Cultural IQ

Putting A Price Tag on Hate

My girlfriend I decided last year to stop supporting groups, companies and organizations that profit from selling messages of hate.  I am not talking about the KKK, the Nazis, or the Black separatist groups, mind you.

 

We agreed to stop watching TV shows, movies and video games and listening to music that promote violence, fear and/or hate. I am less afraid of the world now, and that’s a good thing. When we actively defend ourselves against the poisons of hate, we lead healthier lives.

 

Even when one makes a conscious effort to avoid hate, it is hard to do so. Just read the websites of the most popular newspapers: ugly words are a normal part of life. Hurtful bumper stickers and messages are everywhere. 

 

 Recently, the Philadelphia Inquirer had to implement stringent new reader accountability standards because of the foul language and hate-filled comments on its site. The internet has given wave to a new group of hate-driven entrepreneurs, as the Economist reports:  

“rednecks can find lots of material on the web with which to fuel and indulge their prejudices. For example, there are “suicide-bomber” games which pit the contestant against a generic bearded Muslim; such entertainment has drawn protests both in Israel—where people say it trivialises terrorism—and from Muslim groups who say it equates their faith with violence. Border Patrol, another charming online game, invites you to shoot illegal Mexican immigrants crossing the border.”

 

As a business reporter, one learns quickly to get the real story, just follow the money. If you want to understand the world’s fascination with hate and violence, you have to look at the millions of people worldwide who make a darn good living from it or its offshoots. You have your terrorists; gun companies; hate groups; safety and security businesses;  worldwide defense companies and arm dealers; private prisons and security contractors, and the list goes on.

 

Hate, unfortunately, is a profitable industry. Unlike the mortgage business, the recession is good for profits. When subprime loans first came out, it did not take a rocket scientist to figure out that it was not a good idea to loan money to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back. Or to charge people with good credit high rates or extra fees.

 

Yet, that’s exactly what some banks did. Ultimately, the entire market paid the price: credit-savvy homeowners can’t sell their homes now because there is so much foreclosed property on the market. (The Wall Street Journal reported this week that 55 percent of all subprime loans went to white Americans. It was not a minority problem, as some news shows have portrayed.)

 

Bad policies and practices create waves of despair that, ultimately, drown the community. The violence of the streets begins to take the lives of innocents who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The homeowner with good credit who loses his job can’t get his home equity out because lending standards have tightened. He loses his home even though he would have paid the money back. Violence, hate and fear swiring around us begin to pollute our decision-making; after awhile, we we can't tell the good people from the bad ones. 

 

The world's culture of hate and violence will continue to exist as long as people make big bucks from it. That leaves people of faith and from all religions with a question: Is it right for us to continue to sit quietly while these groups prosper? 

Do We Still Need African American Newspapers?

A Bi-Partisan Group Says We Must Restore Faith In the Judicial System:
It Took an African American Newspaper  to Tell the Story

The Tri-State Defender in Memphis, TN. has been putting some interesting questions to the U.S. Justice Department. Recently, it called upon the U.S. Attorney in the Western District of Tennesse to release information and statistics regarding workplace diversity, fairness, and its decision-making processes. The request came after black leaders complained publicly they were being unfairly targeted by the US Attorney's criminal division.

The disturbing news is the Justice Department declined to release those figures. (This is basic information many corporations make public on their websites.)  So the tiny newspaper with the editorial staff of three had to take time from its busy week to file paperwork under the Freedom of Information Act. (Wouldn't you think that an organization charged with protecting civil rights might feel a need to make its own track record public?)

I must disclose that I write regularly for the Tri-State Defender in Memphis, mainly because the man who is executive editor is a friend and life coach. His name is Karanja Ajanaku and he was my co-worker at the Commerical Appeal in the 1980s.  Karanja recognizes that the city's future is tied to local leaders ability to improve educational access and accelerate economic growth in the African American community. He is not just an advocate for African American people; he is a voice for a strong economy and a prosperous and secure future.

This past week, the Tri-State dug up another story that many local and national newspapers overlooked or didn't consider important enough to print. You must read this story and send it onto your friends. This is an important bill:

The Justice Integrity Act of 2008 is designed to increase public confidence in the judicial system and identify racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal process. It would establish advisory groups in ten federal districts, under the supervision of the United States Attorney General, to study and determine the extent to which racial and ethnic disparities are found in  various stages of the criminal justice system;

People often ask me why we need an African American media, or a NAACP, or any organization that focuses on African American challenges. The Tri-State Defender has answered this question for you today.

We need an African American media because every newspaper has its own priorities for coverage.  Minority stories, issues, and views don't always find their way into the daily newspapers. Minority communities need to maintain independent voices so they can broadcast these concerns.

African American media often ask questions that simply may not occur to mainstream reporters. They can publish stories that African American journalists at major dailies can't get into their publications. They view issues through cultural lenses and, thus, help broaden the debates and fill the fountains of knowledge.

 No matter if you are white, black, yellow or brown - support the diversity of news voices within your community. (This includes Jewish newspapers,) Take out a subscription today. If you are business, place an ad.

By all means, support the mainstream newspapers as well. We need all of them to ensure the right questions are asked, and a rich diversity of inspirational stories are woven into the tapestry of American history.

A Boy and His Hair: A Diversity Fable

WILL NEEDVILLE WRITE A HAPPY ENDING?

Business consultant R. Roosevelt Thomas  has a diversity fable about a giraffe and elephant who decide to work together in the giraffe's home.

Problem is, the elephant is wide and the giraffe is tall. A door that fits one poses hurdles for the other. A multitude of challenges arise. How high do you put the work tools? What  type of furniture do you buy? What do you serve in the cafeteria?

After clashing in the space, the elephant and giraffe get together to discuss their differences. The giraffe, who owns the building, says to the elephant, the newcomer: Well, you could change. You could lose weight so you fit in the doorway and go to ballet lessons so you are more graceful like me.

Yeah, that would solve the problem.

In fairyland, the elephant and giraffe might become partners and build a new plant that works for both.  In the world of humans, however, it is far more likely that the elephant will end up at the nearest weight loss center - at least until he or she finds another work option.-

This fable sets the stage for a controversy brewing in Needville, Texas. The Houston Chronicle reports that the school board has denied a request to let a 5-year-old boy with long hair attend kindergarten this fall.

The parents of Adriel Arocha say the boy wears his hair long for religious reasons, but his shoulder-length locks are in conflict with the district's hair code. The father say the hair is part of his Native American heritage.

OK, let's examine the fable's lesson In this case, the school board is the giraffe, and the newcomers are the elephants. The giraffe owns the house so, ultimately, he feels he ought to make the decision. He has three choices: modify the house; partner with the newcomers who are different to build one that fits both , or establish strict rules that require the elephant to adapt to his look and lifestyle.

 One would hope that the Needville School District has research indicating that long hair impairs classroom performance and student learning. When they find it, I hope they share it with the rest of the world. When they release it, I hope  they tell us what they are doing to address issues like classroom biases and expectations, which stand to have even greater impact on learning. (If this is about learning, then address the big stuff along with the small)

This moment is pregnant with possibilities. How often do leaders get to write a happy ending? How often does a city get to make a decision that will define its future?

 Will leaders build a new house, modify the old one, or continue to ask those who are different to change so they can fit in?

Our Right to Say the Wrong Thing

If I were an editorial cartoonist itching to poke fun at the politics of fear, here's what I might do:

First, I'd show you a group dressed in KKK robes standing around a bonfire. The figures would be carrying signs: They will take away our jobs. Protect your family. Underneath I'd have a caption that reads: The Politics of Fear - 1950s.

Next, I'd show you a reserved group in pin-striped suits with red, white and blue ties sending out bulk e-mails to white Americans stating: "Barack Obama is going to give away our jobs. You won't be safe. Protect your family."

The caption: The Politics of Fear - 2008: The clothes are different but the message still is the same.

You see, if I wanted to poke fun of the politics of fear as the New Yorker magazine recently sought to do, I'd make fun of the people who actually are spreading hate and fear – not the people getting pummeled. Three decades as a journalist has taught me a simple truth: the average Joes don’t laugh much when you opt to beat up on the folks getting sick from tainted vegetables – instead of those growing them.

Americans like it when the good guys win.

If we had an advertising campaign, and it didn't sell our product, we might all agree "Fire the advertising agency. The campaign concept was to blame." If we had a magazine and it didn't sell, we might say: "Get rid of that editor. Neither the topic nor the writing were interesting." If we had a hospital where every patient got worse, we might say: "Fire the doctors. They are to blame.”

If a cartoon intends to poke fun of the politics of fear but ends up tormenting a hate group's  victims instead, the cartoonist must be held accountable.  He had a bad day! He failed in his task. We must ask, calmly, "Why? What happened here? Could it be the lack of diversity or cultural literacy at the New Yorker (and the rest of the magazine industry, hint, hint)?"

A democracy gives individuals the right to a bad day at work, plus, the right to say the wrong thing. We can call the boss and CEO liars, even if it sends our company's second quarter results into a tailspin. We can yell “fire” whenever a big client arrives cause it seems like big fun.  We can continuously harass a female worker by asking her out for a date. We can fail to manage our racial, cultural or gender biases, sparking costly fires in our own backyard.

The fact that we can do it doesn't mean we should.  If all of us rose from bed tomorrow and exercised those rights, what would happen to foreign diplomacy and our softening economy?

Somebody has to be a responsible citizen or else this nation won't survive.  

An Apology That Is Good for the Heart and the Soul

CHICAGO, Ill. - The American Medical Association (AMA) has apologized for its past history of racial inequality toward African-American physicians.

n 2005, the AMA convened and supported an independent panel of experts to study the history of the racial divide in organized medicine, and the culmination of this work prompted the apology. Details of the panel's work will be made public on the Web site of the AMA's Institute for Ethics to coincide with publication in the July 16 Journal of the American

"The AMA is proud to support research about the history of the racial divide in organized medicine because by confronting the past we can embrace the future," said AMA Immediate-Past President Ronald M. Davis, M.D. "The AMA is committed to improving its relationship with minority physicians and to increasing the ranks of minority physicians so that the workforce accurately represents the diversity of America’s patients."

"Five years ago, the AMA joined with the National Medical Association and the National Hispanic Medical Association to create the Commission to End Health Care Disparities," said Dr. Davis. "Our goal is to identify and study racial and ethnic health care disparities in order to eradicate them. We strongly support the ‘Doctors Back to School’ program, which the AMA founded, to inspire minority students to become the next generation of minority physicians."

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After a tragedy or mishap, people in a healthy community need time to heal. They need to nurse their hurts and pains. When they are ready, they could and should move forward.

The AMA's apology was a step toward building a healthier American community. It transcended politics and race, and focused on good medicine. When doctors and patients don't trust each other; understand each other or communicate well, they can't fight disease as well.

 Diversity is helping to build these connections. We are interdependent rather we like it or not.

Anatomy of a Cultural Collision

What Went Wrong? How to Stop It From Happening to You!

Recently a friend forwarded me a blog post about a exchange reported in the Dallas Morning News.

"A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections "has become a black hole" because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud "Excuse me!" He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a "white hole."

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy.

Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term. A black hole, according to Webster's, is perhaps "the invisible remains of a collapsed star, with an intense gravitational field from which neither light nor matter can escape."

Other county officials quickly interceded to break it up and get the meeting back on track. TV news cameras were rolling, after all. "

This is what we call a cultural collision - an intersection of life where words and culture clash, creating sparks, injuries and tension.

I thought it might be helpful to explore what went wrong, and why.

1) We Don't Know What We Don't Know: The dictionary may explain the meaning of a word but it can't always report on the emotional power or cultural impact. Commissioner John Wiley Price and I first met in the mid-1980s when he came to a meeting of the Dallas Association of Black Journalists to ask that the group to change its name to the Dallas Association of African American Journalists.  He told us he felt the term "black" was associated with too many negative things, and it was holding back progress.  As he has been saying this in public, loudly, long and often for 25 years, one might have reasonably expected that the term "black Hole" was going to provoke  a negative response from him. (That's called cultural literacy)  Now is there any validity to what he says?i The Implicit Association Test has found that most individuals have trouble associating black faces with positive words, and white faces with negative words. This confirms most of us have hidden biases or preferences. We absorb them from media images, news reports, daily language, and our own experiences. On a subconscious level, many of us associate white faces with things that are good, and black faces with things that are bad or scary.  When the stock market crashes, it is a black day; and when brides marry, they wear white to symbolize purity.(Click here to read my blog on why colors matter) If you are one who feels these associations are silly, become a cultural detective. Get the facts before you try to solve this case. 

2) If we yell at a baby each time it stands up or falls down, it will never learn to walk. Our cultural libraries contain very different books. When leaders get together to discuss community problems, there are bound to be gaps in cultural literacy. That is when we ought to share our information. Yelling at each other doesn't make it better. Nor does being smart.  We need patience, good communication skills, and a willingness to put issues in their proper cultural context so everyone is on the same page. Public officials ought to be teaching the children how to disagree, and how to work for the greater good.

3) Empathy raises our level of emotional intelligence.  We must walk in other people's shoes. Guys must think about how hard it is to saunter around all day in high heels. Girls should think about how it feels to wear the same color loafers every day. Seniors need to think what it is like to wear a pair of hundred dollar sports shoes. Teens should think about what is is like to wear support shoes.  When we measure other people by using our value and experiences, they usually don't stack up well. This may makes us feel superior but it also limits our universe of friends and relationships. Why not try to feel their hurts, and experience with them the  bumps along the terrain.

4) Humor and inclusive language are to cultural collisions what stop lights are to traffic. They give us pause and provide a sense of order to difficult dialogs. What if John Wiley Price had responded by saying: "Kenneth, can I ask you to do me a favor. Would you drop that word black from that sentence, and agree that we have a sinkhole instead of a black hole? I don't want any child in this city to grow up thinking that there is anything wrong with them because their skin color is black, white or brown.. . I don't want skin color to be an excuse for failure.".

So let's eliminate the black holes, the black Fridays, the Black days on Wall Street. And agree to use language that broadcasts our intention to work together for the City and the children.

Did Partisan Politics at the DOJ Create A Hostile Workplace for Blacks?

 

Credit: freefoto.com

 

The Justice Department’s civil rights division, which is charged with enforcing federal antidiscrimination laws, has been sued by an African American employee who says it created a hostile work environment and violated the rights of its own employees.

 

Joi Hyatte, who works in the voting rights section, states in the lawsuit that her boss subjected her and other African American employees to “numerous forms of discrimination and harassment.”

 

The complaint alleges that supervisors used special hiring programs to circumvent regular procedures and avoid giving African Americans on staff an opportunity to apply for analyst jobs.

 

Ms. Hyatte, a 13-year veteran of the department who received outstanding evaluations, says in the suit that she was “repeatedly denied the opportunity to apply and compete” for promotions because she is black. 

 

A few weeks after her suit was filed, the Justice Department’s inspector general issued its own report stating that applicant screeners for the department had illegally used political or ideological factors in a recruitment program, preferring law school graduates with conservative credentials to those with more liberal political ties.

 

The impact of these unlawful hiring preferences on workforce demographics, and minority hiring, was not made clear in that report. The inspector general launched an investigation after the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees received an anonymous letter from a group of DOJ employees stating that the hiring process for the honors program had been politicized.

 

Ms. Hyatte seeks no less than $1 million in compensatory damages, as well as a promotion, attorney fees, and other relief the court may deem just and proper. Officials for DOJ referred calls for comment to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in

Washington DC.

However, a phone call placed to the office earlier this week was not returned.

 

“As part of these practices, DOJ actively recruited and hired only Caucasian and Latino

candidates from outside the government for analyst positions in Section 5, despite the availability of qualified and trained African American employees, like Ms. Hyatte, who had repeatedly expressed interest in the positions,” the suit states, adding that some of those workers were unqualified.

 

Furthermore, the suit states that the voting division failed to adequately address complaints of mistreatment by minority workers, and that it created a hostile work environment. The suit raises specific questions about the abilities of John Tanner, the voting section chief, and Yvette Rivera, Ms. Hyatte’s direct supervisor, to manage a multicultural workforce. Tanner was openly hostile to African American employees, the suit says. While “Ms. Rivera made clear to all of the voting section employees that she did not trust African American employees to act honestly and diligently,” the suit states.

 

Last year Tanner made a number of remarks that sparked an outcry from employees as well as minority leaders. While speaking before the National Latino Congreso in Los Angeles, for instance, Tanner downplayed the impact of voter identification requirements on minorities by saying, “Our society is such that minorities don't become elderly the way white people do; they die first.”

 

Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and other elected officials called for Tanner to be fired. He resigned from the voting rights post in December. Ms. Rivera has moved to another unit in the voting rights division.

 

According to the suit, the racially hostile work environment at DOJ also contributed significantly to Ms. Hyatte’s emotional and mental suffering, which the suit says included, but was not limited to, anxiety, embarrassment, humiliation, despair, anger and loss of faith in her employer.

 

“Ms. Hyatte was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2006 and diabetes in 2007. These conditions were caused partially by work-related stress,” the complaint says.

Conversations That Can Change Your Life

Good communication skills are more important than ever. Our cultural shades may narrow the paths we travel; the books and articles we read, and our inner circle of family or friends. With practice, we can learn to manage these filters and keep the communication channels open.

 

Below are 10 rules for holding conversations that can change your life:  

 

1)     Refuse to accept a personal opinion as fact, or a prejudice as truth. You’re way too smart for that. Demand that people stand behind any and all information they provide. When you receive e-mails filled with rumors or hearsay, respond by asking: “Where did you get your information from? Who is your source?”   Challenge any information that will pollute the public debate.

2)     Speak to your own flaws; don’t dwell on the flaws of folks you don’t like or want to fix. Change others by demonstrating behaviors that will improve the quality of their lives. 

3)     There are no perfect political candidates or people.  Each of us has flaws and strengths. If you can only see an individual’s strengths, adjust your filters. If you can only see a person’s flaws, adjust your filters. Remember, the cultural filters or shades we wear darken automatically in time of stress or fear. Find a partner or friend with a different prescription lens so you get a clearer and wider view of our world.

4)     Remember that attacks on other people, religions, or cultural groups offer others far deeper insights into our own biases. The language we use exposes the depth and range of our ethnic, racial, and religious preferences.  Once our biases are broadcast in public, it affects the way others treat us.

5)     If we focus more on changing what’s wrong with other people, we have lost the best opportunity for dialog. It is much better to talk about our own bad habits and then invite others to join in self-reflection.

6)     Acknowledge the merits of an opponent’s argument. If we can see value in other ideas and positions, others are more likely to give us a fair hearing.

7)     Speak in a civil and respectful tone. The more respect you give to others, the more you will get in return.

8)     Speak only for yourself; not on behalf of your cultural or religious group.  Take time to see the diversity within cultural and religious communities.

9)     Spend more time discussing what you stand for and less time dwelling on things you oppose. It is easier to grow your team, and develop a plan that inspires purposeful action.

10) Take time to get to know your opponents and political adversaries. Booker T. Washington once said, " I let no man drag me down so low as to make me hate him." 

Cultural Shades Prompt Us to Focus on Different Things

 By Carey Goldberg / Boston Globe

East is East and West is West, and the difference between them is starting to turn up even on brain scanners.   Brain research is adding high-tech evidence to what lower-tech psychology experiments have found for years: Culture can affect not just language and custom, but how people experience the world at stunningly basic levels - what they see when they look at a city street, for example, or even how they perceive a simple line in a square.

Western culture, they have found, conditions people to think of themselves as highly independent entities. And when looking at scenes, Westerners tend to focus on central objects more than on their surroundings. In contrast, East Asian cultures stress interdependence. When Easterners take in a scene, they tend to focus more on the context as well as the object: the whole block, say, rather than the BMW parked in the foreground

Read the article Cultural Insights

Cultural differences alter brain's hard-wiring

New research finds that social perspective influences how we see the world

Lessons Learned From Somebody Else's Child

A friend used to ask his children every single night: What did you learn today? He was not looking for lessons learned in classrooms either. Rather, he demanded that his kids learn from all sorts of characters in their city and life.

 

Lifelong learners can have an "ah ha" moment while walking down the street; reading a newspaper, or listening to the chatter at the bus stop. That's because some truly terrific teachers have selected those venues to shine their lights.

 

 They are ordinary folk who share their mistakes, and air their grievances in ways that make us question our own positions. The best and brightest of them listen to us so we an unlock the answers inside our heart.

 

Now age 53, my teachers and coaches are frequently younger than I. It's a humbling experience. Still it keeps me on the ball and forces me to learn about youth culture and beliefs.

 

The New York Times has reported that many young people are taking Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein, as their own:  Reporter Jodi Kantor found that many are informally adopting that name in an effort to do away with the unfortunate stigma that has been stamped upon it by biases gone wild.

 

“The result is a group of unlikely-sounding Husseins: Jewish and Catholic, Hispanic and Asian and Italian-American, from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington, D.C., to Kelly Hussein Crowley of Norman, Okla., to Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin of Chicago,” Ms. Kantor reported.

There is a sweet and yet bold logic to this youthful strategy. If you and I unite as one, no one can pull us apart.

In the past, our community has tended to address racism and bigotry by asking victims or targets to blend in and conform. It’s known as the melting pot theory. Stop wearing headscarves. Stop wearing natural hair. Stop using your Spanish. Stop “acting black.” Stop calling yourself African American. Here’s the pact: Be more like me, and it will be easier for me to accept you. That’s the deal. I’ll admit it is a good one if you don’t happen to be the one who is asked to give up your values, style, fashion or language.

Recently, some cultural communities have rediscovered what the Jewish people have known all along: Culture is a shelter that can keep us together when we are under attack.  It is not something that should be dismantled easily, as it provides sanctuary during life's storms.

Young people in Obama’s campaign have reversed that policy now, and shifted gears: If I'm more like you, then, perhaps, they’ll accept us. In other words, it’s OK to be yourself around me. Maybe I'll change sometimes. And you'll change sometimes..

To these young people: Bravo! Brava! Thanks for the lesson. .