Is “Blackness” a Liability in Corporate America?

Black men in corporate America say they have to change aspects of their personality to succeed in the business world, according to a recent op-ed column in the Boston Globe.

Ralph C. Martin and Damian Wilmot, two black lawyers in Boston, said black men often feel marginalized in the working world:

“ Many black men have experienced the isolation that comes from working in organizations where there are few people who look like us. The most hospitable organizations recognize that they have to embrace people with approaches, styles, and cultures beyond the norm because they add to the array of learning and problem-solving styles that can be leveraged by the company.”

Martin and Wilmot said mentoring programs are an important way for black men to overcome the isolation they feel in the workplace. Some major companies have already adopted these programs. Showing this kind of initiative ultimately will help companies to thrive, Martin and Wilmot said.

“A company’s ability to foster a workplace that values people of different heritages is reflective of its competencies to understand how traditional perceptions of race and ethnicity influence decisions about who receives opportunity. Ignoring the unconscious influences of these perceptions makes it likely that less visible hindrances - self-identification, stereotyping, and judging people by “traditional” indicators of success - will diminish the chances of nontraditional candidates to be considered for meaningful opportunities. Great leaders understand that these differences, when harnessed, create a total of greater magnitude than any of the individual parts.”

Black men aren’t the only ones altering their personalities in the workplace. A 2004 book by Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden, Ph.D, called “Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America” profiled several women  and discussed the challenges they faced in corporate America. Some women said they felt a need to change their speech and hairstyle, among other things. The book’s authors said many of the women “shift ‘white’ as they head to work in the morning and ‘black’ as they come back home each night.”  

Tonyaa Weathersbees, a newspaper veteran who is African-American, said she has encountered the difficulties of being a minority in a white-dominated field. When interviewing for a reporting job twenty years ago, she was asked by an editor if she’d be difficult and blame racism if she didn’t get to report on the top stories:

“I got the job. But I didn’t get over the experience — because it taught me a lot about what it means to be black in a white-dominated corporate world. What it taught me was that, for the most part, getting in the door, fitting in and moving up means not just showing your skills, but downplaying traits such as outspokenness that would be regarded as natural in white men. It clued me in on the fact that if I spoke up about something, I risked being tainted as being difficult or radical, while white guys would merely be seen as being assertive or aggressive. Showed me that what some employers see as strength in white men, they see as liability in black women.”

Weathersbee has a word of advice for black women who encounter the same thing: ”So now, here’s our new struggle — to make corporations understand that they’ve got to see us as more than just a photo for a brochure, but as a force for change. To commit ourselves to excellence as we confront the hidden biases that exist.”