatening image, adults were a bit more tolerant of this new fangled music called rock and roll.

He broke racial ground. Even though there were concerns about racial mixing at that time, blacks and whites shared his dance floor and entertainers of all races  shared the same stage.  Moreover, live audience seating  in the studio was desegregated.  Clark introduced a number of black artists on American Bandstand, such as Chuck Berry and Chubby Checker.

When he had a stroke in December, 2004, he had to miss his annual New Year’s Eve show the next month.   Stroke victims wanted him to continue the following year, even though his speech ability was affected.   But some in the press disagreed, saying he wasn’t up to it.  Clark said, “I had to teach myself how to talk and walk again.”  For Clark, it was a long, hard fight as he put it, but he continued with his New Year’s Eve broadcasts and by doing so, served as a role-model for many people with and without disabilities.

Clark’s diversity consciousness needed work at times.  There were times when he said things he shouldn’t have said, and took the easy path rather than the tolerant path.  But that is not unlike each of us.  Our growth in this area is not linear; rather, there is growth, stagnation, and regression at times.  Clark’s diversity consciousness, and his ability to understand the connection between diversity, music, and entertainment, is worth remembering.

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Hidden Bias and Stay-at-Home Moms

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

In case you missed it, political pundit Hilary Rosen made news last week when she told Anderson Cooper that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney should think twice about relying on his wife to tell him what women really care about. Rosen went on to say that Ann Romney,  ”had never worked a day in her life. “  Ann Romney, a stay-at-home mother, quickly took issue, rightfully making the point that this “job” is hard work.  I might add it is work that often goes unnoticed and tends to be undervalued.

What are we to make of this comment?  First, it is not a Republican versus a Democratic issue as some have made it out to be.  Nor is it news.  This type of hidden bias has infiltrated the thinking of many men and women for decades, irrespective of political affiliation.  Even though some may pay lip service to the challenge and difficulty of being a stay-at-home mom, how many of us give this role the utmost respect it deserves?

Like other hidden biases, this type of thinking may leak out, unconsciously.  Comments like, “Are you just a stay-home mom?” speak to this bias.   Or comments like Hilary Rosen’s.

But as some stay-at-home moms remind me, they are not in it for the “props.”  Rather, this role is rewarding to them, more rewarding than any paying job, no matter how lucrative or prestigious it is.

Given the diversity of women today, and their increasing importance in terms of the upcoming Presidential election, both Obama and Romney would do well to move beyond the working mom versus stay-at-home mom debate.  And they would benefit from reaching out to many women from very different backgrounds , and listening to their stories, concerns and needs.

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Teachable Moments and Continuing Conversations

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

Already, the conversations regarding Trayvon Martin have begun to dissipate.  But that does not have to happen, if we use Trayvon’s death as a teachable moment.  Some good can come out of this tragedy, some continuing conversations if you will.

How many of us prejudge people because of their headwear and clothing?  While it is easy to focus on George Zimmerman and the assumptions he might have made about Trayvon because of his hoodie, how many of us have done that very same thing, whether it be a hoodie, a hairstyle, a hijab or a burqa, or maybe a turban?

How many of us view the Trayvon Martins and George Zimmermans of the world simply as individuals, and forget about the larger social context?  By the same token, how many view what happened as a commentary on the criminal justice system and race relations in the U.S., and forget about Martin and Zimmerman as individuals, with unique personalities, talents, interests, and backgrounds?

Perhaps people of different ages are inclined to view this tragedy differently.  Yesterday, I was talking to my daughter, a millennial, and she made the point that people of her generation are less likely to put Martin and Zimmerman in “racial boxes” so to speak.  Rather, many variables other than race are relevant.

What we learned from the incident involving Professor Henry Louis Gates, the continuing relevance of the classic, To Kill A Mockingbird which was written some fifty years ago,  the racial profiling of Danny Chen and other Asian-American soldiers, and the refusal of many voters to even consider voting for Mitt Romney for President simply because he is a Mormon are all unfinished conversations.  We need to continue to discuss these both privately and publicly, with our students, our children, our friends, our community, and our country.

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Our Feelings About Trayvon

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

I teach at Baltimore City Community College (BCCC).  BCCC has a population that is predominantly African-American.  As a Professor of Sociology, I hear about all of the issues, concerns, and feelings that my students bring to class with them each day, stuff that they cannot leave at home or even in the school parking lot.  These past few weeks have been difficult for my students, to say the least.

In the wake of the news coming out of Sanford, Florida, many of my students feel helpless and vulnerable.  Many of them feel that the Trayvon Martin tragedy is nothing new, nor is it limited to Sanford, Florida or any other locale in the U.S.  Rather, they see it as endemic, as societal, as institutional.  One of my students said, “You could go around the room and ask my classmates; each one has a Trayvon Martin story to share.”  Another commented, “We are all Trayvon Martin.”

If I was teaching elsewhere, would I encounter the same deep sense of loss, the same raw feelings exhibited by my students?  We see the world through different lenses, through different hearts shaped by different life experiences.  We process different things when we hear about injustice, whether it is Trayvon Martin, Rodney King, Emmett Till, or one of the innumerable invisible victims who does not make the news each day.

Many people of all races are calling for truth and justice.  Many are calling for cultural sensitivity and respect, by law enforcement and the entire society. That is a good thing.  Many people are using the Trayvon Martin tragedy as a teachable moment.  For BCCC students who are parents, they continue to visit and revisit lessons with their children, lessons that revolve around sociology, and more specifically, profiling, prejudgments, and other forms of intolerance based on the color of one’s skin or perhaps what someone is wearing.  Why?  Because these are real to them, and their children’s welfare could depend on knowing this information and how to react.

We all have a stake in pursuing the truth as far as Trayvon Martin is concerned.  And we can all relate to this incident.  We all know what it is like to feel vulnerable, to feel the sting of injustice, and to feel the loss of a loved one.  The focus and extent of our empathy in this tragedy should not be limited by our race, our ethnicity, or some other dimension of diversity.  We are all Trayvon, and we are all in this together.  As Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

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Institutionalizing Diversity: Keep on Pushin’

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

Institutionalizing diversity and inclusion is an elusive goal for many organizations.  When something is institutionalized, it is built into the heart and soul of an organization.  For example, diversity is built into an organization’s mission, assessment, strategic plan, core values, policies and procedures, and very simply, the way it conducts business on a daily basis.  It is not ghettoized in the human relations department or relegated to a few “diversity champions;” rather, it permeates the entire institution.

It has been my experience, at least in higher education, that many leaders are personally committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, but they often fall short when it comes to institutionalizing that commitment.  Therefore, when they leave an organization, a good chunk of the CEO’s work in the area of diversity goes out the door or goes with them.

Recently, I came across a quote from a Baptist preacher who was active in the Civil Rights Movement.  He said, “Dialogin’ with an institution is like pissin’ on a turtle.  It pulls in its head n’ feet, when you’re dun’ just goes on in the same ol’ direction it was goin’ in the firs’ place.”

For those of us who have spent our lives and given our hearts to the promotion of  diversity, it is easy to tire of “pissin.’”  And yet, in the words of Curtis Mayfield, we need to “keep on pushin’…some way, somehow,” and take heart in a process that is anything but linear, and often times yields small incremental gains.

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The R-Word: Intent v. Impact

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

The R-word has been getting a lot of attention lately.  Jane Lynch, of Glee fame, and other celebrities have made concerted efforts to educate the public regarding the r-word and other social slurs.  Health professionals and the federal government have been directed to refrain from using the term “retarded.”  On March 7th,   “National Spread the Word to End the Word Day,” many school systems circulated a pledge supporting the “elimination of the derogatory use of the r-word” as well as the “acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.”

As the father of a son with a disability, my family has experienced the social, psychological, and emotional effects of this word on numerous occasions.  For instance, I remember my daughter coming home crying one day after someone referred to her brother as a retard.  Just yesterday, another woman addressed the word’s continuing impact when she confided to my wife, “When I hear that word,  it still stings my heart.”

However, much of the time the r-word is simply used casually in everyday speech.  In these instances, individuals may use the r-word to describe a stupid idea or criticize someone who happens to be different in some way.  In these instances, many people have no idea why this term can have such a powerful, negative impact on others.  Witness the conversation my wife, a middle-school teacher, had last week with one of her students.  After talking about her family and some of her experiences with the r-word, my wife asked if any of her students wanted to sign “the pledge.”  Nearly all of the students proceeded to sign, but one student had second thoughts.  She said:

Student:  “When I use that word, I don’t mean it like that.”

Teacher:  That may not matter, if you are using it to mean stupid or gross.”

Student:  “But I don’t think that, and I don’t mean it about ‘those’ people.”

Teacher:  “Do you ever use the word “retard” as a compliment?”

Student:  “Well, er, no.”

Teacher:  “I don’t think you meant to use it that way either.  I just think you’ve never really thought about it.”

After this exchange, the student sat down at her desk.  Five minutes later, she got up and quietly signed the pledge.

All too often, we assume that intent and impact are synonymous.  Because our intentions are not meant to disparage a group of people, then our comments are OK.  We need to remember, and help our children remember, that nothing could be further from the truth.

 

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What Organizations Can Learn About Diversity from the Jeremy Lin Story: Part Two

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Dr. Bucher

4. Diversity is critical to the bottom-line.  Jeremy Lin would not be getting all of this attention if the Knicks were still losing.  Rather, he is the missing cog that has helped transformed a team.  He was in the right place at the right time, and surrounded by teammates who were anxious to buy into a common goal.  Certainly, the team and Lin will continue to adapt, sometimes regress, and then push ahead.  But the bottom line is winning, and Lin has enabled them to do just that; on the court, in the public eye, and on the Knicks’ balance sheet.  Shares of the company that owns the Knicks have skyrocketed in value.  Also, just try purchasing a Knicks basketball jersey with the name Lin on the back.  They cannot make them fast enough.

5.  Credentials only tell us so much.  Credentials are abstractions, simplifications.  Yes, they are important.  But certain people, people who do not “look the part,” have a harder time getting noticed and “credentialed” so-to-speak.

6.  Racism is still alive and well in the workplace today.  We still believe that people who look like Jeremy Lin can or can’t do certain things, on or off the basketball court.  The idea that all the hype around Lin is simply because he is Asian is hogwash.  The advertisement posted by ESPN, after Lin had a bad game, read “C—-ks” in his Armor.”  We understand the power of the “N-word,” but what about the “C-word?”

7.  People react to social barriers in a variety of ways.  Some buckle under the weight of barriers.  Others ignore them, and still others use barriers as motivation.  Jeremy Lin has done the latter.  He hears talk about how he is deceptively athletic, and deceptively quick.  Why is his athleticism deceptive?  Could it be because he is profiled as an Asian American?  He understands what he is up against, and it only motivates him to try harder and prove his doubters wrong.

8.  A diverse workforce can broaden our reach and make us more successful.  The Asian community, both here and abroad, are now following Lin in much greater numbers.  And perhaps people of all races and backgrounds, who don’t “look the part” identify with Lin.  It is documented that many people who are following and watching the Knicks at this point are not necessarily NBA fans.  Maybe it’s because they are enthralled by this story of an underdog who makes good.  Or maybe Lin comes across as a breath of fresh air, in a league dominated by overblown egos.

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