tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/racial-diversity-16311/articles
Racial diversity – The Conversation
2023-07-04T11:23:29Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207524
2023-07-04T11:23:29Z
2023-07-04T11:23:29Z
South African universities must do more to tackle staffs’ race and gender imbalances
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533992/original/file-20230626-17-5n5iwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are more black African academic staff at South African universities than before.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">PeopleImages/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the advent of South Africa’s democracy in 1994, an <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/vc/documents/The_Challenges_of_Transformation_in_Higher_Eduaction_and_Training_Institutions_in_South_Africa.pdf#page=23">overwhelming majority of academics</a> in the country’s public higher education institutions were white men. Black South Africans (a group consisting of those designated as Indian, Coloured or African <a href="https://www.apartheidmuseum.org/exhibitions/race-classification#:%7E:text=Racial%20classification%20was%20the%20foundation,either%20white%20or%20non%2Dwhite">under apartheid</a>) constituted 89% of the overall population. But they made up <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/vc/documents/The_Challenges_of_Transformation_in_Higher_Eduaction_and_Training_Institutions_in_South_Africa.pdf#page=23">just 17%</a> of the academic workforce.</p>
<p>The situation was similar for non-academic employees like managers, administrators, and service and technical staff.</p>
<p>The higher education sector, like everything else in South Africa, needed to change to reflect the non-racial, non-sexist values foregrounded from 1994 and <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/saconstitution-web-eng.pdf#page=7">enshrined in the constitution</a> two years later. </p>
<p>The National Commission on Higher Education published <a href="https://www.ecsecc.org/documentrepository/informationcentre/higher_education_transformation.pdf">a report</a> in 1996 that outlined how such shifts could happen at the country’s <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/media/rhodesuniversity/content/vc/documents/The_Challenges_of_Transformation_in_Higher_Eduaction_and_Training_Institutions_in_South_Africa.pdf#page=10">21 public universities</a> (there are 26 public universities today). New policies and <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/higher-education-act">legislation</a> were formulated to codify institutional change. </p>
<p>Nearly 30 years on, how has the staffing situation changed – or not – at South African universities? The Council on Higher Education, an independent statutory body which performs quality control assessments for the sector, wanted to find out. The council asked us to investigate this issue as part of <a href="https://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/flipbooks/2023/che_review/index.html">a broader review</a> of the sector (our submission starts on page 146).</p>
<p>Our findings reveal that staffing at public higher education institutions remains polarised in terms of race and gender. The composition of the workforce still doesn’t reflect <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/South-Africa/Conservation#ref44029">the country’s demographics</a>. White men continue to dominate.</p>
<p>The pace of change is frustratingly slow. There are a few likely reasons for this. One is that the higher education sector <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-dominance-of-big-players-is-bad-for-south-africas-economy-92058">reflects</a> many other parts of South African society, including the wider economy. Race and gender disparities are not unique to the sector.</p>
<p>It is crucial to address staff employment inequities in public higher education institutions. The sector’s political, social and economic value is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325781607_Conceptualising_Higher_Education_and_the_Public_Good_in_Ghana_Kenya_Nigeria_and_South_Africa">fundamental</a> in a diverse society that aspires to inclusivity.</p>
<p>Genuine diversity is critical for teaching and learning, too. Research has shown that students benefit enormously from <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238506813_The_Educational_Benefits_of_Diversity_Evidence_from_Multiple_Sectors">being at universities with diverse teaching staff</a>. They can learn both from those who share or have shared their social and economic experiences, and those who do not.</p>
<h2>Key findings</h2>
<p>The period under review was 1994 to 2019. Our findings were drawn from two data sets: the Department of Higher Education and Training’s South African Post-Secondary Education data, dating from 1994 to 2002; and Higher Education Management Information System data from 2003 to 2018. This was supplemented by secondary data and other information acquired through literature review and document analysis.</p>
<p>Here are some key findings.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>There have been gradual increases in the numbers of all previously marginalised groups (women, black Africans, Indians and Coloureds) in academic staff. However, white men remain the dominant group, especially in the professorial rank. They account for 67% (2,086) of academic staff at a professor post level. The proportion of black African academic staff at the professor level doubled, from 8% (196) in 2000 to 19% (602) in 2018.</p></li>
<li><p>There have been significant shifts in the professional support staff category. In 2002, white people accounted for 67% in this group; black Africans accounted for just 22%, while the Coloured and Indian categories were 5% each. In 2018, the proportion of white professional staff declined to 35%, black African staff increased to 41%, Coloured staff increased to 16% (785) and Indian staff increased to 8%.</p></li>
<li><p>The non-professional administration staff workforce is the most transformed. For example, 66% of professional and administrative support staff are black African and female; [51% of](https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=15833#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20(51%2C1,households%20are%20headed%20by%20females) South Africa’s national population is female.</p></li>
<li><p>The black African majority are still under-represented within the executive and senior management echelons. Black Africans make up 37% of the people who hold executive and senior management positions despite constituting <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/south-africa-is-young-and-female-stats-sa-report-20180723">80.9% of the country’s population</a>. Of all the executive and senior managers in public higher education institutions, 45% are women, although women make up 51% of the total population.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>By 2018 black Africans made up 58% of the total workforce in this category. The white population group remained over-represented at 20% while its share in the overall population of the country was <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/south-africa-is-young-and-female-stats-sa-report-20180723">about 7.8%</a>. The representation ratios of coloureds (17%) and Indian (7%) in non-professional administration staff were also above their proportional representation in the overall population of South Africa, which is at 8.8% and 2.5%, respectively.</p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>There are several ways to speed up the pace of change in university staffing. </p>
<p>Sector-wide mentoring programmes could provide support and guidance to early-career academics. This would help them to navigate the academic landscape and develop their skills. These programmes should be tailored to address the particular challenges faced by women, black African academics and disabled individuals. </p>
<p>Talent management strategies are needed to prepare emerging scholars. Promising academics must be identified and nurtured so they can advance to senior positions.</p>
<p>Universities also need strategies to attract and retain under-represented groups. This will help to improve gender and racial parity.</p>
<p>On paper, these strategies are already in place at many universities. But they have a fundamental flaw: they’re not <a href="https://www.intersectionaljustice.org/what-is-intersectionality">intersectional</a>. Racial and gender discrimination do not happen in a vacuum. They intersect with other forms of discrimination.</p>
<p>Mentorship, retention and support programmes at many South African universities tend to focus solely on fostering gender and racial equality. They may not adequately address the complex and intersecting challenges faced by individuals belonging to multiple marginalised groups. Meaningful, lasting change in the country’s university staffing structures requires a far more integrated approach.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This study was funded and published by the South African Council on Higher Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Monwabisi K Ralarala and Nhlanhla Mpofu do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Despite some positive shifts, the staffing situation at public higher education institutions remains polarised in terms of race and gender.
Mncedisi Maphalala, Director in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), Durban University of Technology
Monwabisi K Ralarala, Dean: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of the Western Cape
Nhlanhla Mpofu, Chair- Curriculum Studies, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197172
2023-02-21T13:23:43Z
2023-02-21T13:23:43Z
How apartheid, European racism and Pelé helped cultivate a culture of diversity in US soccer that endures into Messi-era MLS
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510142/original/file-20230214-24-cmo1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C278%2C2159%2C1567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Patrick 'Ace' Ntsoelengoe in action for the Toronto Blizzard.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ace-ntsoelengoe-news-photo/515084973?phrase=Ntsoelengoe&adppopup=true">Tony Bock/Toronto Star via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>North America’s <a href="https://insight.balancenow.co/major-league-soccer-how-diverse-is-the-growing-north-american-sports-league/">most diverse</a> <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-ranks-most-diverse-pro-league-north-america-average-age-drops">professional league</a> kicks off on Feb. 21, 2024, as Major League Soccer returns after a winter break.</p>
<p>The league, commonly known as the MLS, has long prided itself as a standard-bearer for racial and national diversity: Last season <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-features-most-geographically-diverse-youthful-player-pool-in-north-american-">saw players from 81 countries</a> across six continents compete for teams. Members of racial minorities <a href="https://www.tidesport.org/_files/ugd/c01324_24acde5f83f24b99aa481a33138f9cf1.pdf">make up 63% of players and 36% of head coaches</a>, according to the latest diversity scorecard from the University of Central Florida’s <a href="https://www.tidesport.org/">Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/communication/people/john-m-sloop/">soccer scholar</a> and author of the book “<a href="https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817394547/soccers-neoliberal-pitch/">Soccer’s Neoliberal Pitch</a>,” I know that this diversity is in part by design and has deep roots. Indeed, the MLS had, as a model of diversity, an earlier attempt to get Americans to embrace the “beautiful game”: the North American Soccer League, or NASL.</p>
<h2>The fall and rise of the NASL</h2>
<p>Most often remembered for <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/pele-leaves-behind-an-everlasting-soccer-legacy-in-america-20221229-WST-413799.html">bringing Pelé to the U.S.</a>, the NASL was arguably the first serious attempt to develop a truly professional “major” soccer league in the country. It <a href="http://www.nasl.com/a-review-of-the-golden-era">ran from 1968 to 1984</a> and peaked in popularity the mid-1970s. </p>
<p>With minimal audiences at the gates and a TV contract that was scrapped early on because of dismal ratings, the league struggled early on. A full dozen of the 17 inaugural teams folded after the first year, leaving just five competing in the second season. Growth was slow – by 1973 there were nine teams, and games had an average attendance of about 6,000 fans.</p>
<p>Most team owners and league commissioner Phil Woosnam believed the NASL needed more sizzle to appeal to an American market. To that end, the league decided to make a number of alterations. Rules were tweaked to increase the number of goals, and more traditional American sports add-ons – tailgating and cheerleaders, for example – were encouraged to help improve the atmosphere.</p>
<p>But the impulse to alter both the substance and meaning of the game had mixed results, at best. Although the NASL was able to enlarge its audience among a subset of fans through these stylistic distractions, others felt alienated by the focus on razzmatazz.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1850826116/D78711E2A15A4159PQ/1?accountid=14816&parentSessionId=bzak904ZyhMydnGB5V2QipEQSVYr2TE%2FEco5Su5lPBs%3D">Newsweek reported at the time</a>, first-generation immigrants – the demographic expected to make up the supporting base – stayed away. Polls revealed that these traditional soccer supporters perceived the quality of play in the league to be so inferior that they weren’t interested in attending games. </p>
<p>Likewise, European players often found the innovations of the NASL off-putting. After playing his first game for the Portland Timbers, Pat Howard – a former player for the English team Everton – <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466884007/rocknrollsoccer">found himself thinking</a>, “What kind of football is this? I mean, there were blinking cavalry charges up the wings, ducks behind the goal, firecrackers going on.”</p>
<p>A study commissioned by the NASL convinced the league that it would have to increase the skill level of the game if it hoped to grab the largest possible viewership. And that is when the story of the league’s diversity really takes off.</p>
<h2>A league of nations</h2>
<p>The New York Cosmos, owned by Warner Communications, was one of earliest NASL teams to reach out to international star power, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/football/pele-new-york-cosmos-north-america-revolution-spt-intl/index.html#:%7E:text=Pel%C3%A9%20joined%20the%20New%20York,last%20official%20game%20in%201977.&text=He'd%20won%20three%20World,of%20soccer%20in%20North%20America.">luring Pelé out of retirement</a> to play three seasons for a reported US$4.7 million.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A shirtless soccer player talks with Pelé in white jacket, reclining." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pelé chats with fellow New York Cosmos player Manoel Maria in 1975.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Pele/dbbe0191e4ef4ae39acab37d715bb58b/photo?Query=Cosmos%20Pele&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=269&currentItemNo=12">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Cosmos followed the signing by bringing in other global stars, such as Germany’s World Cup winning captain Franz Beckenbauer, Italian Giorgio Chinaglia and Brazilian Carlos Alberto.</p>
<p>Other global stars who signed for different teams included elite global players such as Johan Cruyff, Gerd Müller, Peter Osgood, Bobby Moore, Eusébio and George Best. It represented a who’s who of the soccer world, albeit an aging one.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466884007/rocknrollsoccer">impact on the league was immediate</a>. It resulted in increased attendances and a higher media profile in the U.S.</p>
<p>It also set a course for rosters featuring players from around the world – and not only through the import of fading stars.</p>
<p>NASL teams needed to strike a balance – and balance their budgets – by searching for players who were talented but also undervalued. And this often meant <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">bringing in African and African diaspora players</a>. They were aided in their search by overseas racism, both implicit and state-sponsored.</p>
<p>European teams in the 1970s had relatively low numbers of Black players playing in them.</p>
<p>It led players like Trinidad and Tobago’s Leroy DeLeon to choose the NASL rather than sign contracts with European teams. As DeLeon recounted, he decided to join the New York Generals in 1969 <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">after a recruitment trip</a> to England in which he only saw one Black player, West Ham’s Clyde Best. By contrast, the Washington Darts, the team DeLeon later joined, had seven Trinidadians on the roster. </p>
<h2>Escaping apartheid</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, under the apartheid laws in South Africa, Black and white <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/06/07/how-soccer-defeated-apartheid/">players were prohibited from playing one another</a>. To Black South Africans, the NASL represented a chance to escape the racism of their homeland. </p>
<p>Patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">was one of many Black South Africans who viewed the NASL</a> as being the only route toward international fame. Fellow Black South African Webster Lichaba, who played in Atlanta in the early 1980s, <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">relished his treatment in the U.S.</a>: “You were allowed to eat in any restaurant; you went into any club if you wanted to; you stayed in any area you wanted to. … It was different, a different lifestyle altogether. You were treated as an equal.” </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A soccer player in a tracksuit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kaizer Motaung of the Denver Dynamos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/motaung-kaizer-boy-boy-denver-dynamos-soccer-star-news-photo/162098895?phrase=Kaizer%20Motaung&adppopup=true">Steve Larson/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kaizer Motaung, who played for the Atlanta Chiefs and later returned to South Africa to found the successful Kaizer Chiefs football club, <a href="https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jsh/article-abstract/47/3/210/217803/Heading-for-the-big-time-South-Africans-and-the">noted</a>: “America was an eye-opener for me. I am in a foreign country, but here are Black people holding high positions being respected worldwide.”</p>
<p>And it wasn’t only Black South Africans who made the move. Apartheid resulted in <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/06/07/how-soccer-defeated-apartheid/">a sporting boycott of South Africa</a>, preventing the country from playing in international games. As such, the NASL represented an opportunity for white South Africans to play in front of a wider audience.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cFKNjHMAAAAJ&hl=en">soccer scholar Chris Bolsmann</a> <a href="https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jsh/article-abstract/47/3/210/217803/Heading-for-the-big-time-South-Africans-and-the">has noted</a>, both Black and white players later went back to South Africa, energized to act against apartheid and confident of their ability to succeed in joint struggles again racism. </p>
<p>While some overseas players returned home after their playing careers ended, others stayed to help the grassroots game in the U.S. Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/howard/columbia/cng-ho-cf-lincoln-phillips-vg-20210826-asacu3qrl5gw7pqn2j6ed3i5z4-photogallery.html">Lincoln Phillips</a>, who played for the Baltimore Bays, went on to coach Howard University’s men’s soccer team – the first from a historically Black college or university to <a href="https://www.ncaa.com/history/soccer-men/d1">win an NCAA soccer championship in 1974</a> – and later helped found the Black Soccer Coaches Association, an organization designed to help move Black coaches up the administrative ladder in soccer. </p>
<h2>A lasting soccer experiment</h2>
<p>While the North American Soccer League never turned soccer into a religion in the U.S. and was not without its own race issues – not least the gap in wages between predominantly European elite players and cheaper African and Caribbean players – it nonetheless leaves a legacy of diversity in U.S. soccer that continues today.</p>
<p>As soccer author <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Roll-Soccer-American-League/dp/1906850852/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654289041&sr=8-2">Ian Plenderleith</a> has argued, the NASL was the first soccer experiment of “mixing several ethnic backgrounds” into one team.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John M Sloop does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Major League Soccer is the most diverse league in the US. Its predecessor, the NASL, led the way.
John M Sloop, Professor of Communication Studies, Vanderbilt University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198237
2023-01-23T19:18:10Z
2023-01-23T19:18:10Z
It’s not all about gender or ethnicity: a blind spot in diversity programs is holding equality back
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505777/original/file-20230123-64502-vwc5k1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4166%2C2105&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Diversity, inclusion and equity policies are now broadly endorsed in Australian organisations. But not all diversities are equal. <a href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/164749">Our research</a> suggests while programs for women and some racial minorities are being embraced, other diversities are excluded. </p>
<p>In particular social class is ignored, and people with invisible, subtle or complex diversities are seldom considered. </p>
<p>The almost exclusive and independent focus on gender and race is not surprising, given Australia’s history. Colonisation and the dispossession of Indigenous Australians, the legacy of the White Australia Policy and persistent discrimination against women at work are all realities with which, as a nation, we have not fully reconciled with.</p>
<p>But if everyone in Australia is going to get a fair go at work, all the disadvantages people face need to be recognised.</p>
<h2>What our research involved</h2>
<p>Our research project involved three Australian organisations over four years. One was the Australian subsidiary of a global technology business, another a national sports organisation, and the third a state government agency. </p>
<p>These organisations were selected because they operated in different sectors yet were known for their best-practice approach to diversity and inclusion. We spent up to nine months in each organisation, giving us enough time to learn about their cultures and see how initiatives and ideas played out. The agreement was that we would keep their identities anonymous in exchange for such access and freedom to report our findings, even if unflattering. </p>
<p>There was much to be impressed by. The chief executives supported equality in the workplace, diversity was seen as fundamental to developing the business, there was investment in diversity initiatives, and employees knew where their organisations stood.</p>
<h2>Hierarchies of diversity</h2>
<p>But we also found that how senior leaders managed diversity and inclusion created unintended consequences. Each organisation had a “hierarchy of diversity” – in terms of what, and who, got attention.</p>
<p>What stood out in all three organisations was that when women, or men from a culturally diverse minority, were in senior positions they still almost always came from a similar socio-economic background as other executives.</p>
<p>Though the term is not often used today in what many assume to be a socially mobile Australia, they shared what used to be commonly called “class” attributes. Almost exclusively, those in positions of power had similar experiences and interests borne from having been educated in an elite university and living in affluent suburbs. </p>
<p>This was apparent to staff who commented on how leaders tended to be involved in similar weekend activities and spent time in the same places (including restaurants) outside of work hours.</p>
<p>If they were women in senior leadership positions there was an expectation they would “play the game”, behaving in ways consistent with the “White male” executive norm. Coming from at least an “upper middle class” background made this much easier for them.</p>
<p>This reality, based on social and socio-economic privilege, was something barely talked about. But the lack of diversity on this dimension was palpable. </p>
<h2>Acknowledging ‘intersectionality’</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Kimberlé Crenshaw, a professor at the UCLA School of Law in California and Columbia Law School in New York, first used the term intersectionality in 1989." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505780/original/file-20230123-38981-2xo56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505780/original/file-20230123-38981-2xo56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505780/original/file-20230123-38981-2xo56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505780/original/file-20230123-38981-2xo56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505780/original/file-20230123-38981-2xo56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505780/original/file-20230123-38981-2xo56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505780/original/file-20230123-38981-2xo56m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kimberlé Crenshaw, a professor at the UCLA School of Law in California and Columbia Law School in New York, first used the term intersectionality in 1989.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That some forms of systemic exclusion or discrimination are recognised and addressed while others remain largely invisible has been explored through the concept of “<a href="https://time.com/5786710/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality/">intersectionality</a>”, which draws attention to how different forms of diversity and disadvantage intersect, creating unacknowledged forms of discrimination.</p>
<p>The term was <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf">first used in 1989</a> by American legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and stemmed from her work developing critical race theory and the lived experienced of poor African-American women in the US, who have face discrimination different to that by white women or black men.</p>
<p>We saw this reality in our research.</p>
<p>The director of one of the organisations we studied, and the only Indigenous woman in a leadership position, told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I get often treated by some managers and executives like I’m not really on the executive. I don’t get treated with the same respect as my peers by some of them. […] Partly it’s obviously because I’m black, partly it’s I’m a woman.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Having observed this organisation over a lengthy period, we can attest that her perceptions are legitimate. There may be no “conscious” bias involved, but it is fair to conclude that a female executive who wasn’t Indigenous would have a different experience.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Intersectionality recognises the effect of different combinations of identities and attributes, rather that treating those things discretely." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505781/original/file-20230123-8930-gi4nqc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505781/original/file-20230123-8930-gi4nqc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505781/original/file-20230123-8930-gi4nqc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505781/original/file-20230123-8930-gi4nqc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505781/original/file-20230123-8930-gi4nqc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505781/original/file-20230123-8930-gi4nqc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505781/original/file-20230123-8930-gi4nqc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=659&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Intersectionality recognises the effect of different combinations of identities and attributes, rather that treating those things discretely.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">First Book</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Even though these organisations didn’t acknowledge intersectionality in their policies and practice, employees were certainly aware of it. One person we spoke to cited the case of a senior manager, a woman born in India:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She’s a smart woman from an Indian background and she’s always being treated like the last wheel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In another case, one of the people we spoke to talked about two of his Indian colleagues: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You couldn’t bottle them both up and say ‘they’re both Indians’, because they’re completely different. One’s from a rich background and one’s from a poorer background. They’ve got different mentalities and different ambitions. They’re different workers and different people.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-intersectionality-all-of-who-i-am-105639">What is intersectionality? All of who I am</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Diversifying diversity</h2>
<p>Diversity and inclusion polices and programs are contributing to progress in reducing entrenched forms of discrimination and disadvantage in the workplace. But if these programs are to truly benefit our most disadvantaged groups, such as Indigenous people who come from low socio-economic backgrounds, much more will have to be done. </p>
<p>The way we understand diversity needs to be diversified. If we continue to privilege gender and race as if they are the only ways by which people are treated differently and excluded from leadership, many inequalities will remain. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/six-misunderstood-concepts-about-diversity-in-the-workplace-and-why-they-matter-181289">Six misunderstood concepts about diversity in the workplace and why they matter</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our research highlighted the intersectionality of race, gender and class as significant oversights in how we manage diversity. But there are many other intersections to consider – including the treatment of those with different sexual and gender identities, and people with different physical and neurodivergent abilities. </p>
<p>It’s up to all of us to challenge ourselves to understand how we privilege some differences over others. Reducing complex differences to a limited number of simple measurable categories blinds organisations to how privilege and discrimination operate at work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198237/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
If diversity programs are to truly benefit Australia’s most disadvantaged groups, such as Indigenous people, more acknowledgement must be given to class and ‘intersectionality’.
Carl Rhodes, Professor of Organization Studies, University of Technology Sydney
Alison Pullen, Professor of Management and Organization Studies, Macquarie University
Celina McEwen, Senior Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181085
2022-05-04T14:31:20Z
2022-05-04T14:31:20Z
Former South African president predicts the end of the ruling party: history is on his side
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460278/original/file-20220428-26-t9u1nk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The African National Congress is steadily losing dominance. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Former South African president Kgalema Motlanthe, one of the saner voices in the ruling African National Congress (ANC), has recently given voice to heresy. He has said that the time of the ANC in power <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/politics/2022-04-06-no-dominant-role-for-anc-in-future-says-kgalema-motlanthe/">is coming to an end</a>. The party that has dominated South African politics since 1994, winning five successive general elections, is <a href="https://www.loot.co.za/product/ralph-mathekga-the-anc-s-last-decade/vjvm-7311-ga40">confronting a crisis of its own making</a>. This results from poor governance and rampant corruption. A steady decline in support raises the real prospect of gaining less than 50% in the next general election <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/south-africas-future-is-tied-to-anc-leadership-and-election-battles">in 2024</a>.</p>
<p>As Motlanthe <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/politics/2022-04-06-no-dominant-role-for-anc-in-future-says-kgalema-motlanthe/">points out</a>, South African politics is in a state of flux </p>
<blockquote>
<p>which must necessarily result in a realignment of political forces. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>No ANC figure of his stature has hitherto admitted that the ANC as such might cease to exist. South Africa without the ANC is considered unimaginable.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/profiles/former-president-kgalema-motlanthe">Motlanthe</a> served as president between the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-politics-mbeki-idUSWEA015020080920">ejection of Thabo Mbeki</a> in September 2008 and the <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/profiles/president-jacob-zuma-0">elevation to the post of Jacob Zuma</a> following the April 2009 general election.</p>
<p>The defeat of the ANC would be contrary to liberation movement ideology, which suggests that liberation from settler, colonial or apartheid rule constitutes the end of history. Because the ANC is projected as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anc-insists-its-still-a-political-vanguard-this-is-what-ails-democracy-in-south-africa-141938">the party of the people</a>, it is assumed that ANC rule inaugurated the rule of the people and the oppressed. Liberation is thus conceived as an end-state. No other future can be imagined; no other future can be regarded as legitimate. </p>
<p>Yet South African history shows that political parties do not last forever. They fragment, they coalesce, and they change their identities as the political landscape changes.</p>
<p>Faced by the consequences of its poor governance, many in the ANC’s top ranks are worried about its declining popular support. If it loses its outright majority in the <a href="https://www.eisa.org/wep/southafrica.htm">2024 national elections</a>, the ANC will need to enter a coalition with another party. Yet history shows that South African parties that seek to govern by forging unity out of diversity tend to fragment when they are confronted by a fundamental political or economic crisis. Let’s recap.</p>
<h2>Fractious party politics in history</h2>
<p>At the establishment of the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/union-south-africa-1910">Union of South Africa in 1910</a>, Louis Botha’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Botha">Het Volk</a> of the old Transvaal combined with Prime Minister <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/james-barry-munnik-hertzog">Barry Hertzog’s</a> Orangia Unie of the Free State and the Cape’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Afrikaner-Bond">Afrikaner Bond</a> to form the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/South-African-Party">South African Party</a>. Subsequently, when South Africa entered the <a href="https://en.unesco.org/courier/news-views-online/first-world-war-and-its-consequences-africa">first world war</a> in 1914, an outraged Hertzog, who was bitterly opposed to siding with Britain, left the South African Party to form the first iteration of the Afrikaner-based National Party.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-africas-electoral-history-timeline-1910-2009">1920 election</a>, the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/national-party-np">National Party</a> won more seats than the South African Party, which was forced to absorb the Natal-based, jingoistic, pro-British <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03446/05lv03514.htm">Unionist Party</a> to stay in office. However, having alienated the white working class by suppressing the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/rand-rebellion-1922">1922 Rand Revolt</a> – when white workers’ resistance to plans by mine-owners to replace them with cheaper black labour resulted in armed rebellion – the South African Party lost the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00358534808451522?journalCode=ctrt20">1924 election</a> to an alliance of the National Party and the <a href="https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/9929">Labour Party</a>.</p>
<p>After being returned to power with an outright majority in 1929, the National Party ran into the headwinds of the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20780389.1990.10417176">economic depression</a>. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jan-Smuts">Jan Smuts</a>, the leader of the South African Party and prime minister, came to its rescue in 1933, entering into a coalition with Hertzog. This led to the “fusion” of the South African Party and the National Party into the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Party">United Party</a> in 1934.</p>
<p>This was treason to the ultra-British wing of the South African Party, which decamped into the Natal-based <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/dominion-party/m0kg3c8k?hl=en">Dominion Party</a>. More significantly, the formation of the United Party was also sacrilege to the extremist wing of the National Party, which under the leadership of DF Malan crossed the floor of the House of Assembly and formed the opposition, the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party.</p>
<p>Subsequently, after Hertzog had lost a narrow vote to keep South Africa out of the second world war in 1939, he made way for Smuts as prime minister. Hertzog’s supporters either joined the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party, which became the Herenigde Nasionale Party, or followed other “Hertzogites” into the small Afrikaner Party. An electoral agreement between the Herenigde Nasionale Party and the Afrikaner Party was subsequently to lead to the defeat of Smuts and the United Party government in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-south-africas-catastrophe-the-1948-poll-that-heralded-apartheid-96928">1948 election</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man makes an open palm gesture with his right had as he speaks into a microphone in his left hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460285/original/file-20220428-18-nomiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460285/original/file-20220428-18-nomiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460285/original/file-20220428-18-nomiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460285/original/file-20220428-18-nomiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460285/original/file-20220428-18-nomiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460285/original/file-20220428-18-nomiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460285/original/file-20220428-18-nomiim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leading ANC member and former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The National Party retained power for the best part of the next 40 years. Yet it found it necessary, for reasons both political and economic, to make adjustments to <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/hendrik-frensch-verwoerd">Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd</a>’s policies of apartheid. It suffered successive breakaways to the right. The first, led by <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/full/10.18820/24150509/SJCH46.v1.4">Albert Hertzog</a> (the former prime minister’s son) in 1969, saw the formation of the <a href="https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv03446/05lv03472.htm">Herstigte Nasionale Party</a>, which had little impact.</p>
<p>A more serious challenge was presented by <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/andries-treurnicht">Andries Treurnicht</a>’s formation of the Conservative Party in 1982, which grew to become the official opposition in 1987. Its threat was such that it forced the National Party government, now headed by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/P-W-Botha">PW Botha</a>, to broaden its support base. It increasingly appealed to English-speakers alongside Afrikaners to retain its majority. </p>
<p>Botha was replaced as leader of the National Party in 1989 by <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/frederik-willem-de-klerk">FW de Klerk</a>, who led it through the transition that culminated in the country’s <a href="https://www.thepresidency.gov.za/national-orders/recipient/frederick-willem-de-klerk">negotiated end of apartheid</a>. He retired in 1997. </p>
<p>Eventually, in 2000, most of the carcass of the National Party, which had lost power to the ANC in the first democratic election in 1994, was absorbed by the Democratic Party, which became the official opposition <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-Alliance-political-party-South-Africa">Democratic Alliance</a>.</p>
<h2>Post-apartheid political realignments</h2>
<p>Many observers of the current South African scene will query whether this dizzying detour into the history of white political parties is at all relevant to the present. The answer is that it is.</p>
<p>Successive breakaways from the ANC – by the <a href="https://udm.org.za/history/">United Democratic Movement</a> in 1997, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Congress-of-the-People-political-party-South-Africa">Congress of the People in 2008</a> and, most consequentially of all, the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/founding-economic-freedom-fighters-eff">Economic Freedom Fighters</a> in 2013 – reflect the inherently fractious nature of South African politics, whether it has been under white minority rule or, as now, under a democratic dispensation.</p>
<p>That’s why successive ANC governments have lent such strong support to the Zanu-PF government in Zimbabwe. The ANC fears Zanu-PF’s defeat in an election will collapse the myth of the inviolability of liberation movements in southern Africa.</p>
<p>It is still early to predict the decease of the ANC. Yet all the signs of terminal disease are there. It has become <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-10-07-anc-fails-to-stop-the-corruption-train-32-major-scandals-four-in-2021-alone/">thoroughly corrupt</a>; it <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/04/11/corruption-accused-zandile-gumede-elected-as-regional-chair-of-ethekwini-anc">appears unable to reform itself</a>; and it appears <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/news/sources/wsg-news/2022/parts-of-south-africa-have-now-collapsed-wsg-expert-.html">increasingly unable to govern the country</a>, whether that be at national, provincial or municipal level.</p>
<p>All its politicians are frightened to be the ones to <a href="https://www.enca.com/south-africa/we-wont-allow-the-anc-to-split-ramaphosa">break the ANC apart</a>. Yet events – whether this be electoral defeat, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-have-south-africans-been-on-a-looting-rampage-research-offers-insights-164571">mass revolt</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-fiscal-squeeze-warning-signs-ignored-for-too-long-177188">economic failure</a> or whatever – are likely to force their hand. Potential partners will be reluctant to identify themselves with a failing party. They may well demand the formation of a completely new party, with a new name, a new programme and a new brand.</p>
<p>This is a reminder that South African parties have changed over time because the country is difficult to govern. It is a nation of very diverse regions, peoples, religions and ideologies. A ruling party has somehow to cobble all these elements together if it wants to stay in power.</p>
<p>It is no wonder that any ruling party in South Africa finds it difficult to maintain internal coherence and unity over an extended time span. The long and the short of this potted history is that no South African party has shown its capacity to last forever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Any ruling party in South Africa has found it hard to maintain internal coherence and unity over an extended time span amid wide national diversity.
Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148044
2020-12-04T13:27:11Z
2020-12-04T13:27:11Z
Wisconsin’s not so white anymore – and in some rapidly diversifying cities like Kenosha there’s fear and unrest
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372360/original/file-20201201-12-1v4jh5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An activist is arrested after his van was stopped by Kenosha police Aug. 27, days after police shot a Kenosha man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-activist-is-taken-into-custody-after-a-van-he-was-news-photo/1269241752">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kenosha, Wisconsin, became a national byword for racial unrest when protests in August erupted in violence. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/25/us/rusten-sheskey-account-jacob-blake-shooting-invs/index.html">local police shot a Black man, Jacob Blake</a>, seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed, furious residents took to <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/08/29/wisconsins-summer-of-fury">the streets expressing years of pent-up anger</a>. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fire-chief-damage-kenosha-unrest-tops-11-million-73049162">During nighttime hours</a>, fires were set. </p>
<p>Law enforcement’s response only <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/w8zn7/">escalated the situation</a>. One night an armed white militia showed up, and Kenosha officers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kenosha-police-thanked-armed-militia-and-gave-water-2020-8">thanked them</a>. Then, at 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 25, a white teenager allegedly <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kyle-rittenhouse-charged-killing-2-kenosha-protesters-has-bond-set-n1245953">fired an assault rifle during a confrontation</a>, killing two protesters and wounding one. </p>
<p>Most <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/09/us/george-floyd-protests-different-why/index.html">anti-racism demonstrations</a> across the United States last summer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">were fairly peaceful</a>. </p>
<p>What went wrong in Kenosha?</p>
<p>Our research on Wisconsin’s changing demographics suggests racial integration and political polarization are a combustible combination in Kenosha.</p>
<h2>Diversifying Wisconsin</h2>
<p>Nationally, Wisconsin is generally perceived as white and working class. Historically that was largely true, and the <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/WI">state is still 81% white</a>.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://cdn.apl.wisc.edu/publications/2010_census_chartbook_wi.pdf">it’s changing fast</a>. </p>
<p>In 1980 Wisconsin had 25 small cities – those with populations of 20,000 to 100,000. Only three had populations that were more than 1% Black, and only two were more than 1% Asian American, according to census data. Latinos comprised 1% or more of the population in eight small Wisconsin cities in 1980. </p>
<p>By 2010, the number of small cities in Wisconsin had grown to 35, and few were all white anymore. Nine were more than 5% Black, 11 were more than 5% Asian and 19 of the 35 were more than 5% Latino.</p>
<p>These demographic shifts were greatest early this century. Between 2000 and 2010, Black people as a percentage of total population <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">more than doubled in a dozen of Wisconsin’s small cities</a>. In Milwaukee – the state’s largest, most diverse city – <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/milwaukeecitywisconsin">white people now comprise just 44% of the population</a>. </p>
<p>Today Kenosha is one of Wisconsin’s most racially diverse small cities. Black people make up about 11.5% of its 100,000 people, and Latinos make up nearly 18%, according to <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">2018 population estimates</a>. Only three similarly sized Wisconsin cities have more people of color. </p>
<h2>‘You protect and serve who?’</h2>
<p>Historically, white Americans have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2004.tb00533.x">reacted with suspicion and hostility</a> to the sudden arrival of <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674238145">Black people and immigrants to their neighborhoods</a>. </p>
<p>Integration is an American ideal – a high-minded recipe for combating racism that dates back to the 1950s. But research shows that even in multicultural communities, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cico.12371">social segregation among community members of different racial backgrounds persists</a>. </p>
<p>White residents who feel threatened may turn to law enforcement, as demonstrated in numerous recent nationwide incidents of white people reporting Black people to the police for barbecuing, selling lemonade and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/attorneys-for-the-three-white-men-accused-of-killing-a-black-georgia-jogger-offer-a-surprising-defense/">jogging</a> in predominantly white neighborhoods. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man sits handcuffed on a curb while police stand over him at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372361/original/file-20201201-21-jjy4vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arresting a man for breaking curfew in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, in October after a police killing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-take-people-into-custody-who-were-out-after-curfew-news-photo/1279430714?adppopup=true">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To understand how this tension plays out in Wisconsin, the <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu">Justice Lab at the University of Wisconsin</a>, where we work as sociological researchers, has been conducting interviews with police officers, residents and politicians in cities that have undergone such demographic and social changes. </p>
<p>University ethics requirements prohibit us from revealing identifying details about our study participants. But our work finds that Black residents of small cities like Kenosha, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/yes-black-america-fears-the-police-heres-why">as in other large cities</a>, overwhelmingly fear police.</p>
<p>“I’m afraid … they might come to the car, and just for some reason be scared that day, and any sudden movement they’ll think I’m holding a gun,” said a 29-year-old Black father we’ll call Dennis.</p>
<p>“You protect and serve who? Not me or mine,” he said. “Not none of us.” </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/">2020 Pew Research survey</a> found that 64% of Black American men say they’ve been unfairly stopped by the police. </p>
<h2>‘They’re looking to stop you for anything’</h2>
<p>In Kenosha, the police department grew as its community of color did. </p>
<p>In 2007 Kenosha Police Department had 192 members. In 2013 it had grown to 198, according to <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">Law Enforcement Management And Administrative Statistics data</a>, an expansion of 3.1%. That growth exceeds the city’s overall population growth during the same period, which was 2.6%. </p>
<p>Most Wisconsin police departments were shrinking at that time, even as the <a href="https://datacommons.org/">state’s population grew</a>. According to the Kenosha Police Department’s 2014 annual report, the force needed more officers to meet <a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/police/annualreports/2014AnnualReport.pdf">growing demand for its services</a>.</p>
<p>But violent crime in Kenosha has remained fairly stable for decades. Since 1990, the city has had three to five murders a year, according to the <a href="https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/">FBI’s Uniform Crime Report</a>. And property crimes actually decreased by more than 25% between 2007 and 2013. Yet during the same period, the Kenosha police budget rose from <a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/finance/AdoptedBudget2008.pdf">about $23 million</a> to <a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/finance/AdoptedBudget2013.pdf">nearly $27 million</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0011128707309718">Scores of studies from across the U.S. have documented</a> this phenomenon: When Black and Latino populations rise, white residents tend to respond by increasing the funding and size of local law enforcement agencies, independent of crime rate. Social scientists call this the “<a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0204.xml">racial threat hypothesis</a>.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.kenosha.org/images/police/annualreports/2014AnnualReport.pdf">Putting more officers on the street to do community policing</a> when there’s no rise in crime creates the potential for more routine interactions between police and civilians – and for people of color, more potential conflict. </p>
<p>Leslie, a mother of two sons, told us that police once stopped her son and his friend while driving one night, “talking about his license plates don’t match his car.” </p>
<p>Leslie said she knows that’s not true because she and her husband had recently bought the car for their son and registered it in their name. </p>
<p>Her perception: “No, you pulled him over because you were hoping that you had two black kids and when they rolled down the windows you would smell weed,” she said.</p>
<p>Leslie advises Black acquaintances not to drive into nearby largely white neighboring cities.</p>
<p>“They’re looking to stop you for anything,” she says of police.</p>
<h2>Police and politics</h2>
<p>Racial tension may be exacerbated when a city is also marked by strong partisan divisions, our research suggests. </p>
<p>Kenosha has been solidly Democratic for several decades, but about a third of its residents vote Republican, according to <a href="https://elections.wi.gov/elections-voting/results">state election records</a>. Republicans and Democrats tend to live side by side, not segregated by partisan affiliation, <a href="https://legis.wisconsin.gov/ltsb">community data shows</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crowd of mostly Black protesters in face masks hold up BLM and other racial justice signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372359/original/file-20201201-21-b4i131.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Outside the Kenosha County Courthouse on Aug. 24.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-in-front-of-the-kenosha-county-court-house-to-news-photo/1268353449">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That setup can pit neighbor against neighbor after events like police killings. Republicans are <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/">far less likely than Democrats to see racial bias in law enforcement as a problem</a>, according to Pew Research.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Donald Trump has stoked such tensions throughout his presidency, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpEz48TJz2A">vilifying Black Lives Matter and exalting law enforcement</a>. The day before the 2020 election, he held a rally in Kenosha, declaring he had <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/02/trump-returns-wisconsin-election-eve-rally-kenosha/6122031002/">brought “law and order”</a> to the city. </p>
<p>Trump narrowly lost Wisconsin, <a href="https://uwjusticelab.wisc.edu/white-papers/kenosha/">including Kenosha</a>. Joe Biden’s presidency will change the national debate on police violence, but it won’t stop the seismic demographic shifts creating unease in Wisconsin’s small cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148044/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
New research on Wisconsin’s changing demographics suggests that racial integration and political polarization were a combustible combination in Kenosha, where violence erupted in August.
John M. Eason, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Benny Witkovsky, PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Chloe Haimson, PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Jungmyung Kim, PhD Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/143408
2020-08-14T12:17:07Z
2020-08-14T12:17:07Z
Diversity pledges alone won’t change corporate workplaces – here’s what will
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352775/original/file-20200813-14-1oj7rc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C172%2C5000%2C2694&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Words alone won't make corporate America more diverse. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-words-all-black-lives-matter-are-seen-painted-on-news-photo/1219964763">Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dozen of companies, from <a href="https://www.apple.com/speaking-up-on-racism/">Apple</a> to <a href="https://www.zappos.com/e/black-lives-matter">Zappos</a>, have reacted to George Floyd’s killing and the protests that followed by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/companies-racism-george-floyd-protests.html">pledging to make their workforces more diverse</a>. </p>
<p>While commendable, to me it feels a bit like deja vu. Back in 2014, a host of tech companies <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2015/06/19/technology/tech-diversity-roundup/index.html">made similar commitments</a> to diversify their ranks. Their latest reports – which they release annually – show <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/17/18678541/women-tech-photoshop-diversity">they’ve made little progress</a>.</p>
<p>Why have their efforts largely failed? Were they just empty promises? </p>
<p>As a gender diversity scholar, I explored these questions in <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3344751">my recent paper published</a> in the Stanford Technology Law Review. The problem is not a lack of commitment but what social scientists call “unconscious bias.”</p>
<h2>Big tech, little progress</h2>
<p>Today’s efforts to promote diversity are certainly more specific than the tech industry’s vague promises in 2014. </p>
<p>In 2020, sports apparel maker Adidas <a href="https://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2020/message-adidas-board-creating-lasting-change-now/">pledged</a> to fill at least 30% of all open positions with Black or Latino candidates. Cosmetics company Estée Lauder <a href="https://www.elcompanies.com/en/news-and-media/newsroom/company-features/2020/elc-commits-to-racial-equity">promised</a> to make sure the share of Black people it employs mirrors their percentage of the U.S. population within five years. And Facebook <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/06/supporting-black-and-diverse-communities/">vowed to double</a> its number of Black and Latino employees within three years. </p>
<p>Companies have also committed at least <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/here-are-tech-companies-plans-for-increasing-diversity-amid-protests-over-racial-inequality-2020-06-25">US$1 billion</a> in money and resources to fight the broader societal scourge of racism and support Black Americans and people of color more broadly. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, if past experience is any indication, good intentions and public pledges will not be enough to tackle the problem of the underrepresentation of women and people of color in most companies.</p>
<p>In 2014, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-diversity-numbers-2014-5">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/6/25/5843300/facebook-releases-first-diversity-report">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/12/5949453/no-surprise-apple-is-very-white-very-male">Apple</a> and other tech companies began publishing diversity reports after software engineer <a href="https://qz.com/work/1175679/software-engineer-tracy-chous-mission-to-diversify-silicon-valley/">Tracy Chao</a>, investor <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/ellen-pao-silicon-valley-sexism-reset-excerpt.html">Ellen Pao</a> and others <a href="https://projectinclude.org">called attention</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/2/5/16972096/emily-chang-brotopia-book-bloomberg-technology-culture-silicon-valley-kara-swisher-decode-podcast">Silicon Valley’s white male-dominated, misogynistic culture</a>. The numbers weren’t pretty, and so one by one, they all made <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/five-years-tech-diversity-reports-little-progress/">public commitments to diversity</a> with promises of money, partnerships, training and mentorship programs. </p>
<p>Yet, half a decade later, their latest reports reveal, in embarrassing detail, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/17/18678541/women-tech-photoshop-diversity">how little things have changed</a>, especially for underrepresented minorities. For example, at Apple, the <a href="https://www.apple.com/diversity/">share of women in tech jobs rose</a> from 20% in 2014 to 23% in 2018, while the percentage of Black workers in those roles remained flat at 6%. <a href="https://kstatic.googleusercontent.com/files/25badfc6b6d1b33f3b87372ff7545d79261520d821e6ee9a82c4ab2de42a01216be2156bc5a60ae3337ffe7176d90b8b2b3000891ac6e516a650ecebf0e3f866">Google managed to increase the share</a> of women in such jobs to 24% in 2020 from 17% in 2014, yet only 2.4% of these tech roles are filled by Black workers, up from 1.5% in 2014. Even companies that <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/inclusion-and-diversity-report-december-2019.html">have made more progress</a>, such as Twitter, still have far to go to achieve meaningful representation. </p>
<p><iframe id="Kievt" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Kievt/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>I believe one of the reasons for the lack of progress is that two of their main methods, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tech-companies-spend-big-money-on-bias-training-but-it-hasnt-improved-diversity-numbers-44411">diversity training</a> and mentoring, were flawed. Training can actually <a href="https://perma.cc/XD5D-XNS2">harm workplace relationships</a>, while mentoring <a href="https://wappp.hks.harvard.edu/files/wappp/files/social_incentives_for_gender_differences_in_the_propensity_to_initiate_negotiations-_sometimes_it_does_hurt_to_ask_0.pdf">places the burden</a> of changing the system on those disadvantaged by it and with the least influence over it.</p>
<p>More importantly, however, you can not solve the problem of diversity – no matter how much money you throw at it – without a thorough understanding of its source: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/18/daniel-kahneman-books-interview">faulty human decision-making</a>. </p>
<h2>A problem of bias</h2>
<p>My research, which relies on the <a href="https://scholar.princeton.edu/kahneman/publications-0">behavioral work</a> of Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, explains that because humans are unaware of their unconscious biases, most underestimate their impact on the decisions they make. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175">People tend to believe</a> they make hiring or other business decisions based on <a href="https://perma.cc/8EDF-6WDX">facts or merit alone</a>, despite loads of evidence showing that decisions tend to be <a href="https://perma.cc/EYQ5-W3DV">subjective</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/tyler-cowen-daniel-kahneman-economics-bias-noise-167275de691f">inconsistent</a> and subject to mental shortcuts, known to psychologists as <a href="https://www2.psych.ubc.ca/%7Eschaller/Psyc590Readings/TverskyKahneman1974.pdf">heuristics</a>. </p>
<p>Male-dominated industries, such as <a href="https://www.insider.com/male-jobs-women-underrepresented-numbers-2019-8#television-video-and-motion-picture-camera-operators-and-editors-are-predominantly-male-with-women-making-up-214-of-the-field-7">tech, finance and engineering</a>, tend to keep hiring the same types of employees and promoting the same types of workers due to their preference for applicants who match the stereotype of who belongs in these roles – a phenomenon known as <a href="https://perma.cc/8WL2-WL2S">representative bias</a>. This perpetuates the status quo that keeps men in prime positions and prevents women and underrepresented minorities from gaining a foothold. </p>
<p>This problem is amplified by <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/70c9/3e5e38a8176590f69c0491fd63ab2a9e67c4.pdf">confirmation bias</a> and the <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/On-the-Psychology-of-Prediction.-Kahneman-Tversky/85978718f87a0299b6b3fbbc3e8c40210d21942b">validity illusion</a>, which lead us to be overconfident in our predictions and decisions – despite <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=kahneman+on+prediction&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart">ample research</a> demonstrating how poorly humans are at forecasting events. </p>
<p>By failing to make objective decisions in the hiring process, the system just repeats itself over and over.</p>
<h2>How AI can overcome bias</h2>
<p>Advances in artificial intelligence, however, offer a way to <a href="https://ideal.com/unconscious-bias/">overcome these biases</a> by making hiring decisions more objective and consistent. </p>
<p>One way is by anonymizing the interview process.</p>
<p>Studies have found that simply replacing female names with male names on resumes results in improving the odds of a woman being hired <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211286109">by 61%</a>. AI could help ensure an applicant isn’t culled early in the vetting process due to gender or race in a number of ways. For example, code could be written that removes certain identifying features from resumes. Or a company could use <a href="https://perma.cc/JL3X-NYWE">neuroscience games</a> – which help match candidate skills and cognitive traits to the needs of jobs – as an unbiased gatekeeper. </p>
<p>Another roadblock is job descriptions, <a href="https://www.mya.com/blog/unconscious-bias-in-job-descriptions/">which can be worded</a> in a way that results in fewer applicants from diverse backgrounds. AI is able to identify and remove biased language before the ad is even posted.</p>
<p><a href="https://perma.cc/3XVC-4XY2">Some companies</a> have already made strides hiring women and underrepresented minorities this way. For example, <a href="https://www.unilever.com/brands/?category=408126">Unilever</a> has had fantastic success improving the diversity of its workforce by employing a number of AI technologies in the recruitment process, including using a <a href="https://perma.cc/QN6T-WZFZ">chatbot</a> to carry on automated “conversations” with applicants. Earlier this year, the maker of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and Vaseline jelly <a href="https://www.unilever.com/news/press-releases/2020/unilever-achieves-gender-balance-across-management-globally.html">said it achieved</a> perfect parity between women and men in management positions, up from 38% a decade earlier. </p>
<p>Accenture, <a href="https://www.refinitiv.com/en/media-center/press-releases/2019/september/refinitiv-announces-the-2019-d-and-i-index-top-100-most-diverse-and-inclusive-organizations-globally">which ranked number one</a> in 2019 among more than 7,000 companies around the world on an index of diversity and inclusion, utilizes AI in its <a href="https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/recruiting-strategy/2018/the-new-way-companies-are-evaluating-candidates-soft-skills-and-discovering-high-potential-talent">online assessments</a> of job applicants. <a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en/about/inclusion-diversity/us-workforce">Women now make up</a> 38% of its U.S. workforce, up from 36% in 2015, while African Americans rose to 9.3% from 7.6%.</p>
<h2>Garbage in, garbage out</h2>
<p>Of course, AI is only as good as the data and design that go into it.</p>
<p>We know that <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2477899">biases</a> can be introduced in the choices programmers make when creating an algorithm, how information is labeled and even in the very data sets that AI relies upon. A <a href="http://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a/buolamwini18a.pdf">2018 study</a> found that a poorly designed facial recognition algorithm had an error rate as high as 34% for identifying darker-skinned women, compared with 1% for light-skinned men.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Fortunately, bias in AI can be mitigated – and remedied when problems are discovered – through <a href="https://www.toptal.com/artificial-intelligence/mitigating-ai-bias">its responsible use</a>, which requires balanced and inclusive data sets, the ability to peer inside its “black box” and the recruitment of a diverse group of programmers to build these programs. Additionally, algorithmic outcomes can be <a href="https://clsbluesky.law.columbia.edu/2020/08/07/artificial-intelligence-in-hiring-problem-or-solution/">monitored</a> and audited for bias and accuracy.</p>
<p>But that really is the point. You can take the bias out of AI – but <a href="https://www.experfy.com/blog/don-t-fear-ai-fear-human-stupidity/">you can’t remove it from humans</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143408/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kimberly A. Houser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Recent anti-racism protests have spurred dozens of companies to vow to diversify their workforces, yet big tech’s efforts to do so since 2014 show promises aren’t enough to overcome the real problem.
Kimberly A. Houser, Assistant Clinical Professor, Business and Tech Law, University of North Texas
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/123242
2020-05-18T12:15:48Z
2020-05-18T12:15:48Z
How greater diversity in the cockpit could help airlines avoid a looming pilot shortage
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334464/original/file-20200512-82379-1h8cyxo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C162%2C3971%2C2752&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The cockpit has long been the dominion of white men.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benjamin Ohnona/EyeEm via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before the new coronavirus hit, the airline industry was bracing for a <a href="https://www.boeing.com/commercial/market/pilot-technician-outlook/">severe pilot shortage</a>. But just as the pandemic has forced school closures across the country, it’s also <a href="https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2020/march/12/faa-training-industry-take-precautions-amid-coronavirus-concerns">disrupting aviation training programs</a>, which could mean even fewer pilots are trained to fly tomorrow’s fleet of commercial aircraft.</p>
<p>There are many reasons for the anticipated shortage, including <a href="https://www.faa.gov/pilots/training/atp/">increased regulation</a>, <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/pr/2017-10-24-01">growing demand for air travel</a> and <a href="https://www.cae.com/media/documents/Civil_Aviation/CAE-Airline-Pilot-Demand-Outlook-Spread.pdf">an aging workforce</a>, coupled with a <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2009/07/15/E9-16777/part-121-pilot-age-limit">mandatory retirement age</a> of 65. But there’s one cause that also offers a solution: The industry has long struggled to recruit women, people of color and members of other marginalized groups.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://aviation.osu.edu/people/morrison.413">scholar of aviation education and policy</a>, I believe a stronger focus on attracting a diverse workforce and embracing a more inclusive culture is pivotal to ensuring there are enough pilots as Americans return to the skies in record numbers after this crisis passes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335744/original/file-20200518-83384-6tsec6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335744/original/file-20200518-83384-6tsec6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335744/original/file-20200518-83384-6tsec6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335744/original/file-20200518-83384-6tsec6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335744/original/file-20200518-83384-6tsec6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335744/original/file-20200518-83384-6tsec6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335744/original/file-20200518-83384-6tsec6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Helen Richey, the first woman pilot to fly a commercial airline, is seen here in the cockpit of a Central Airlines plane in 1934. No major carrier hired a woman pilot until the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lack of diversity</h2>
<p>Upon entering the field of aviation in 2014, it took me about a year on the job before I fully grasped that I was, more often than not, the only woman in the room – and frequently the youngest to boot.</p>
<p>Eventually, I had the opportunity to critically examine the systemic problems that have led to a lack of diversity in both the academic aviation world and the broader industry it reflects. I found that women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community were significantly underrepresented, yet <a href="https://news.delta.com/delta-s-first-black-female-captain-taking-was-thrill-my-life">their mere presence was often used</a> to symbolize progress in diversifying the industry. </p>
<p>And little has changed.</p>
<p>A review of the latest <a href="https://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/">Civil Airmen Statistics</a> indicates that a little over 4% of Airline Transport Certificate holders – the required certification to fly for a major carrier – are women. <a href="https://www.wai.org/pioneers/2018/bonnie-tiburzi-caputo">No major U.S. carrier hired</a> a female pilot until 1973. </p>
<p>The situation is even worse for African Americans, who were <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/green-marlon-dewitt-1929-2009/">not hired to pilot a commercial airplane until the 1960s</a>. Things changed only because of a six-year battle against Continental Airlines waged by Marlon Green, who filed a discrimination complaint against the carrier. In 1963, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in his favor, paving the way for the first black pilot, David Ellsworth Harris, whom American Airlines hired in 1964. Green would follow suit at Continental in 1965.</p>
<p>But even today there are few African American pilots. Sociologists Louwanda Evans and Joe Feagin estimate that the number in 2012 <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0002764211433804">was fewer than 700</a> – less than 1% of all commercial pilots. Fewer than 20 were black women. </p>
<h2>Pilot shortage</h2>
<p>I believe this lack of inclusion has contributed to the looming pilot shortage the industry has worried about for several years.</p>
<p>Every few years, Boeing releases a report forecasting the number of professionals that the aviation industry will need in the coming years, from pilots and maintenance technicians to cabin crew. In its most recent report, <a href="https://www.boeing.com/commercial/market/pilot-technician-outlook/">Boeing estimates</a> that North America is short 212,000 pilots through 2038.</p>
<p>One of the problems is the field’s high barrier for those who lack resources and support. The cost of a <a href="https://aviation.osu.edu/flight-training-costs">flight education</a> at a traditional four-year institution can range from US$50,000 to upwards of $100,000, in addition to rising tuition fees.</p>
<p>Another issue is a culture that isn’t very inclusive.</p>
<p>For an ongoing research project, I’ve been interviewing African American women in a variety of positions in the aviation industry about the challenges pursuing a successful career in the field. I’ve found that the lack of mentors, access to the industry, resources and “people who look like you” have all been barriers to entry and retention in the industry. There is also a perception problem, where women are not seen as authoritative enough for positions like <a href="https://time.com/longform/tammie-jo-shults-southwest-pilot-hero/">captain of an aircraft</a>.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/women-in-aviation/index.html">recent CNN article</a>, aviation writer Kathryn Creedy put part of the blame on work rules that “haven’t changed in 50 years.” A sexist work environment is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit against Frontier Airlines, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/opinion/pregnancy-discrimination-frontier-airlines.html">is accused of discriminating against</a> pregnant and breastfeeding women. </p>
<h2>Beyond tokenism</h2>
<p>In the various months devoted to recognizing historically marginalized groups such as <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/womens-history-month">women</a>, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month">African Americans</a> and <a href="https://lgbthistorymonth.com">LBGTQ people</a>, the aviation industry joins the chorus of group that use the calendar to highlight historic diversity firsts.</p>
<p>For example, you’ll often see <a href="https://www.airlines.org/blog/u-s-airlines-celebrate-black-history-month/">articles in February</a> showcasing the “first African American pilot” or the “<a href="http://news.aa.com/american-stories/american-stories-details/2019/Flying-with-pride/default.aspx">first all LGBTQ flight crew</a>.” Unfortunately, those firsts did not spark a significant change that led to real diversity in the cockpit, which continues to be <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/aviation-diversity-commercial-pilots-trnd/index.html">dominated by white men</a>. </p>
<p>The problem with celebrating diverse talent only during the designated month is that this approach does not require the industry to reflect on why it needs diversity and inclusion policies in the first place. In her 2013 book, “<a href="https://rowman.com/isbn/9781442221352/cabin-pressure-african-american-pilots-flight-attendants-and-emotional-labor">Cabin Pressure: African-American Pilots, Flight Attendants, and Emotional Labor</a>,” sociologist Louwanda Evans writes about how mere representation can’t paper over entrenched discrimination. And this problem, in turn, is contributing to the looming pilot shortage. </p>
<p>The principles of justice and equity should be enough to convince carriers to make their policies and practices more equitable and inclusive to individuals who have not typically been drawn to the industry. But if they need more convincing, the clear economic imperative should do the job. </p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123242/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon McLoughlin Morrison is affiliated with The Ohio State University, and has volunteered for the National Gay Pilots Association and Women in Aviation</span></em></p>
The aviation industry was already expecting a severe pilot shortage over the coming years. The pandemic could make it even worse.
Shannon McLoughlin Morrison, Assistant Director, Academics and Program Assessment, The Ohio State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/122308
2019-08-27T04:53:50Z
2019-08-27T04:53:50Z
Australia’s art institutions don’t reflect our diversity: it’s time to change that
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289171/original/file-20190823-170910-xayc8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The cast of The Golden Shield by Anchuli Felicia King, currently on at Melbourne Theatre Company, shows faces too rarely seen on stage.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jeff Busby/MTC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most of us, it is easy to pass judgement on others while finding it difficult to reflect on ourselves.</p>
<p>Diversity Arts Australia recently undertook a research project, <a href="http://diversityarts.org.au/app/uploads/Shifting-the-Balance-DARTS-small.pdf">Shifting the Balance</a>, with the assistance of Western Sydney University and BYP Group. We investigated representation of culturally and/or linguistically diverse (CALD) Australians in leadership positions within our major arts, screen and cultural organisations.</p>
<p>The focus was on CALD rather than other measures because we wanted to reflect the Australian Human Rights Commission’s <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/Leading%20for%20Change_Blueprint2018_FINAL_Web.pdf">classification of cultural backgrounds</a>. Where participants self-identified as First Nations people we recorded this data but we did not include it in this report (we aim to expand the focus in collaboration at a future date).</p>
<p>We began with an analysis of the publicly available biographical information about board chairs and members, CEOs, creative directors, senior executives and award panel judges from 200 major cultural organisations, awards and government bodies. These findings were then returned to these organisations to confirm or review the data. </p>
<p>We made it clear the information would be non-identifiable – our aim, after all, is to identify issues, not attack organisations.</p>
<p>It did not take long for some of our funders to call us about concerns that had been raised with them regarding our research.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289357/original/file-20190826-170931-agsfo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289357/original/file-20190826-170931-agsfo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289357/original/file-20190826-170931-agsfo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289357/original/file-20190826-170931-agsfo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289357/original/file-20190826-170931-agsfo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289357/original/file-20190826-170931-agsfo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289357/original/file-20190826-170931-agsfo4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 2019 Ramsay Art Prize displaying exciting work from young Australian artists of many cultural backgrounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Saul Steed/Art Gallery of South Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A number of organisations and individuals told us they would not participate. We were accused of not understanding the complexity of the organisations or, indeed, diversity. </p>
<p>One respondent explained to us that, because their spouse was ethnically Chinese, they did not see themselves as “Anglo-Australian”. Privately, I was even told by one potential funder that migrant populations did not prioritise “the arts” - so such research was a waste of time.</p>
<p>This sort of sensitivity demonstrates exactly why we need this research: many Australians are not aware of how far their misunderstanding of lack of diversity extends.</p>
<p>Despite such reactions, we made the decision to persist with the research. When organisations refused to participate, we thanked them for their consideration, removed them from our database and replaced them with alternative ones. </p>
<h2>Overwhelmingly non-migrant</h2>
<p>The findings were staggering. Despite public commitments to diversity, leaders, directors and board members of Australia’s major cultural bodies are overwhelmingly from non-migrant backgrounds.</p>
<p>Less than half of our nation’s museums, music and opera companies, screen organisations and theatre companies have any representatives from diverse cultural or linguistic heritage among their leadership teams. </p>
<p>Less than 10% of artistic directors come from culturally diverse backgrounds.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289184/original/file-20190823-170922-gqbcyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289184/original/file-20190823-170922-gqbcyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289184/original/file-20190823-170922-gqbcyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289184/original/file-20190823-170922-gqbcyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289184/original/file-20190823-170922-gqbcyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289184/original/file-20190823-170922-gqbcyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289184/original/file-20190823-170922-gqbcyi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Belvoir Theatre’s Counting and Cracking (2018) had a primarily Sri Lankan-Australian cast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Boardman/Belvoir</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The literary and publishing industry had the highest CALD representation among leaders, 14%. This figure in theatre, dance and stage was just 5% – mirroring numbers found by the Australian Human Rights Commission when looking at the broader corporate sector. </p>
<h2>A progressive sector?</h2>
<p>Australia’s arts sector sees itself – and is seen by others – as progressive and <a href="https://www.arts.qld.gov.au/aq-blog/arts-education/multiculturalism-and-the-main-stage">inclusive</a>. So understanding why it falls short in actual representation is complex. </p>
<p>England’s primary art funding body, Arts Council England, has released an annual diversity report since 2016. In the introduction to this year’s report, chair Nicholas Serota noted “in some respects there are improvements; in others we are still treading water”. </p>
<p>Writing on this for the Guardian, Clive Nwonka, a fellow at the London School of Economics, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/15/arts-diversity-arts-council-england-inequality">argued</a> that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A combination of industries placing economic interests over social interests, resistance and disinterest from stakeholders, and poorly conceptualised initiatives left diversity in the wilderness. […] The sector became littered with the corpses of failed diversity schemes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While it is difficult to compare the experience of different nations, the response from our research shows similar resistance in some sections of the community.</p>
<h2>A culture of resistance</h2>
<p>Australia has a history of separating “ethnic art” from the mainstream arts community. Non-English language companies peaked in the late 1980s, with companies such as the Greek-language Filiki Players in Melbourne and the Italian-language Doppio Teatro in Adelaide. </p>
<p>Despite almost 50% of Australians having at least <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/Media%20Release3">one parent born overseas</a>, this separation between “mainstream” and “ethnic” art has continued. </p>
<p>Through many symposium and discussion forums, we confirmed many artists and creatives felt major organisations often saw diversity as the <a href="https://issuu.com/diversityartsaustralia/docs/beyond_tick_boxes_report">domain of minor organisations</a>.</p>
<p>This bias is likely to be unconscious. Recognition of such bias within orchestras saw the introduction of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/oct/14/blind-auditions-orchestras-gender-bias">blind auditions</a>”, which have increased the representation of female musicians in top orchestras from 5% in 1970 to over 30% today. </p>
<h2>What can be done?</h2>
<p>The arts are there to tell the stories that capture the rich tapestry of our nation – and to do this, we must seek out artists and artistic leaders that reflect this diversity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289169/original/file-20190823-170922-prgp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289169/original/file-20190823-170922-prgp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289169/original/file-20190823-170922-prgp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289169/original/file-20190823-170922-prgp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289169/original/file-20190823-170922-prgp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289169/original/file-20190823-170922-prgp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/289169/original/file-20190823-170922-prgp4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cast of The Heights, a new Australian soap showing the diversity of Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben King/ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cultural and screen sectors must set targets, design, and implement diversity inclusion plans. These should not be undertaken via a tick-the box-training session, but progressive and ongoing strategies that are embedded into the organisation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-heights-at-last-a-credible-australian-working-class-soap-112961">The Heights - at last, a credible Australian working-class soap</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We need strong arts policy (Australia doesn’t have a national arts policy at all) with diversity at its core.</p>
<p>As in the UK, funding bodies must tie funding to meeting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/08/arts-council-england-make-progress-diversity-funding-axed-bazalgette">minimum diversity targets</a>, ensuring organisations reflect on what it means to tell an Australian story. </p>
<p>The arts act as a mirror to who we are. If the arts community simply reflects on Australia of a bygone era we fail to acknowledge our complexity, exclude most Australians and lack authenticity. </p>
<p>Finally, while 22 organisations refused to participate in our research, and many did not respond, we must remember 49% did send through their data - giving us the potential for an arts and screen community that really reflects Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Arvanitakis received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network and the Office of Learning and Teaching. He is the Chair of Diversity Arts Australia, an Academic Fellow: Australia India Institute and on the Advisory Board Member: Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation.</span></em></p>
New research shows less than 10% of Australia’s artistic directors come from culturally diverse backgrounds – but many didn’t want the research to be done at all.
James Arvanitakis, Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/108283
2018-12-06T11:45:42Z
2018-12-06T11:45:42Z
Jay-Z’s $200-million clothing battle could be game changer for black lawyers the world over
<p>Millionaire rapper Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, has proved yet again why he is larger than life. He is embroiled in a contractual dispute over the US$204m (£159m) <a href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/jay-z-cashes-in-with-200-million-rocawear-deal/">sale of</a> his clothing brand to Iconix Brand Group a decade ago. </p>
<p>In a twist that has now thrown the world of arbitration into a frenzy, Jay-Z recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/nov/29/jay-z-logo-lawsuit-racial-bias">won a temporary decision</a> from a New York court to halt the process on the grounds there aren’t enough black arbitrators to settle it fairly within the terms of the contract. If this argument ultimately carries the day, it will require a severe reorganisation and opening up of the arbitration profession, one of the most cliquish corners of the legal business – and not just in America, but around the world. </p>
<p>Like many business contracts, the original Jay-Z/Iconix deal agreed that any disputes would be settled by a commercial arbitration process. The contract stipulated that the parties would use arbitrators provided by the American Arbitration Association (AAA). </p>
<p>But as part of a dispute over intellectual property rights, Jay-Z’s lawyers are arguing that the arbitration clause is invalid because they could not “identify a single African-American arbitrator on the ‘Large and Complex Cases’ roster” provided by the association. Even when the AAA went through its expanded list of 200 potential arbitrators, it could only identify three African-Americans – one of whom was ineligible to come on board because they work for the law firm representing Iconix. </p>
<p>Jay-Z’s lawyers argued before the New York Supreme Court that white arbitrators exhibit “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jay-z-lawsuit-roc-nation-iconix-racial-bias-761299/">unconscious bias</a>” towards black defendants; and that the AAA’s lack of racial diversity consequently “deprives litigants of colour of a meaningful opportunity to have their claims heard by a panel of arbitrators reflecting their backgrounds and life experience”. The procedure, they went on, “deprives black litigants … of the equal protection of the laws, equal access to public accommodations, and mislead consumers into believing that they will receive a fair and impartial adjudication”. </p>
<p>The New York Supreme Court’s decision to grant a stay on the back of these arguments is unprecedented and will become legendary within the profession. And unlike traditional courts, where judges are usually only bound to follow decisions within the same jurisdiction, arbitration <a href="https://www.uncitral.org/pdf/english/texts/arbitration/NY-conv/New-York-Convention-E.pdf">is essentially</a> one global system. If New York decides that these are the rules, the effects will be felt around the world. </p>
<h2>The exclusion problem</h2>
<p>What the case has highlighted is that arbitrators in the US, but also in most Western societies, <a href="https://www.transnational-dispute-management.com/article.asp?key=2242">are disproportionately</a> white, male and aged. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/mar/28/judges-ethnic-sex-diversity-judiciary">same is true of courts</a>, but more is arguably expected from arbitrators as the field of recruitment is wider – with less emphasis on legal training and professional qualifications. </p>
<p>This situation is hardly surprising given that big law firms are the incubation beds for commercial arbitrators. The chances of being appointed by businesses to settle highly complex matters like Jay-Z’s case increase exponentially if the arbitrator works in the so-called golden circle of law firms, and this is where the shortage begins. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249023/original/file-20181205-186079-gc43p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Not what enough lawyers look like.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/burden-proof-moodily-lit-legal-law-335237585?src=1PXkQPwlN-aOJ3TACJS82A-1-40">BCFC</a></span>
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<p>Don’t tell anyone this, but the law firm representing Jay-Z, Quinn Emanuel, itself <a href="https://www.quinnemanuel.com/attorneys">has a big diversity deficit at partner level</a>, with only three African-American partners listed in a list of almost 300. Even if the firm were allowed to supply black arbitrators to handle Jay-Z’s case itself, it wouldn’t be able to. If black partners are this scarce, you might as well look for black unicorns to fill arbitration panels. </p>
<p>The shortage is just as problematic in complex international arbitrations. In 2013, around a third of the parties to the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration <a href="https://store.internationaltradebooks.org/icccourtofarbitrationbulletin25-1.aspx">were from</a> Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Since then, just 15% of appointees were from those regions. Meanwhile, appointments of African arbitrators at the <a href="https://pca-cpa.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/175/2017/07/Current-List-Annex-1-Members-of-the-Court-update-20181127.pdf">Permanent Court of Arbitration</a> and black judges at the <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/en/current-members">World Court</a> are proportionately very low. </p>
<p>There are few renowned non-white arbitrators in international petroleum negotiation – despite the fact that nearly 60% of petroleum <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/269076/distribution-of-global-oil-production-since-2009/">is produced</a> outside Europe and North America. There are even fewer developing-world experts in international boundary disputes. Arguably developing countries <a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/toc/ajicl/13/2?cookieSet=1">are constantly</a> shortchanged in international justice as a result. </p>
<h2>What to do</h2>
<p>How do we address this issues? We could throw the burden back on the likes of Jay-Z by saying he should have fought for diversity in arbitrators at the drafting stage of his sales contract. That may well be what the court ultimately does in his case, but what then? </p>
<p>It is generally accepted that contractual specifications about arbitration cannot violate national laws. These would include race discrimination laws, though the limits of this were shown in a relatively recent UK judgement, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2010-0170-judgment.pdf">Jivraj v Hashwani (2011)</a>. Here, the contract stipulated that arbitrators had to be respected Muslim members of the Ismaili community. When challenged as racial discrimination, the Supreme Court decided that the relevant UK laws only applied to employees and not to arbitrators because they were not employees. </p>
<p>But if that left the likes of Jay-Z free to push for African-American arbitrators as part of business contracts, there is still the problem of a general dearth of them. If he does ultimately lose his case in New York, it will still have highlighted this gap in the market. Perhaps in future, black dealmakers will insist on any arbitration taking place somewhere with more black arbitrators. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that we need recruitment programmes to encourage black arbitrators now, and to recognise that those in place should be more frequently offered for appointments so that they are experienced enough to handle large complex cases. And to fix the current shortage, we also have to address the diversity issues in the legal profession as a whole.</p>
<p>Too often at present, we’re kidding ourselves. The American Arbitration Association has <a href="https://www.adr.org/higginbothamfellowsprogram">a programme</a> to mentor diverse young arbitrators, and <a href="https://www.adr.org/RosterDiversity">promises</a> lists of arbitrators of at least 20% diversity, for example. But it is only able to offer this proportion by lumping together all diversity including gender, age and ethnic background – and 20% is hardly a great achievement anyway. If demand for more black representation rises and centres for arbitration like New York and London don’t offer enough people, new rivals may well step up to the plate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gbenga Oduntan teaches International Commercial Arbitration and is affiliated as a member of OGEMID-Transnational Dispute Management (TDM). </span></em></p>
If Mr Beyonce wins his argument that an arbitration clause should be struck down for lack of diversity, the barn door will be blown off the whole profession.
Gbenga Oduntan, Reader (Associate Professor) in International Commercial Law, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/107253
2018-11-22T16:50:03Z
2018-11-22T16:50:03Z
50 years after Star Trek’s ‘kiss’, how have attitudes towards interethnic marriage changed?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246702/original/file-20181121-161644-14rtqai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The kiss' was probably the most memorable, if not the first, of early on-screen interracial embraces.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">CBS/Paramount Pictures © 1968</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the long-running sci-fi serial Star Trek, the mission of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise is to “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI">boldly go where no one has gone before</a>”. This was most often apparent in the crew’s discovery of new worlds and new beings in the course of the drama. </p>
<p>But the series pushed another new boundary 50 years ago when, having been subjected to “sadistic” mind control by aliens, Captain James Kirk (played by William Shatner) and Lieutenant Nyota Uhura (played by Nichelle Nichols) were compelled to <a href="https://theconversation.com/tvs-first-interracial-kiss-launched-a-lifelong-career-in-activism-101721">passionately kiss each other</a>. With Shatner a Canadian-born actor of European descent and Nichols an American-born actress of African descent, this became one of the earliest, and by far the most watched, scripted interracial kiss on US television. While the kiss is tame by today’s standards, in 1968 it was certainly somewhere few men or women in US television had gone before.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-interracial-kiss-on-another-planet-102546">An Interracial Kiss – on Another Planet</a>
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<p>The kiss occurred at a time when only a minuscule proportion of couples within the US married across racial or other ethnic boundaries. Estimates vary, but according to a <a href="http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/05/19102233/Intermarriage-May-2017-Full-Report.pdf">2017 Pew Research Centre report</a> fewer than 3% of US marriages were interethnic in 1968 – just one year after the US Supreme Court had struck down the existing anti-miscegenation state laws against mixed relationships as unconstitutional in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/loving-v-virginia-exploring-biracial-identity-and-reality-in-america-50-years-after-a-landmark-civil-rights-milestone-77092">Loving vs Virgina case</a>. By contrast, in 2015 (the most recent year for which detailed statistics are available) around 10% of US marriages were interethnic, fuelled largely by newlyweds: 17% of all new US marriages were mixed marriages. </p>
<p>The change in the proportion of interethnic marriages in the US during the past 50 years is striking, although this still implies that around 90% of individuals continue to marry within their ethnic group. This is driven mostly by the tendency of non-Hispanic, European-descent individuals to marry among their own.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tvs-first-interracial-kiss-launched-a-lifelong-career-in-activism-101721">TV's first interracial kiss launched a lifelong career in activism</a>
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<p>In the Pew Research Centre <a href="http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/05/19102233/Intermarriage-May-2017-Full-Report.pdf">report</a>, authors Gretchen Livingston and Anna Brown credit the rise in interethnic marriage with a corresponding change in public attitudes across time. For example, as recently as 1990, a staggering 63% of those not of African descent expressed disapproval towards the idea of a family members’ marriage to someone of African descent. By 2016, that rate had tumbled to 14%. </p>
<p>For comparison, this rate of disapproval was substantially higher than the same perspective from the other side, that of non-white people disapproving of their family members marrying someone of a white background, which stood at 4%. Among those of Asian or Hispanic descent, the same disapproving view of intermarriage stood at around 9%.</p>
<p>So if the rise in interethnic marriage has led to a decrease in negativity among public attitudes toward interethnic marriage over the last two generations, can we also link this increasing interethnicity to increasingly positive attitudes on that topic? A recent addition to attitude surveys is the question of whether interethnic marriage is good for US society, and according to the report the news seems favourable. The proportion of respondents saying that interethnic marriage is a good thing for US society rose from 24% in 2010 to 39% in 2017. For comparison, around 9% said that interethnic marriage was bad for US society, and 52% said that interethnic marriage made no difference.</p>
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<p>I believe that the authors were correct to identify the rise of interethnic marriage as having contributed to a decrease in negative attitudes, and increase in positive attitudes. But I also believe that, as Gordon Allport predicted in <a href="http://faculty.washington.edu/caporaso/courses/203/readings/allport_Nature_of_prejudice.pdf">The Nature of Prejudice</a>, in 1954, it is necessary for government officials to lead the way in their words and deeds if interethnic couples are to be able to marry safely in the US. Civil rights-era shows such as Star Trek in 1968, alongside movies such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061735/">Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner</a> in 1967, both mirrored and helped contribute to changing public attitudes in their own way. </p>
<p>Has the “Trump effect” made a difference to attitudes? Based partly on trends I noticed while writing Identity and Interethnic Marriage in the United States, I suspect that some racists have felt increasingly emboldened in stating their opposition to interethnic marriage, especially towards couples comprised of black men and white women. Yet among the 70% of Americans who are not Trump supporters, the rise in interethnic marriage will not be a subject of major concern (and, in fact, the rate will continue to rise).</p>
<p>There is no comparable data to that from the Pew Research Centre that covers the UK, but as the political fallout over Brexit continues I would speculate that the UK has its own issues to address. For example, what will be the fate of marriages between EU residents and UK citizens once Brexit is fully implemented? Nevertheless, I would suppose that interethnic marriages in the UK will continue to rise as young people (in particular) increasingly marry without limiting themselves to “traditional” ethnic boundaries. </p>
<p>In any event, on either side of the Atlantic, 50 years and two generations on from “the kiss”, we can see how far we have progressed – and how far we still have to go.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stanley Gaines does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Star Trek’s groundbreaking interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura was 50 years ago today – how have public attitudes to interracial and interethnic relationships changed in the years since?
Stanley Gaines, Senior Lecturer In Psychology, Brunel University London
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/96176
2018-06-25T10:36:07Z
2018-06-25T10:36:07Z
Searching for diversity in Silicon Valley tech firms – and finding some
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222266/original/file-20180607-121234-dex04p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many voices mean many viewpoints.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/silhouettes-men-women-different-colors-drawn-72373660">nito/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Silicon Valley technology firms have had serious problems with demographic diversity, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-google-gender-manifesto-really-says-about-silicon-valley-82236">accusations of hostile climates</a> toward women and minority employees. A new analysis of company-level employment data I helped conduct finds, however, that some firms seem to have figured out how to create more diverse workplaces. </p>
<p>A 2016 report from the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, for example, concluded that <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/reports/hightech/">the technology industry has a problem</a> recruiting and retaining women of all races, as well as black and Hispanic men. And a 2017 report documented that while people of Asian descent were a large proportion of technology workers, their <a href="http://www.ascendleadership.org/news/369626/New-research-report-from-Ascend-Foundation-on-Silicon-Valley-leadership-diversity.htm">representation in management and executive positions lagged behind</a> that of white men and white women. That suggested a glass ceiling prevented Asian workers from moving up corporate ladders.</p>
<p>Recent research from the <a href="https://www.centerforemploymentequity.org">University of Massachusetts–Amherst’s Center for Employment Equity</a>, where I am the director, <a href="https://www.centerforemploymentequity.org/reports-1">analyzed employment data</a> for the 177 largest Silicon Valley technology firms; included in the sampling frame were headline-making firms such as Airbnb, Cisco, Facebook, Google and Uber. We confirmed that there is a diversity problem in Silicon Valley, although we also found firms that are doing better than their peers.</p>
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<h2>Understanding diversity problems</h2>
<p>There are two common explanations offered for the <a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/5/30/17386728/aileen-lee-cowboy-ventures-sukhinder-singh-cassidy-megan-smith-code-conference-interview">technology industry’s diversity problem</a>. The first is that there are <a href="https://work.qz.com/1092540/techs-diversity-failures-are-a-massive-business-opportunity-for-the-minority-recruitment-industry/">relatively few diverse applicants</a> in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/upshot/dont-blame-recruiting-pipeline-for-lack-of-diversity-in-tech.html">educational</a> and <a href="https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/technology/blog/problem-with-diversity-in-tech/">professional</a> pipelines.</p>
<p>The second reason, observed by industry critics, is that technology firms aren’t welcoming for anyone other than white men. For instance, <a href="https://hbr.org/2015/03/the-5-biases-pushing-women-out-of-stem">two-thirds of all women and three-quarters of black women</a> in the industry reported having to prove themselves over and over again to managers and co-workers. Additionally, most women reported backlash from co-workers and managers when they did not conform to female stereotypes. Further, a recent report on people who <a href="https://www.kaporcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/TechLeavers2017.pdf">leave tech firms</a> shows that unfair, disrespectful and stereotype-infused treatment is widespread and an expensive source of female and minority turnover for technology firms.</p>
<p>Both explanations suggest that the problems are the same for every firm. That seemed improbable to us: Companies differ in many ways, and we reasoned that this must be the case in managing diversity as well.</p>
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<h2>Examining the data</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.centerforemploymentequity.org/reports-1">study</a> we looked at employee data firms supplied to the federal government about the gender and ethnic backgrounds of people working at different levels throughout the company, from entry level to top executive. We focused on the 177 largest firms in the region, but also developed a comparison to 1,277 smaller Silicon Valley-area tech workplaces.</p>
<p>What we found confirmed our suspicions that each company is different – despite the overall diversity problem in large Silicon Valley technology firms. In most of the top 177 firms we analyzed, there were few women in technical jobs and even fewer in top executive positions. Black and Hispanic men and women were rare, and were nearly entirely absent from managerial and executive jobs. Asian men and women were common in technical jobs, but rare in leadership positions.</p>
<p>These largest firms have more black men and women than the 1,277 smaller firms – but fewer Asian men and women, and more white men.</p>
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<p>In contrast, we found that in 7 percent of these 177 largest Silicon Valley technology firms, most of the employees are women. In a handful of companies, black and Hispanic men and women make up more than 5 percent of the professional workforce, and more than 5 percent of management – which is four times their proportion in the local workforce. And though there are firms with no Asian men or women in management, there are also firms in which more than 20 percent of managers are Asian men and women.</p>
<h2>Looking at leadership</h2>
<p>We got access to the data by agreeing not to identify the names of the firms in our research. However, <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/heres-the-clearest-picture-of-silicon-valleys-diversity-yet/">journalists at Reveal</a> recently reported the numbers for the handful of Silicon Valley firms that have publicly released their employment counts. In that report, top gender-diversity performers include 23andMe, PayPal, Intuit and Airbnb. Nvidia, a firm that’s growing quickly in the fields of artificial intelligence, gaming, visualization and data centers, is among the very lowest in terms of gender diversity. Cloud data company Netapp looked better than most of its competitors in terms of employing African-Americans and Hispanics. Women of color are rare in all firms, but Lyft, <a href="https://diversity.google/annual-report/">Google</a> and Square did not have any women of color in their executive ranks at all.</p>
<p>In our data we examined whether the race and gender of leaders influenced diversity. Mostly we found that they did not. However, companies with more white men in executive positions tended to have fewer Asians in professional jobs. More promisingly, when there are more white women managers, companies tend to employ more black and Hispanic women in professional positions. </p>
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<p>Evidence from <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail">other studies</a> suggests that the main reason behind differences in diversity is whether leaders – regardless of their own demographic group – prioritize the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce.</p>
<p>Employment diversity problems are complex. But their solutions need not be. All of these 177 large technology firms develop innovative products, compete in dynamic global product markets, hire in competitive labor markets and are rapidly transforming societies around the globe. Our research shows that some of these firms are also able to hire diverse groups of employees – and raises the question why others are not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey receives funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. He is affiliated with the Center for Employment Equity at the University of Massachusetts. </span></em></p>
Large Silicon Valley firms are not particularly diverse in terms of gender or race, but there are some companies doing better than their peers.
Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, Professor of Sociology; Director, Center for Employment Equity, UMass Amherst
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/94388
2018-04-09T10:43:39Z
2018-04-09T10:43:39Z
Mormonism’s newest apostles reflect growing global reach
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213463/original/file-20180405-189830-bjdwwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People attend the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 31, 2018, in Salt Lake City.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At its annual General Conference held from March 31 to April 1, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormons), <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-asian-american-brazilian-apostles-make-mormon-history-n861741">announced two new members</a> of its second highest governing body, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: Gerrit Gong, the son of Chinese immigrants to the United States, and Ulisses Soares, a native Brazilian.</p>
<p>These two men are the first non-white apostles in the church’s history. From my perspective as a scholar of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&user=KT0k4-8AAAAJ">American religion and Mormonism</a>, these developments illustrate Mormonism’s transformation into a diverse, global faith.</p>
<h2>The Mormon apostles</h2>
<p>At its highest levels the Mormon church is run by fifteen leaders: a First Presidency, made up of the president of the church and his two counselors, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who work immediately under the president. All serve <a href="https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/additional-resource/succession-in-the-presidency-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints">for life</a>. </p>
<p>Apostles have always been chosen by the president of the church, and in turn the president of the church is the longest serving of the apostles. </p>
<p>Mormons had great missionary success <a href="https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/mormonism-and-the-making-of-a-british-zion/">in</a> <a href="http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Scandinavia,_the_Church_in">Europe</a> in the 19th century and consequently the church has had a <a href="https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/prophets-and-apostles-last-dispensation/first-counselors-first-presidency/9-anthon-henrik">number</a> <a href="https://www.lds.org/liahona/2010/02/small-and-simple-things/elder-john-a-widtsoe?lang=eng">of</a> <a href="https://www.lds.org/liahona/2010/02/small-and-simple-things/elder-john-a-widtsoe?lang=eng">non-Americans</a> in these offices before. But there have never been non-European or non-white American men in these posts until now. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213465/original/file-20180405-189807-1nvv27y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213465/original/file-20180405-189807-1nvv27y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213465/original/file-20180405-189807-1nvv27y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213465/original/file-20180405-189807-1nvv27y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213465/original/file-20180405-189807-1nvv27y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213465/original/file-20180405-189807-1nvv27y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213465/original/file-20180405-189807-1nvv27y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Russell M. Nelson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is due to a number of reasons. One is that life tenure means that any sort of change in high church leadership happens slowly. Russell Nelson, a white man from Utah, the current president of the church, <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/leader/russell-m-nelson?lang=eng">became</a> an apostle in 1984. His predecessor, who died in January, <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/leader/thomas-s-monson?lang=eng">became</a> an apostle in 1963. The current apostles <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/leaders/quorum-of-the-twelve-apostles?lang=eng">range</a> in age from 58 to 89.</p>
<p>Another reason for a lack of diversity in church leadership is that Mormonism’s growth outside the white communities of the United States and Europe was for a long time sporadic. <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V23N01_41.pdf">Until 1978</a>, the church did not allow black members to hold priesthood or worship in temples, rites required for priestly leadership in the church.</p>
<p>In addition, though the church’s growth in Latin America has been rapid, it has <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23290495?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">traditionally</a> adhered to American cultural norms, which has meant that historically it has struggled to retain members in Latin America and Africa. For instance, Mormons expect that men will wear dress shirts and ties and women will wear dresses to Sunday services. The official Mormon hymnbook too is filled with 19th-century American hymns. Hymnals produced for non-English speaking countries <a href="https://www.lds.org/church/news/international-hymnbooks-unify-saints-around-the-world?lang=eng">consist of</a> translations of those songs into local languages. They contain only a small number of local songs. </p>
<h2>Presence in China</h2>
<p>However, the selection of Gong and Soares is an indication that the church has begun to take seriously the task of growing outside the United States.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213464/original/file-20180405-189795-1u0yrk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213464/original/file-20180405-189795-1u0yrk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213464/original/file-20180405-189795-1u0yrk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213464/original/file-20180405-189795-1u0yrk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213464/original/file-20180405-189795-1u0yrk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213464/original/file-20180405-189795-1u0yrk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213464/original/file-20180405-189795-1u0yrk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ulisses Soares, left, of Brazil, and Gerrit W. Gong, a Chinese-American.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of its massive missionary efforts, there are now <a href="https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics">roughly</a> 16 million Mormons in the world, and a healthy majority of those live outside the United States. <a href="https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/facts-and-statistics/country/brazil">One of every 15 Mormons</a> is from Brazil, where Mormon missionaries have found among their greatest success. </p>
<p>Indeed, this demographic tidal wave has been so pronounced that many Mormons have <a href="https://religionnews.com/2015/10/05/naming-of-3-new-mormon-apostles-raises-questions-about-race-international-diversity/">expected</a> a Latin American apostle for the last several vacancies. A number of Mormons <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/04/01/nelson-makes-history-with-his-choice-of-mormonisms-first-asian-american-and-latin-american-apostles/">greeted</a> the choice of Gong and Soares with excitement, seeing it as an important acknowledgment of diversity in the church.</p>
<p>And while Soares’ selection reflects the Mormon present, Gong’s may point to the future of Mormonism. </p>
<p>Mormonism <a href="http://www.mormonsandchina.org/">is not</a> one of the five official religions <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/religion-china">recognized</a> by the People’s Republic of China, but there are Mormon congregations in the nation, <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V13N01_42.pdf">built mostly</a> through expatriates and Chinese citizens converted by Mormon missionaries abroad. Official numbers are not reported, due to restrictions placed by the Chinese government. </p>
<p>The current president of the church, Russell Nelson, studied Mandarin as a younger man and has spent a great deal of time in China over his career. He was among the American heart surgeons who traveled to China to educate Chinese physicians about heart transplants. His personal interest in the country has recently been matched by signs that the church as a whole is interested in cultivating a higher profile there. For instance, the church recently launched a <a href="http://www.mormonsandchina.org">website</a> devoted to its relationship with China. Dallin Oaks, a member of the church’s First Presidency, <a href="https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/china-website-mormons">announced</a> that the church has been cultivating a “relationship of trust with Chinese officials.” </p>
<p>The new apostle Gerrit Gong is a Mandarin speaker as well. With a Ph.D. in international relations and stints at the State Department and Georgetown University on his resume, he could be an invaluable help in such efforts.</p>
<h2>Globalizing the church</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213466/original/file-20180405-189798-1v3wdvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213466/original/file-20180405-189798-1v3wdvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213466/original/file-20180405-189798-1v3wdvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213466/original/file-20180405-189798-1v3wdvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213466/original/file-20180405-189798-1v3wdvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213466/original/file-20180405-189798-1v3wdvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213466/original/file-20180405-189798-1v3wdvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mormon leaders decentralized church administration and cut down on the bureaucracy and paperwork surrounding the practices of home teaching.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/moregoodfoundation/5139228994/in/photolist-8Q8TJs-8Q8Lg9-8Q8yAd-8Q8TLd-8Q8SYd-aqDJ11-aqAZga-aqCuyQ-8Q5Hhe-8PN1Mr-8Q5rL8-8PR2jw-9oVat6-8Q5Dm2-8Q8EaE-8Q5rpk-8Q8yR9-8Q5DEr-8Q8RrJ-8Q5rva-8Q5r9n-8Q5rR6-8Q5r82-8Q5Czc-8Q5Hfc-8Q5LEr-W82Xhj-aqCzWE-8Q8Kqw-8Q5zWa-8Q5KTF-2gpxCi-8Q5quX-8Q8HJG-8Q8DaG-8Q5qDZ-8Q5zEZ-7HsHhY-8Q5qbZ-8Q8yDS-8Q8yjy-6ZTzeb-8Q5q12-9cEgT3-8Q5Axt-hyNCMZ-8PMJ9Z-aqexHn-aqevH6-2W4p5x">More Good Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A notable development at the recent conference was a move by Mormon leaders to decentralize church administration, so as to strengthen local congregations worldwide. </p>
<p>One such announcement <a href="https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900014550/president-nelson-announces-major-changes-to-structure-of-lds-priesthood-quorums.html">consolidated</a> and simplified leadership in each local congregation. Another <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/04/02/no-more-mormon-home-and-visiting-teaching-outreach-will-be-a-holier-ministering/">discontinued</a> much of the bureaucracy and paperwork surrounding the practices of “<a href="http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Home_Teaching">home teaching</a>” and “<a href="http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Visiting_Teaching">visiting teaching</a>” in which congregants go and see each other monthly to ensure everybody in a congregation is doing well. Historically this work has been done according to procedures tightly controlled by church headquarters, which required regular reports. Now the church is allowing for more local autonomy.</p>
<p>Nelson’s final announcement of the Conference made the church’s interest in raising the international presence of the church explicit. He announced the church would be building seven new temples, in places as far-flung as India, Russia and the Philippines. </p>
<p>Mormon <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/kathleenflake/files/2012/01/RSJ-Not-to-Be-Riten2.pdf">temples</a> are distinct from weekly meetinghouses. There are thousands of meetinghouses but only 159 temples worldwide. Ceremonies like sacramental marriage and an initiatory rite called the endowment are performed only in temples – which are rituals essential for Mormons to enter leadership positions in the church. Building a temple in a country is a sign that the church sees potential for strong local leadership.</p>
<p>If there were ever doubts that Mormonism sees a global future for itself, the events of this General Conference eliminated them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Bowman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Mormonism is growing around the world: One of every 15 Mormons is from Brazil and there are congregations in China as well. Now the Mormon leadership is strengthening local congregations.
Matthew Bowman, Associate Professor of History, Henderson State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91280
2018-02-06T11:36:45Z
2018-02-06T11:36:45Z
White men may be biggest winners when a city snags Amazon’s HQ2
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204957/original/file-20180205-14111-13a9553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The tech sector has long had a diversity problem.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Elaine Thompson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amazon may be hosting the biggest – and most economically important – reality show ever as city mayors compete to snag the retailer’s second headquarters. And just like TV, it has a <a href="http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/new-2017-18-tv-shows-no-diversity-1202436493/">diversity problem</a>.</p>
<p>More than 230 cities made the initial bid, and just recently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/technology/amazon-finalists-headquarters.html">Amazon whittled</a> that list down to 20 that will go on to the next stage of the competition. Contestants have gone to great lengths to <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/the-12-most-desperate-stunts-cities-have-pulled-to-woo-amazons-new-hq">woo</a> the tech giant. Newark, New Jersey, for example, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-hq2-cities-developers-economic-tax-incentives-2017-10/#raleigh-north-carolina-well-over-50-million-1">promised over US$7 billion</a> in tax breaks over the next decade. </p>
<p>The winning community, to be announced later this year, will see billions of dollars in new investment and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs as an award. Such a long-term investment naturally would be welcome news for any city, particularly those like <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2016/05/gentrification-is-not-phillys-biggest-problem/483656/">Philadelphia</a> and <a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2016/06/04/editorial-facts-indianas-economy-beyond-political-spin/85405390/">Indianapolis</a> that have seen decades of economic divestment. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/23/colorado-hickenlooper-amazon-hq2-denver/">there will</a> almost certainly be <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/10/19/winning-amazons-second-headquarters-has-pros-and-cons/772360001/">drawbacks</a> as well. </p>
<p>As scholars of gender studies and geography, we believe it’s worth taking a closer look in particular at who would fill the jobs Amazon’s new headquarters would create and how it would affect local quality of life.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204954/original/file-20180205-14078-cvfot2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204954/original/file-20180205-14078-cvfot2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204954/original/file-20180205-14078-cvfot2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204954/original/file-20180205-14078-cvfot2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204954/original/file-20180205-14078-cvfot2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204954/original/file-20180205-14078-cvfot2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204954/original/file-20180205-14078-cvfot2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Newark, N.J., has offered Amazon over $7 billion in tax incentives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Seth Wenig</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Workplace diversity</h2>
<p>In its search for “HQ2,” Amazon set out a few simple <a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/Anything/test/images/usa/RFP_3._V516043504_.pdf">criteria</a> for its city selection: a metropolitan area with more than 1 million people, a stable and business-friendly environment and the ability to attract and retain strong technical talent. </p>
<p>The company said it expects to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17044620011">invest</a> over $5 billion dollars in construction and to generate 50,000 “high-paying jobs,” plus “tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.”</p>
<p>A mayor of a city like Atlanta or Chicago, hoping Amazon fills many of those jobs with a diverse selection of its skilled denizens, might be disappointed. That’s because Amazon – and <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2017/03/29/429424/supply-diverse-workers-tech-silicon-valley-lacking-diversity/">tech companies more broadly</a> – have long had a diversity problem. </p>
<p>The company’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=tb_surl_diversity/?node=10080092011">latest diversity data show</a> that 66 percent of its managerial and professional employees are white. While that may seem normal in <a href="http://www.seattle.gov/opcd/population-and-demographics/about-seattle#raceethnicity">overwhelmingly white Seattle</a>, almost <a href="https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/qj2fb38w5m9h6z8">four-fifths of its employees</a> are based elsewhere. </p>
<p>While Amazon has sought to highlight its <a href="https://www.amazon.com/b?node=10080092011">diversity</a>, for instance, by noting that 21 percent of its total workforce is African-American, <a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/DiversityCampaign2016_Q3/EEO-1_2016_consolidated._V525968886_.pdf">most of them</a> are concentrated in nonprofessional “administrative, labor or helper” roles. In fact, African-Americans held only 3.7 percent of Amazon’s mid-level managerial, professional or technical jobs in 2016, and zero executive or senior management roles.</p>
<p>Given these hiring trends, it is not clear that Amazon will do much for high-skilled minority workers in heavily African-American candidate cities – let alone help their most <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/the-racial-wealth-gap-how-african-americans-have-been-shortchanged-out-of-the-materials-to-build-wealth/">economically disenfranchised</a> populations. </p>
<p><iframe id="qI438" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qI438/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>A gender imbalance</h2>
<p>Even though it’s within <a href="https://anitab.org/news/press-release/new-abi-report-featuring-research-on-the-advantages-companies-gain-with-women-in-the-workforce/">Amazon’s best interest to invest in hiring more women</a>, the gender and pay equity numbers are bleak. </p>
<p>Sixty-one percent of Amazon’s global workforce are men, as are 75 percent of its managers. Though Amazon touts its gender pay equity (noting that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-survey-shows-equal-gender-pay-among-its-workforce-1458761615">women make 99.7 cents to every dollar</a> that men make for similar positions), female employees are <a href="https://www.inc.com/huffington-post/big-problem-with-amazon-pay-gap-ratio-of-male-to-female-employees.html">concentrated in lower-tier jobs</a>.</p>
<p>This gender gap is reproduced across the technology industry. According to the <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/acs/acs-35.pdf">U.S. Census Bureau</a>, the share of women in information technology occupations has not only decreased since 1990 by nearly 5 percent, but women continue to cluster in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/14/google-women-promotions-lower-paying-jobs-lawsuit">less prestigious</a> “front-end” jobs and not in the highest paying occupations like network architects or software development. A 2017 study by the tech-heavy job board site <a href="https://hired.com/gender-wage-gap-2017">Hired</a> shows that even when men and women were offered the same position in the same company, women were offered lower salaries 63 percent of the time.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/07/silicon-valley-google-diversity-black-women-workers">Tech hiring trends</a> are even less favorable for women of color. For example, while Asian women are considered well-represented in the tech workforce overall, a revelatory 2017 report from the nonprofit <a href="http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ascendleadership.org/resource/resmgr/research/TheIllusionofAsianSuccess.pdf">Ascend Leadership</a> revealed that they were the least likely to become managers and executives. Equally as troubling, the numbers of black women in tech actually declined by 13 percent from 2007 to 2015.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204955/original/file-20180205-14111-70rmku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204955/original/file-20180205-14111-70rmku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204955/original/file-20180205-14111-70rmku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204955/original/file-20180205-14111-70rmku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204955/original/file-20180205-14111-70rmku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204955/original/file-20180205-14111-70rmku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204955/original/file-20180205-14111-70rmku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amazon continues to grow in its original hometown of Seattle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Elaine Thompson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Swallowing a city</h2>
<p>Beyond the jobs, however, cities are also <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-americans-want-amazon-hq2-poll-2018-2?r=UK&IR=T">hoping</a> for investment and an economic boost. But there are downsides to letting a giant take over your city. Just ask <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/19/amazon-headquarters-seattle-215725">Seattle</a>. </p>
<p>With the intention of supporting local economies, Amazon has established its <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/28/amazon-seattle-office-space-13-point-6-million-square-feet.html">growing headquarters</a> in downtown Seattle, even encouraging employees to spend money at local shops by limiting on-site dining options. </p>
<p>As a consequence, the city has been <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazon-seattle-is-now-americas-biggest-company-town/">swallowed</a> by the company’s offices, which occupy 19 percent of all office space in downtown Seattle, making it not only the city’s largest employer but also its largest user of land, roadways and public space. Traffic and congestion have outstripped the city’s existing infrastructure. Almost 57,000 residents <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/seattles-mega-commuters-we-are-spending-more-time-than-ever-traveling-to-work/">spent at least 90 minutes</a> on their daily commute. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-rent-hikes-slow-amid-apartment-boom-but-average-two-bedroom-tops-2000/">Rents</a> and <a href="https://www.spice-indices.com/idpfiles/spice-assets/resources/public/documents/589149_cshomeprice-release-0926.pdf?force_download=true">housing prices</a> have skyrocketed, <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2017/zillow-data-seattle-3rd-largest-homeless-population-u-s-rising-rents-take-toll/">homelessness</a> is now the third-highest in the country, and the rapid growth of new office buildings and condos is replacing the older, smaller spaces needed for small business and entrepreneurship. Mahmoudi’s research has shown that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944363.2015.1135072">rapid changes like this</a> can uproot or displace existing residents, <a href="http://kuow.org/post/amazons-diversity-problem-seattle-neighborhood-problem">reducing</a> both diversity and equity.</p>
<p>To be sure, <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazon-seattle-is-now-americas-biggest-company-town/">Seattle has benefited</a> a lot from Amazon’s presence. Our point is that there are lots of costs too. </p>
<h2>Chasing smokestacks</h2>
<p>Cities have long been known for “<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1993-04-18/opinion/op-24566_1_economic-development">smokestack chasing</a>,” or offering lucrative tax incentives and other subsidies to lure companies or factories from elsewhere. These policies <a href="http://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/smokestack-chasing-bankruptcies-and-other-manufacturing-hypocrisies">often don’t work</a>.</p>
<p>You might call today’s race to get Amazon’s second headquarters a modern form of that phenomenon as municipalities compete in a zero-sum game for tech company outposts. </p>
<p>Yet all of the presumed economic benefits are problematically predicated on the companies’ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/us/how-local-taxpayers-bankroll-corporations.html">continued growth</a>, which is never a sure thing. The negative <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/02/amazon-warehouses-poor-cities/552020/">impacts</a>, however, are much more certain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Amazon, like the entire tech sector, has suffered from a lack of diversity in its workforce. This trend is likely to continue when it opens a second headquarters in one of 20 cities.
Amy Bhatt, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Dillon Mahmoudi, Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84706
2017-10-02T16:49:32Z
2017-10-02T16:49:32Z
Why the dream of a prosperous, united nation continues to elude South Africa
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187576/original/file-20170926-19571-1we1vpx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Violent service delivery riot near Soweto, Johannesburg.Millions of poor South Africans live in shacks.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The goal of one united South African nation living prosperously under a constitutional democracy remains elusive. This is in spite of the constitution boldly <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996-preamble">declaring that</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>South Africa belongs to all who live in it, both black and white, united in our diversity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The central issue raised by the struggle against <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">racial injustice</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-slavery-and-early-colonisation-south-africa">colonialism</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/imperialism-and-socialism-context-africa">imperialism</a> – what is referred to in South Africa as the <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/content/national-question-post-94-south-africa-discussion-paper-preparation-50th-national-conference">National Question</a> - reemerged dramatically three years ago. It started as a demand for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/16/the-real-meaning-of-rhodes-must-fall">removal of the statue</a> of arch imperialist and colonialist, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/cecil-john-rhodes">Cecil John Rhodes</a>, from a prominent position at the University of Cape Town. It rapidly grew into a powerful movement in support of <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/decolonisation-17372">decolonisation</a>. The National Question, it appears, remains highly relevant and unresolved.</p>
<p>In a new book, <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/the-unresolved-national-question-in-south-africa/">The Unresolved National Question: left thought under apartheid</a> a number of authors set out the multifaceted origins of the idea.</p>
<h2>Political traditions</h2>
<p>Four main contested political traditions have shaped this debate. </p>
<p>The first is the <a href="https://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/study-guide/">Marxist-Leninist</a> tradition, which goes back to the <a href="http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Soviet_Union">Soviet Union</a> in the 1920s and the debates between <a href="http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/Lenin-Vladimir.html">Lenin</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Stalin">Stalin</a> and <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/roy/index.htm">Manabendra Nath Roy of India</a>. </p>
<p>At the centre of these debates was the idea of two distinct stages in the struggle for national liberation, a <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03005/06lv03132/07lv03140/08lv03145.htm">national democratic stage</a> and then a <a href="https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/dec/31.htm">socialist stage</a>. This strategic approach was <a href="http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?ID=2638">adopted</a> by the Communist Party of South Africa - now the South African Communist Party (SACP), in 1928/1929. It later developed into the idea of South Africa as a <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/content/apartheid-south-africa-colonialism-special-type">colonialism of a special type</a>.</p>
<p>The second is the Congress tradition, associated with the African National Congress <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/organisations/african-national-congress-anc">(ANC)</a> and its iconic leaders, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/chief-albert-john-mvumbi-luthuli">Albert Luthuli</a>, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/oliver-reginald-kaizana-tambo">Oliver Tambo</a> and <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography">Nelson Mandela</a>. At the heart of this tradition is the idea of one <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/the-origins-of-non-racialism/">non-racial nation</a>. Historian Luli Callinicos shows how Mandela and Tambo steadily widened their concept of the nation to include all races.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187791/original/file-20170927-24173-15rxnsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187791/original/file-20170927-24173-15rxnsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187791/original/file-20170927-24173-15rxnsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187791/original/file-20170927-24173-15rxnsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187791/original/file-20170927-24173-15rxnsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187791/original/file-20170927-24173-15rxnsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187791/original/file-20170927-24173-15rxnsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Life-long friends and ANC leaders Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Professor Robbie van Niekerk, a South African expert on social policy, traces the roots of the ANC’s economic and social thought to the 1943 <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/africans-claims-south-africa-adopted-anc-1943-annual-conference">Bill of Rights of African Claims</a> and the 1955 <a href="http://scnc.ukzn.ac.za/doc/HIST/freedomchart/freedomch.html">Freedom Charter</a>. In these documents “the nation” can only be fully realised through the universal extension and provision of public goods by a democratic state. Or, as Luthuli <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/the-unresolved-national-question-in-south-africa/">put it</a>, the new government should have as its objective the creation of a democratic welfare state with redistributive social policies in health, education and welfare.</p>
<p>The third is the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/65974.Leon_Trotsky">Trotskyite</a> tradition. This goes back to the thirties in the Western and Eastern Cape and is associated with the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/organisations/non-european-unity-movement-neum">Unity Movement</a>. This approach is developed in the book by the late Marxist historian and then activist <a href="http://www.historicalstudies.uct.ac.za/hst/news/martin-legassick-has-passed-away">Martin Leggasick</a>. Leggasick and his colleagues were to form the <a href="https://eng.ichacha.net/zaoju/marxist%20workers%20tendency%20of%20the%20anc.html">Marxist Worker Tendency</a> of the ANC developing Trotsky’s notion of the <a href="http://www.redletterpress.org/Permanent%20Revolution.html">“permanent revolution”</a>. Revolution, they argued, developed continuously and unevenly on a world scale, rather than proceeding through discrete chronological stages. Legassick was eventually expelled from the ANC.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/DC/Acn1964.0001.9976.000.019.Oct1964.7/Acn1964.0001.9976.000.019.Oct1964.7.pdf">Africanist tradition</a> identified with <a href="https://theconversation.com/sobukwes-pan-africanist-dream-an-elusive-idea-that-refuses-to-die-52601">Robert Sobukwe</a> and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pan-africanism">(PAC)</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187790/original/file-20170927-24188-1akg7hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187790/original/file-20170927-24188-1akg7hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187790/original/file-20170927-24188-1akg7hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187790/original/file-20170927-24188-1akg7hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187790/original/file-20170927-24188-1akg7hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187790/original/file-20170927-24188-1akg7hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187790/original/file-20170927-24188-1akg7hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sobukwe, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As political scientist Siphamandla Zondi makes clear, Africanism is a much broader tradition than the PAC. For the Africanists, the nation state is a product of Western modernity and colonialism. At the centre of the tradition is the notion of “epistemic disobedience”. The decolonisation of knowledge and its production are seen as a “rebellion against the neocolonised order of things”</p>
<h2>Continuity and rupture</h2>
<p>In the book, we discuss the debates that emerged after the banning of South Africa’s national liberation movements in 1960. We suggest that a process of continuity and rupture takes place. On the one hand, movements emerge that attempt to break with the past. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the ethnic nationalism promoted by the apartheid government through its <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/first-bantustans-or-homelands-comes-existence-when-transkei-regional-authority-institute">Bantustan policy</a>, </p></li>
<li><p>the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/definition-black-consciousness-bantu-stephen-biko-december-1971-south-africa">black consciousness movement</a> associated with Steve Biko, </p></li>
<li><p>the emergence of a strong feminist movement, </p></li>
<li><p>the creation of a powerful workers’ movement with an emphasis on the primacy of the working class, and</p></li>
<li><p>a surprising outcome of the national democratic struggle - a “liberal” constitution. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>But in spite of these new ideologies and movements, there is a great deal of continuity with past political traditions. Two examples illustrate this process of continuity and rupture. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187788/original/file-20170927-24149-mpv4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187788/original/file-20170927-24149-mpv4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187788/original/file-20170927-24149-mpv4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187788/original/file-20170927-24149-mpv4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187788/original/file-20170927-24149-mpv4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187788/original/file-20170927-24149-mpv4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187788/original/file-20170927-24149-mpv4mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first one is the championing of ethnic nationalism and the endorsement of traditional <a href="http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?id=65-259-7">Bantustan</a> leaders after 1994. </p>
<p>We introduce the idea of the ethnic nation in the book through a chapter by Dunbar Moodie. He examines the debates that took place in the <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03188/06lv03190.htm">Afrikaner Broederbond</a>. These show how liberal Afrikaner nationalist intellectuals, such as <a href="http://www.tafelberg.com/authors/330">NP Van Wyk Louw</a>, argued that Afrikaners cannot deny Africans what they claim for themselves, namely the right to self determination. Hence apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd envisioned the idea of the Bantustans culminating in a federation of “independent ethnic nations” in southern Africa.</p>
<p>The chiefs and tribal authorities that were created by apartheid were authoritarian, deeply undemocratic, and often corrupt. Yet they survived into the post-apartheid era. </p>
<p>The second example is the constitution and its Bill of Rights. There are those who believe that these rights, especially the socio-economic rights, such as the right to education and housing, provide the key to resolving the National Question.</p>
<p>Indeed, Jeremy Cronin and Alex Mashile, from the SACP, argue that under Thabo Mbeki the National Question was reduced to the deracialisation of monopoly capitalism. The goal of the national democratic revolution became the consolidation of a capitalist democracy by opening up South Africa to global markets and promoting a black capitalist class.</p>
<h2>Resolving the National Question</h2>
<p>What became clear in our conversations about the book that the National Question cannot be resolved solely through the country’s constitution. Much as it contains the potential for a far more radical transformative project than traditional liberalism, it cannot resolve the National Question.</p>
<p>The resolution of the National Question will require the resolution of what has been called the “social question”. This is a historic demand for the redistribution of wealth and the right of all citizens to education, health and welfare. Without addressing the legacy of land dispossession, economic exclusion, long term unemployment and racialised inequality, the National Question will remain unresolved.</p>
<p><em>The article is drawn from a recently published volume of research based essays titled <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/the-unresolved-national-question-in-south-africa/">The Unresolved National Question: left thought under apartheid</a>. It was edited by Edward Webster and Karin Pampallis and published by Wits University Press</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84706/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edward Webster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The National Question cannot be resolved solely through South Africa’s constitution. There’s potential for a far more radical transformative project than traditional liberalism.
Edward Webster, Professor Emeritus, Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/82882
2017-08-24T00:45:14Z
2017-08-24T00:45:14Z
Do minorities prefer ads with white people?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183078/original/file-20170823-13660-12uam6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New research suggests that members of ethnic minorities like advertising that features ethnic minorities -- but only their own.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The marketplace is becoming more inclusive than ever. Today, advertisements that include models from ethnic minorities are commonplace. That wasn’t the norm a few decades ago.</p>
<p>Academic and market research show that ethnic minority consumers like advertisements that include their own ethnic group. They also appreciate brands that use such advertising. </p>
<p>However, research has overlooked how ethnic minority consumers evaluate advertising that feature members of <em>other</em> ethnic minorities. </p>
<p>In a forthcoming paper in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, our team of marketing experts at three Canadian universities <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2017.06.005">reports a backlash effect.</a> Ethnic minority consumers feel more ostracized by advertisements featuring models who belong to other ethnic minority groups than they do when they see ads with white models. And that leads to a less favourable attitude toward those advertisements.</p>
<p>In North America, white models advertising a variety of products has been the norm for decades. We argue that when advertisers include ethnic minority models, racially diverse consumers take notice. </p>
<p>But if the models are not from their own ethnic group, they may wonder why the advertisers chose models of another race or culture. They question why their own ethnicity is not represented.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PfXDjCSNUoM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>We conducted five experimental studies with American and Canadian participants belonging to different ethnic minority groups. Participants consistently reported more positive attitudes towards advertisements that featured white models. They felt ostracized by the advertisements featuring members of other ethnic minorities.</p>
<p>This backlash was especially true for participants whose membership in their own ethnic group was important to them. It was strongest for participants with so-called high social-dominance orientation, a personality trait indicative of political conservatism.</p>
<p>Advertisements that feature multiple models of different ethnicities suffer from the backlash too.</p>
<p>In one study, Asian and Latino American participants were shown a bank advertisement that included models from several ethnic backgrounds. For half of the participants, the advertisement included a person belonging to their own ethnicity. For the other half, the advertisement excluded models belonging to their own ethnicity. </p>
<p>Participants who saw the advertisement that featured a model of their own ethnic group evaluated the advertisement more positively than those who did not see their ethnic group represented. </p>
<h2>Portrayals of compassion change ad perceptions</h2>
<p>We also found that advertisements that promote thoughts of compassion do not face the same backlash as other advertisements. In one study, ethnic minority participants who viewed an advertisement featuring another ethnic minority showed higher preference for the advertisement when it included words like sympathetic, gentle and forgiving than when it did not include such words. </p>
<p>In general, compassion increases our perceived similarity to others. And so advertisements highlighting compassion make us more likely to see people as similar to us regardless of their ethnicity.</p>
<p>Our takeaway from this research is that ethnic minority consumers do not see themselves as one large minority group. They take note of which ethnicity is represented in advertisements, and may not appreciate advertisers who consistently overlook theirs. </p>
<p>We encourage advertisers to be inclusive, because ads featuring ethnic minorities are received positively by those groups that are included. Advertisers should also aim to be thoughtful when it comes to which ethnic groups they highlight in their advertising.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82882/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors receive funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This project was supported by funding from the F. Ross Johnson Professorship in Marketing and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (453-
2014-0898) Insight Grant awarded to the second author.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors receive funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. This project was supported by funding from the F. Ross Johnson Professorship in Marketing and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) (453- 2014-0898) Insight Grant awarded to the second author.</span></em></p>
Visible minority consumers prefer advertising that features white models to advertising that feature models from other ethnic minority groups. Why?
Mohammed El Hazzouri, Associate Professor of Marketing, Mount Royal University
Kelley Main, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Manitoba
Sergio Carvalho, Professor, Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72874
2017-03-21T00:13:54Z
2017-03-21T00:13:54Z
Interculturalism: how diverse societies can do better than passive tolerance
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158672/original/image-20170228-29924-2quqlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Interculturalism emphasises interaction between members of diverse communities, rather than 'groupism'.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harmony_Day_(5475651018).jpg">Wikimedia/DIAC Images </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Western liberal democracies are again embroiled in debates about the value of multicultural policies. In Australia, the federal government has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-20/policy-statement-on-multiculturalism-calls-for-unity/8367844">just released</a> its own <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/settlement-and-multicultural-affairs/australian-governments-multicultural-statement">statement on multiculturalism</a>. The current debates are unfolding in the context of the election of Donald Trump, the Brexit vote and the rise of far-right parties like One Nation. </p>
<p>In Australia, such debates have historically conflated multiculturalism – a term that describes the <a href="https://www.mia.org.au/documents/item/232">policy framework</a> established in the 1970s and 1980s – with the idea of racial or ethnic diversity. </p>
<p>Four decades after the end of “White Australia”, however, diversity is simply an established – and irreversible – <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/face-facts-cultural-diversity">social fact</a>. When the debate on immigration is added to the mix, the result is a tangled mess of issues that can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/perspectives-on-migrants-distorted-by-politics-of-prejudice-65550">difficult to tease apart</a>.</p>
<p>One result of this conceptual confusion is that policy debates about <a href="https://theconversation.com/perspectives-on-migrants-distorted-by-politics-of-prejudice-65550">immigration</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/citizenship-discussion-paper-offers-a-misleading-take-on-this-right-42763">citizenship</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-multicultural-policy-looms-as-a-senate-bargaining-chip-62696">multiculturalism</a> often escalate into toxic arguments. At their most trenchant, they have turned into arguments for cultural supremacy – including the idea that certain groups of Australians should not have access to rights enjoyed by other citizens.</p>
<h2>Overcoming ‘us and them’ mindsets</h2>
<p>In Australia, most common strategies for countering “us and them” sentiments consist of public statements defending “multiculturalism” and <a href="https://theconversation.com/ideas-for-australia-bipartisanship-on-immigration-does-little-to-counter-racism-suspicion-and-division-56356">immigration</a>. But these strategies reinforce the conflation of multicultural policy and cultural diversity. This leaves little room to challenge the assumptions of multiculturalism without being seen as challenging diversity itself.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/158671/original/image-20170228-29942-1qnbu6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=873&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia’s diversity of people is simply a fact, but has been politicised in debates about migration and refugees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lundyk/5449910217/in/photolist-9iAdrg-AUUHn-8vU5LF-jWeAVk-921Dh8-hNhFYL-8Peace-dCxUKD-C2oD9-924Kzf-rkX3LP-broUV6-broFmr-qHtmW-9srSuC-c29bzj-mkFYtp-brpMJP-dCxY3t-ptnZ5t-mkG4rD-oyDJJ5-mkFWhZ-mkLTUy-4sFDGa-mkFYHa-fbSvqe-mkHuxR-bvP2iU-mkH19W-9wFCJo-broFMn-oLmKSa-mkGVeA-8vU6vM-brSkDK-brSm6g-mkGnvW-gHQpx4-r4vVnW-qc3t5M-dgkQHq-qtszAB-jWghtN-sazGkM-ou9rVf-mkGpwu-qkNuAd-mkEZQV-oucHzY">Kate Lundy/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, in the last ten years or so, an important new policy framework has emerged in the northern hemisphere. It’s one that might help Australians debate these issues without descending into rancour. </p>
<p>This approach attempts to steer policy debates past this difficult impasse by drawing on decades of humanities and social research. </p>
<p>Known as “<a href="http://tedcantle.co.uk/publications/about-interculturalism/">interculturalism</a>”, it prioritises active and equitable interaction between groups over passive tolerance. </p>
<p>Interculturalism has strong policy advocates in <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/quebec-group-pushes-interculturalism-in-place-of-multiculturalism/article569581/">Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/ali-rattansi/from-multiculturalism-to-interculturalism-%E2%80%93-reply-to-british-political-elite">Britain</a>. Its strongest institutional base, however, is in continental Europe. The Council of Europe has supported the <a href="http://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/">Intercultural Cities Program</a> for more than a decade. </p>
<p>Bypassing the unproductive debates raging at the national level in many member states, this program tackles issues of cultural diversity and migrant settlement at the city level. More than 100 cities, mostly in Europe but also in Canada and Mexico, are adopting its pioneering approach. </p>
<p>Many of these cities operate in political environments that are even more obviously polarised than Australia’s. Strategies they have adopted include anti-rumour <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/anti-rumours">campaigns</a>, participatory campaigns around urban cultural <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/cultural-heritage-and-diversity">heritage</a>, and promotions of intercultural interaction in segregated urban <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/housing-and-neighbourhoods">spaces</a>.</p>
<h2>The Australian experience</h2>
<p>In Australia, there has long been a disconnection between the national political discourse and the implementation of multicultural policies on the ground. </p>
<p>Implementation has often been the responsibility of local government authorities. On one side, support for the ideology of “multicultural Australia” in official versions of Australian identity has waxed and waned. On the other, local governments must look for answers to new tensions in their communities, such as growing protests <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-15/bendigo-mosque-high-court-challenge/7511690">against the building of mosques</a>.</p>
<p>The Intercultural Cities model offers important ideas and resources for councils looking to respond to these challenges in creative and positive ways. In December 2016, Ballarat became the <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/-/ballarat-joins-the-council-of-europe-s-intercultural-cities-network">first Australian city</a> to join the Intercultural Cities Network. </p>
<p>Joining the network has opened up many new opportunities for Ballarat’s work in this area. As a member, the city has access to a wealth of best-practice intercultural programs and strategies. And with more than 100 cities sharing their experience, the network’s evidence base for making policy choices is growing. </p>
<p>At the same time, Australian cities can make an important contribution to continuing European efforts to develop and spread intercultural principles. The <a href="http://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/about-the-index">Intercultural Cities Index</a> – the program’s monitoring and evaluation tool – shows Ballarat is already doing very well compared to its European counterparts. The city ranks fourth among network members.</p>
<p>In an effort to further international cross-fertilisation around intercultural principles and practice, a group of academics and practitioners have collaborated to create an Australian affiliate of the Intercultural Cities Program. <a href="http://interculturalcities.com.au/">Intercultural Cities Australasia</a> has worked with the Council of Europe to reformulate its diagnostic index for the Australian context. </p>
<p>We have also authored a set of Australian intercultural standards and indicators to support local governments seeking to adopt an intercultural approach to respond to increasing levels of cultural diversity. </p>
<p>This approach could provide some practical means for responding to the federal government’s <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/03/20/government-release-statement-multiculturalism">policy statement</a> on multiculturalism. </p>
<h2>Reforming multicultural practices</h2>
<p>Interculturalism builds on key principles already present in Australian multicultural policy. These include public recognition of diversity and difference, protection from discrimination, and consultation across perceived cultural divides. But it also signals a shift from the way these principles have been institutionalised in Australia. </p>
<p>At the local level, interculturalism puts more emphasis on programs that bring minorities together and into direct engagement with the majority culture and mainstream organisations and institutions. </p>
<p>It also asks members of the majority culture to question their own assumptions and open channels of communication and interaction with minorities. It is therefore a “whole of society” framework, rather than a device for managing minorities. </p>
<p>Our aim in fostering this shift is to encourage all Australians to recognise the importance of intercultural competence. The aim is to re-orient our consultative structures so that we can engage directly with each other – in our policy settings as much as in our daily lives. </p>
<p>We need to equip all of us – and our political system – to navigate cultural difference. This might help to protect social cohesion as debates about immigration and multiculturalism pick up momentum. It should also improve our capacity to relate to our Asia-Pacific neighbours.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading</strong>: <a href="http://theconversation.com/the-governments-multicultural-statement-is-bereft-of-new-ideas-or-policies-why-74838">The government’s multicultural statement is bereft of new ideas or policies – why?</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenda Ballantyne teaches and researches at Swinburne University in the areas of migration, interculturalism and cultural diversity. Her current research projects include New Media, Aging and Migration, and Zooming In: Multiculturalism through the lens of the next generation, in conjunction with the Victorian Multicultural Commission. She is an author of the Australian Intercultural Standards and Index through Intercultural Cities Australasia, a policy initiative in collaboration with the Council of Europe.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Amrita Malhi is a Visiting Fellow in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at The Australian National University and in the School of Social Sciences at The University of Adelaide. She is an author of the Australian Intercultural Standards and Index through Intercultural Cities Australasia, a policy initiative in collaboration with the Council of Europe. In 2015, she received funding from the Department of Premier and Cabinet in the Government of South Australia for the policy co-design and action research project, InterculturAdelaide: Cultural Adaptivity for the Asian Century.</span></em></p>
A relatively new approach to diversity prioritises active and equitable interaction between various groups within local communities.
Glenda Ballantyne, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Swinburne University of Technology
Amrita Malhi, Visiting Fellow, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/74172
2017-03-14T03:21:43Z
2017-03-14T03:21:43Z
Contested spaces: living next door to Alice (and Anh and Abdullah)
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160253/original/image-20170310-3700-1neyndl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How is apartment living changing the way we get to know our increasingly diverse neighbourhoods?
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the eighth article in our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/contested-spaces-36316">Contested Spaces</a> series. These pieces look at the conflicting uses, expectations and norms that people bring to public spaces, the clashes that result and how we can resolve these.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Ethnic conflict is on the rise in Australia, with <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/02/01/face-racism-what-you-need-know">regular reports of racist abuse</a> in public spaces, including transport, streets and shopping centres. But what about our more immediate domestic environments such as apartment buildings? </p>
<p><a href="https://cityfutures.be.unsw.edu.au/research/projects/managing-diversity-strata-communities/">Our research</a> shows that ethnic tensions can also play out within these buildings, where growing numbers of city dwellers now live.</p>
<p>As increasing diversity and density come to characterise our cities, how can we build harmonious communities within apartment complexes? Community relations programs have traditionally focused on neighbourhoods, local associations, sport and recreation activities, or schools. But as more and more of us <a href="https://cityfutures.be.unsw.edu.au/cityviz/strata-schemes-sydney/">move into apartments</a>, we need to pay more attention to these super-local residential interactions. </p>
<p>Apartment complexes are microcosms of society, but living so close to strangers can increase the likelihood of tension. The flashpoints range from complaints about noise and garbage to disputes about levies and budgets. Cultural and language differences can exacerbate these conflicts.</p>
<p>What can we do with our closest neighbours to combat growing cultural tensions in society and improve community harmony? Here, drawing on our research, we reveal some top tips on how to build an inclusive and harmonious community in your apartment building.</p>
<h2>Know thy neighbours</h2>
<p>Social commentary on the <a href="http://bowlingalone.com/">loss of community</a> abounds. As we become busier and more mobile, we are less and less likely to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/a-matter-of-trust/2005/10/29/1130400400879.html">know our neighbours</a> and our local community. However, <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/When-Strangers-Meet/Kio-Stark/TED-Books/9781471156090">a recent book</a> highlighted the benefits of talking to strangers. This includes cementing relationships in the places where you live, work and play. </p>
<p>In our <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3236.0Main%20Features42011%20to%202036">increasingly isolated societies</a>, these local relationships are important. The same goes for our most immediate neighbours.</p>
<p>In addition to getting to know them face to face, you could ask your strata committee to do a quick survey of residents to get a better picture of the diversity among your neighbours. If many families of particular cultural groups live in your building, this knowledge can help you plan communication and events accordingly.</p>
<p>It may be that you have important notices translated, or arrange for neighbours to act as translators at meetings and relay information to others who may not speak English well. Or you can plan communal activities around festivities such as Christmas, Chinese New Year, Diwali or Eid.</p>
<h2>Be a social butterfly</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160112/original/image-20170309-21047-ykhpys.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inviting your neighbours to pop over for tea or a glass of wine, depending on everyone’s taste, is a good way to get to get to know one another.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Doing things together is by far the most effective way to getting to know people. Invite your neighbours over for a cup of tea or, if all of you prefer, a glass of wine. But, remember, while sharing food can help you get to know one another, be considerate of people’s food choices, whether it’s for religious, ethical or other reasons; a barbecue of just pork sausages many not win many friends.</p>
<p>Invite neighbours to form working bees to do up the garden or decorate the hallways. But be culturally sensitive in your approach to building aesthetics. Don’t just put up decorations for Christmas or Easter; include other cultural events your neighbours celebrate. Or, if your building has a “no decorations” rule, make sure this applies universally and not just to Chinese New Year or Diwali ornaments.</p>
<p>Some apartment residents have successfully used social media such as <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/167970719931213?helpref=about_content">Facebook groups</a> or <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/21073373">WhatsApp group chat</a> to encourage communication in their buildings. This may be an easier method of communication for those with poor spoken English. Your residents survey may reveal other preferred forms of communication.</p>
<h2>Singling out is never the right thing to do</h2>
<p>While translating important documents will help your neighbours who may not have a good command of English, singling out specific language and cultural groups as potential wrongdoers (such as by translating “Do not do this” signage into one language only) may not only cause offence, but may be pointing the finger at the wrong party.</p>
<p>And leaving notes like the one below without first trying to find the culprit and speak with them about it may also damage relationships with your neighbours.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160111/original/image-20170309-21018-91k1le.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A note like this one, especially if directed at an innocent party, can lead to lasting difficulties between neighbours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These are just some tips on how to start making your apartment building more harmonious and inclusive. <a href="https://cityfutures.be.unsw.edu.au/research/projects/managing-diversity-strata-communities/">Our project webpage</a> has a longer list of these tips. </p>
<p>Help is also often at hand from other sources. The City of Sydney, for example, regularly holds <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/live/residents/apartment-living">workshops</a> on how to live well in apartments for all parties. Likewise, peak bodies such as Strata Community Australia (NSW) produce <a href="http://nsw.stratacommunity.org.au/information/factsheets/">fact sheets</a> that not only update you on changes in regulations but also on ways to make your meetings run more smoothly.</p>
<p>Apartment living provides many opportunities to <a href="http://interculturalunderstanding.org/">foster intercultural understanding</a>, as residents increasingly share a domestic environment and work together to maintain their buildings. However, such close proximity can also amplify intercultural tension and hostility. </p>
<p>Fostering harmonious relations within high-density living is becoming increasingly important in creating socially cohesive, multicultural cities. We need to pay more attention to ideas and strategies for achieving this goal.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>You can find other pieces published in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/contested-spaces-36316">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Strata Community Australia (NSW) funded the research project on which this article is based.
Edgar Liu receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living, New South Wales' Department of Family and Community Services, PAYCE Communities, SGCH Ltd, South Australia's Department for Communities and Social Inclusion, and Strata Community Australia (NSW chapter).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Ho has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hazel Easthope receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
As increasing diversity and density come to characterise our cities, how can we build harmonious communities within apartment complexes?
Edgar Liu, Research Fellow at City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
Christina Ho, Senior Lecturer & Discipline Coordinator, Social & Political Sciences, University of Technology Sydney
Hazel Easthope, Senior Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/73119
2017-02-27T19:08:59Z
2017-02-27T19:08:59Z
How racism and a lack of diversity can harm our workplaces
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158454/original/image-20170227-23004-1m5yegt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For organisations, racism, whether overt or subtle, creates unhealthy workplace conditions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Beyond the requirement for diversity management and training in workplaces, Australian businesses also need to grapple with <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ert.20254/epdf">implicit racial bias and discrimination</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/job.1988/full">review of multiple studies</a> indicates exposure to racism is detrimental to performance. This is due to its impact on job attitudes, mental and physical health, as well as organisational behaviour. Research also indicates that, by inflicting job stress, racism can reduce productivity.</p>
<p>Even where diversity is <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/levine/papers/The%20Effects%20of%20Diversity%20on%20Business%20Performance.pdf">unrelated to business performance</a>, too much is at stake for companies to simply ignore their team composition.</p>
<p>Diversity itself is a demographic fact, rather than an intrinsic “good” or “bad” thing. As such, it is the underlying social, economic and political climate in a country that determines diversity’s impacts in society.</p>
<h2>Stable and unstable nations</h2>
<p>The effect a country’s cultural diversity has on its economic performance <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.10061/full">is mixed</a>. It depends on the nation’s stability, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40176-016-0060-4">we have found</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1024471506938">Ethnic diversity</a> can have a detrimental effect in countries with a climate of poverty, economic inequality, political instability, corruption and a weak rule of law. In such countries, ethnic fragmentation has the potential to produce <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003055403000534">conflict</a> and <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aea/jel/2010/00000048/00000001/art00001">civil war</a>, arising from competition for resources. </p>
<p><a href="http://leeds-faculty.colorado.edu/dahe7472/Stahl%202009.pdf">Two</a> <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0149206307308587">studies</a> that synthesised the evidence on the relationship between diversity and productivity found that, at worst, diversity had no overall impact on team performance. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, some studies indicate that diversity can lead to depletion of <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/16643/summary">social capital</a> (by enhancing <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9477.2007.00176.x/full">in-group/out-group distinction</a> and reinforcing in-group solidarity), <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2307/2667029">emotional conflict</a> and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/104649640003100505">team performance</a>.</p>
<p>Conversely, in a stable social environment, diversity has a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567114001786">productivity dividend</a>. This is particularly reflected in the consensus that diverse regions enjoy better productivity and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article/6/1/9/1056407/The-economic-value-of-cultural-diversity-evidence">hence higher wages</a>. These benefits are largely due to diversity providing a variety of skills and a wider talent pool.</p>
<p>Research abounds indicating that a diverse workplace delivers increased <a href="http://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJKBD.2010.032586">product and process innovation</a>, <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4165021?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">creativity and problem solving</a>. This leads to <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000312240907400203">sound business</a> opportunities by ensuring <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/files/file/Cultural%20diversity%20docs/ATOH2013_FactSheet.pdf">competitive advantage</a>.</p>
<h2>What do businesses need to do?</h2>
<p>Australian workplaces <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/dca-research/capitalising-on-culture---asx-directors-2004-2013.html">do not yet reflect</a> the level of cultural and ethnic diversity in the broader community. But they are becoming increasingly diverse.</p>
<p>As a result, Australian businesses have recognised that managers require an understanding of different cultures to effectively lead their diverse employees and teams. Diversity management policies are also seen as key for business success, both domestically and internationally.</p>
<p>In the absence of measures that positively tackle diversity, <a href="https://www.google.com.au/#safe=active&q=Demography+and+Diversity+in+Organizations:+A+Review+of+40+Years+of+Research&*">the potential for cultural misunderstanding</a> in the workplace is high. This can lead to heightened levels of racism, xenophobia and discrimination.</p>
<p>At a personal level, <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138511">our research</a>, which reviewed more than 300 studies, conclusively showed direct associations between racism and a range of mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety. And if you apply the international evidence to an Australian context, people’s exposure to racism accounts for a 3% loss in average annual gross domestic product, <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-016-3868-1">we estimate</a>.</p>
<p>The impact of exposure to racism in the workplace can be substantial: it can affect a person’s health and <a href="http://amj.aom.org/content/33/1/64.short">career outcomes</a>. </p>
<p>For organisations, racism, whether overt or subtle, creates unhealthy workplace conditions. By creating tension in the workplace, it can damage organisational image, reduce synergy and hamper productivity. But despite such negative impacts, there is a concerning evidence that racism and racial bullying are quite prevalent in the workplace. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://race.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/research-articles/race-work-report">large UK study</a>, which surveyed 24,457 people, 28% of the respondents reported that they “directly experienced or witnessed racial harassment or bullying from their manager” over a period of five years. This stands in contrast to the <a href="http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/cllpj32&div=12&g_sent=1&collection=journals">universal awareness</a> of the damaging impact of workplace bullying and racial harassment.</p>
<p>Workplace cultural diversity and productivity are closely related. But the potential benefits can only be realised if organisations foster a conducive atmosphere for their diverse workforce.</p>
<p>Workplace health and safety, including protection against discrimination, are vital for productive and rewarding performance, given the clear evidence of the detrimental impact racism has at work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Workplace cultural diversity and productivity are closely related. But the potential benefits can only be realised if organisations foster a conducive atmosphere for their diverse workforce.
Yin Paradies, Professor of Race Relations, Deakin University
Amanuel Elias, Research Fellow, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/70509
2017-01-05T01:37:45Z
2017-01-05T01:37:45Z
Are Americans becoming more xenophobic?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151668/original/image-20170103-18659-13gyh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Most whites would say they're okay with diversity. But is there a threshold?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/pic-371542753/stock-vector-flat-design-map-of-the-united-states-made-up-of-a-crowd-of-people-icons-eps-10-vector-royalty-free-stock-illustration.html">'Map' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One might wonder how a country that’s becoming <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/06/25/new-census-figures-show-youth-diversity/ifAAGYM96DyDXqqWRCHm5H/story.html">increasingly diverse</a> – <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/07/06/its-official-the-us-is-becoming-a-minority-majority-nation">some projections</a> have the country becoming majority minority by 2060 – is witnessing a resurgence of white nationalist movements that used to exist on the margins of American politics.</p>
<p>As a psychologist who studies social attitudes and biases, I am interested in the impact that increasing diversity and social progress can have on racial attitudes. <a href="http://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2016.34.6.544">In a recent study</a>, a colleague and I analyzed how simple reminders of diversity and minority power can influence biases. The results show that the growth of minority populations in the United States could mean that xenophobic, racist rhetoric is more likely to resonate with many Americans.</p>
<h2>How diversity influences racial attitudes</h2>
<p>For the study we recruited 202 white people from across the country. We divided them into three groups. One group read excerpts from a New York Times article on the projected <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/washington/14census.html">minority-majority population shift</a> in America. Another read excerpts from a New York Times article on the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/us/politics/05elect.html">racial significance</a> of President Obama’s election in 2008. The last group – the control – didn’t read anything. </p>
<p>Next, we had participants complete a test of implicit racial bias. This means that we didn’t just ask people about their racial attitudes; we had them take a computerized reaction time test to assess their biases. </p>
<p>When it comes to sensitive topics like racial attitudes, people are often reluctant to admit their biases. Sometimes they’re <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/08/across-america-whites-are-biased-and-they-dont-even-know-it/?utm_term=.bc7572079d65">not even aware</a> what biases they have. The <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html">Implicit Association Test</a>, the most frequently used measure of implicit attitudes, requires people to quickly categorize words (for example, good and bad) and pictures (such as faces of black people and white people) into categories. The stronger the associations we have between categories, the quicker we’re able to perform the categorizations. For instance, if a participant has more positive associations with black people than white people, they’ll be able to more quickly pair positive words with black faces. </p>
<p>Our results indicated that reminding white people of the increasing size or increasing political power of racial minority groups in America – whether it was via the majority-minority projection article or the article about President Obama’s election – led them to show more implicit racial bias against black people. </p>
<p>These findings are consistent with a concept known as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2096296">Group Threat Theory</a>, which is the idea that when minority groups grow in size or power, the majority group feels threatened. This, in turn, increases intergroup prejudice. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167214524993">Other recent studies</a> about the growth of minority populations reported similar findings. But group threat doesn’t just increase intergroup bias. It also seems to make people more politically conservative. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797614527113">Psychological research</a> shows that reminding white Americans of the shifting racial demographics of the U.S. increases support for the Republican Party and political conservatism. </p>
<h2>The role of minorities in Trump’s victory</h2>
<p>So what can this research tell us about the success of Donald Trump, a politician who made – and continues to make – appeals to xenophobia?</p>
<p>Obama’s presidency could be seen as a threat to the power and privilege historically held by whites. On the heels of the first black president, Trump may have tried to capitalize on that threat to white power and privilege by promising to “<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-freedomfest-you-cant-be-great-if-you-dont-n390546">take our country back</a>” and “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/when-was-america-great/">make America great again</a>.” </p>
<p>Trump was also able to exploit the threat borne out of the increasingly large racial and ethnic minority population in the United States. As a presidential candidate, Trump hurled some of his <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/us/politics/donald-trump-black-voters.html?_r=0">most offensive and xenophobic insults</a> at immigrants, stoking fear against Latinos and Muslims (or those from majority Muslim countries) in particular. </p>
<p>This isn’t to say that all Trump voters are racist or xenophobic. But for reasons stated earlier – growing diversity, a black president – many may have been more open to these appeals (or willing to overlook them). Trump certainly played on group threat, <a href="http://time.com/4386240/donald-trump-immigration-arguments/">telling his supporters</a> that immigrants were stealing their jobs, exhausting public benefits and challenging the American way of life. From a psychological perspective, we know these reminders will cause people to feel threatened. </p>
<p>Whether Trump did it knowingly or not, it was incredibly effective. And now other groups are following his lead. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article first published on Jan. 4, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Simple reminders of the growing diversity of the country and the political power of minorities can influence biases.
Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo, Psychology Researcher, Northwestern University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66287
2016-11-03T22:19:19Z
2016-11-03T22:19:19Z
How training can prepare teachers for diversity in their classrooms
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142319/original/image-20161019-20333-199u70p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers need support to make sure they deal well with diversity and conflict.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Teachers have been shaping lives for centuries. Everyone remembers their favourite (and of course their least favourite) teachers. This important group of people even has its <a href="http://en.unesco.org/events/world-teachers-day-0">own special day</a>, marked each October by the United Nations.</p>
<p>Teachers are at the coal face when it comes to watching societies change. South Africa’s classrooms, for instance, look vastly different today than they did two decades ago. They bring together children from different racial, cultural, economic and social backgrounds. This can sometimes cause conflict as varied ways of understanding the world bump up against each other. </p>
<p>How can teachers develop the skills to work with these differences in productive ways? What practical support do they need to bring the values of <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/constitution-republic-south-Africa-1996-1">the Constitution</a> to life in their classes?</p>
<p>To answer these questions, my colleagues and I in the <a href="http://www.sun.ac.za/education">Faculty of Education</a> at Stellenbosch University have put together four examples <a href="http://www.sun.ac.za/english/Documents/Yearbooks/2016/2016Education.pdf">from modules</a> within our faculty’s teacher education programme. These ideas are by no means exhaustive; other institutions also tackle these issues. What we present here is based on our own research, teaching and experience and is open to further discussion.</p>
<h2>1. Working with multilingualism</h2>
<p>English is only South Africa’s <a href="http://www.southafrica.info/about/people/language.htm#.WActfeh97IU">fifth most spoken</a> home language. Teachers must remember this: even if their pupils are speaking English in the classroom, their home languages may be far more diverse.</p>
<p>Trainee teachers can benefit enormously from a course on multilingual education. In our faculty, for instance, students are given the chance to place multilingual education in a South African policy framework. They model multilingual classroom strategies like code switching and translation. They visit schools to observe how such strategies are applied in the real classroom. Students then report back on whether this approach helps learners from different language backgrounds to participate actively in the lesson. </p>
<p>There’s also great value in introducing student teachers to the notion of “<a href="http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/09/10-ways-speakers-of-world-english-are-changing-the-language/">World Englishes</a>”. This focuses on the role of English in multilingual communities, where it is seen as being used for communication and academic purposes rather than as a way for someone to be integrated into an English community. </p>
<h2>2. Supporting diverse learning needs</h2>
<p>Student teachers must be trained to identify and support pupils’ diverse learning needs. This helps teachers to identify and address barriers to learning and development and encourages linkages between the home and the school.</p>
<p>This is even more meaningful when it is embedded in experiential learning. For instance, in guided exercises with their own class groups, our students engage with their feelings, experiences and thinking about their own backgrounds and identities. Other activities may be based on real scenarios, such as discussing <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/rasta-boy-misses-school-over-dreads-1972722">the case</a> of a boy who was sanctioned by his school for wearing his hair in a way prescribed by his religion.</p>
<p>In these modules we focus on language, culture, race, socioeconomic conditions, disability, sexual orientation, learning differences and behavioural, health or emotional difficulties. The students also learn how to help vulnerable learners who are being bullied.</p>
<p>And these areas are constantly expanding. At Stellenbosch University, we’ve recently noted that we need to prepare teachers to deal with the bullying of <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-02-17-homosexuality-in-south-african-schools-still-largely-a-silent-taboo/">LGBT</a> learners. They also need to be equipped with the tools to support pupils who’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-teachers-can-help-migrant-learners-feel-more-included-56760">immigrated</a> from elsewhere in Africa.</p>
<h2>3. Advancing a democratic classroom</h2>
<p>Courses that deal with the philosophy of education are an important element of teacher education. These explore notions of diversity, human dignity, social justice and democratic citizenship.</p>
<p>In these classes, student teachers are encouraged to see their own lecture rooms as spaces for open and equal engagement, with regard and respect for different ways of being. They’re given opportunities to express and engage with controversial views. This stands them in good stead to create such spaces in their own classrooms.</p>
<p>Most importantly, students are invited to critically reconsider commonly held beliefs – and to disrupt their ideas of the world – so that they might encounter the other as they are and not as they desire them to be. In such a classroom, a teacher promotes discussion and debate. She cultivates respect and regard for the other by listening to different accounts and perspectives. Ultimately, the teacher accepts that she is just one voice in the classroom.</p>
<h2>4. Understanding constitutional rights in the classroom</h2>
<p>All the approaches to teacher education described here are underpinned by the Constitution. </p>
<p>The idea is that teacher education programmes should develop teachers who understand notions of justice, citizenship and <a href="http://www.litnet.co.za/racial-difference-common-citizenship-hair-raising-issue/">social cohesion</a>. Any good teacher needs to be able to reflect critically on their own role as leader and manager within the contexts of classrooms, schools and the broader society. This includes promoting values of democracy, social justice and equality, and building attitudes of respect and reciprocity.</p>
<p>A critical reflective ethos is encouraged. Students get numerous opportunities to interrogate, debate, research, express and reflect upon educational challenges, theories and policies, from different perspectives, as these apply to practice. This is all aimed at building a positive school environment for everyone.</p>
<h2>Moving into teaching</h2>
<p>What about when students become teachers themselves?</p>
<p>For many new teachers these inclusive practices are not easy to implement in schools. One lecturer in our faculty has been approached by former students who report that as beginner teachers, they don’t have “the status or voice to change existing discriminatory practices and what some experience as the resistance to inclusive education”. This suggests that ongoing discussion and training in both pre-service and in-service education is needed.</p>
<p>At the same time, however, there are signs that these modules are having a positive impact. Students post comments and ideas on social media and lecturers regularly hear from first-time teachers about how useful their acquired knowledge is in different contexts. Many are also eager to study further so they can explore the issues more deeply.</p>
<p>Everything I’ve described here is part of one faculty’s attempts to provide safe spaces where student teachers can learn to work constructively with the issues pertaining to diversity in education. In doing so, we hope they’ll become part of building a country based on respect for all.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: I am grateful to my colleagues Lynette Collair, Nuraan Davids, Jerome Joorst and Christa van der Walt for the ideas contained in this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maureen Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Teachers need training and support to deal with increasing diversity in their classrooms.
Maureen Robinson, Dean, Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/54875
2016-03-10T11:12:00Z
2016-03-10T11:12:00Z
When good intentions aren’t supported by social science evidence: diversity research and policy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114137/original/image-20160307-31275-mlwc4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Successful group outcomes aren't guaranteed by the simple recipe of 'Just add diversity.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-273543236/stock-photo-business-people-diversity-talking-communication-concept.html">Talking image via www.shutterstoc.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’d be forgiven for assuming a quick and sure way to multiply profits and amplify organizational success is to increase the gender and racial diversity of any group. According to claims in the mainstream media, the effects of gender and racial diversity are universally favorable. News stories tend to mirror this 2014 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2014/09/24/more-women-at-the-top-higher-returns/"><em>Washington Post</em> article’s claim</a> that “researchers have long found <a href="http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/women-on-boards-improve-a-banks-performance-1063776-1.html">ties between having women</a> on a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2013/11/27/more-women-on-boards-cheaper-mergers/">company’s board of directors</a> and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/06/04/an-index-fund-that-bets-on-women/">better financial performance</a>.” </p>
<p>And as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/opinion/kristof-twitter-women-power.html">Nicholas Kristoff wrote</a> in <em>The New York Times</em> in 2013:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Scholarly research suggests that the best problem-solving doesn’t come from a group of the best individual problem-solvers, but from a diverse team whose members complement each other. That’s an argument for leadership that is varied in every way — in gender, race, economic background and ideology.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The truth is there’s actually no adequate scientific basis for these newsworthy assertions. And this lack of scientific evidence to guide such statements illustrates the troubled relations of science to advocacy and policy, that I have <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12163">analyzed in an article</a> in the current Journal of Social Issues.</p>
<h2>A chasm between research findings and advocates’ claims</h2>
<p>I began to think more deeply about these issues during my recent service as president of the <a href="http://www.spssi.org">Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues</a>. This organization has worked since 1936 to join social science findings to responsible advocacy and effective social policy.</p>
<p>This goal is laudable, but the task is supremely challenging. As I’ve come to realize, different camps have varying goals. Scientists aim to produce valid knowledge. Advocates work to promote their favored causes. Policymakers hope to efficiently deploy resources to attain social and economic ends. And they’re all assuming their claims are supported by the same body of social science research.</p>
<p>In politically sensitive areas, advocates may eagerly invoke social scientific data that support their objectives but ignore nonsupportive findings. They may highlight politically congenial findings that are unrepresentative of the available scientific knowledge. </p>
<p>Researchers, in turn, may fail to communicate their findings effectively. Communication is challenging when study outcomes are more complex and less affirming of advocates’ goals than what they desire and expect.</p>
<p>These issues often arise when research addresses controversial questions of social inequality. That’s where social science myths can and do emerge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113898/original/image-20160304-17734-yyab4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Does who fills these empty boardroom chairs affect the bottom line?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=141135247&src=lb-29877982">Boardroom image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Case study: diversity research</h2>
<p>To illustrate these problems, consider two prominent social science myths about diversity.</p>
<p>One concerns the effects of the gender diversity of corporate boards of directors on firms’ financial performance. The other pertains to the effects of the gender and racial diversity of workgroups on their performance.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.2020wob.com/sites/default/files/2020GDI-2015Report.pdf">Advocates for diversity</a> generally maintain that the addition of women to corporate boards <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/companies-behaving-responsibly-gender-diversity-boards">enhances corporate financial success</a>. And they hold that diversity in task groups <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/01/16/why-is-diversity-vital-for-innovation/#1cb510fa4e7c">enhances their effectiveness</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.06.003">Abundant findings</a> have accumulated on <a href="http://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0319">both of these questions</a> – more than 140 studies of corporate boards and more than 100 studies of sociodemographic diversity in task groups. Both sets of studies have produced mixed outcomes. Some studies show positive associations of diversity to these outcomes, and some show negative associations.</p>
<p>Social scientists use meta-analyses to integrate such findings across the relevant studies. Meta-analyses represent <em>all</em> the available studies on a particular topic by quantitatively averaging their findings and also examining differences in studies’ results. Cherry-picking is not allowed. </p>
<p>Taking into account all of the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2696804">available research on corporate boards</a> and diversity of task groups, the net effects are very close to a null, or zero, average. Also, economists’ studies that carefully evaluate causal relations have <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2008.10.007">typically failed to find that women cause superior corporate performance</a>. The most valid conclusion at this point is that, on average, diversity neither helps nor harms these important outcomes.</p>
<p>Given these overall findings, further studies are needed to identify the conditions under which diversity has positive or negative effects. And there is some progress here. </p>
<p>For example, research suggests that diversity tends to make decision-making groups more effective if their members <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.0823">create norms that foster personal ties</a> across the races and genders as well as the exchange of ideas. Also, a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2013.03.003">positive and inclusive mindset about diversity</a> increases the chances of favorable effects on group performance.</p>
<p>But such conditions are often absent. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0025767">Diversity can create tensions</a> within groups, and the newly introduced female or minority group members may encounter resistance that makes it difficult for them to gain a foothold in decision-making. It’s hardly surprising that the results of empirical studies are inconsistent. These kinds of interpersonal relationships are messy and complicated – it makes sense that upping diversity, on its own, wouldn’t be a magical key to success.</p>
<h2>A worthwhile social outcome</h2>
<p>What’s the harm in journalists announcing false generalizations about diversity if such statements help increase the number of women and minorities in important roles? After all, most people would agree that it would be an egregious violation of equal opportunity and antidiscrimination laws to exclude women and minorities from opportunities merely on the basis of their sex or race. Isn’t any and all support for inclusion valuable? My answer to this question is no.</p>
<p>First of all, social science myths make a mockery of evidence-based advocacy and policy. In fact, an unusually large body of social science evidence has emerged in tests of the effects of diversity on corporate success and group performance. Advocacy and policy should build on this research, not ignore it.</p>
<p>Myths also set people up to expect that corporate financial gains and superior group performance follow easily from diversity. Of course they don’t. That expectation could sideline people from understanding and overcoming diversity’s challenges.</p>
<p>Finally, false generalizations can impede progress toward better science that may disentangle the causes of diversity’s varied effects on group and organizational success.</p>
<p>Social scientists should freely admit that diversity science doesn’t have all the answers. At the same time, they should not silently tolerate distortions of available scientific knowledge to fit advocacy goals. Ideally, researchers are honest brokers who communicate consensus scientific findings to the broader public. Only then can social science make a meaningful contribution to building sound social policy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113901/original/image-20160304-17723-1xsw5gj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are other reasons to value diversity in the group.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Table image via www.shutterstockcom</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Social justice goals are valid on their own</h2>
<p>Many advocates and policymakers share the admirable goal of producing a more just society. But they’re narrow-minded if they focus only on whether diversity and inclusion foster outcomes such as business profits or effective group problem-solving. The more fundamental gains from diversity pertain to social justice. Diversity and inclusion can serve social justice goals by countering discrimination that may have put women and minorities at a disadvantage.</p>
<p>Beyond countering possible discrimination lies an even more fundamental social justice consideration – that of equitable representation. This principle holds that citizens in democracies should have equal access to influencing the decisions that shape their lives. To the extent that women and minorities are not represented in decision-making groups in proportion to their numbers in the population, they are unlikely to have their interests fairly represented. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2647821">political scientists have pointed out</a>, the ideals of democracy are violated if decision-making is dominated by the rich, the white and the male. Then the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00569.x">needs of the poor, the minorities</a> <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.053106.123839">and the female</a> likely are neglected.</p>
<p>Most advocates, policymakers and social scientists may not be aware of sharp divergence in their claims about diversity. Yet, policy based on sound social science should be a shared goal. Without understanding the causal relations in society that this research helps identify, policymakers lower the odds they’ll reach their targets. Policy based on myths and hunches has little chance of success. To achieve evidence-based policy, all parties should take a close look at what diversity research has produced so far. Rather than selectively featuring congenial results, they should work together to untangle diversity’s complex effects on group and organizational performance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice H. Eagly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The relationship between social science research and advocates and policymakers is undermined if they cherry-pick evidence that supports their goals, ignoring the wider field.
Alice H. Eagly, Professor of Psychology; Faculty Fellow Institute for Policy Research; Professor of Management and Organizations, Northwestern University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/54203
2016-02-23T16:15:05Z
2016-02-23T16:15:05Z
The man who began campaigning against #OscarsSoWhite – 74 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112603/original/image-20160223-16422-113pimn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/daverugby83/3893586483/in/photolist-6W4DBr-oE48W-qQV5YZ-Cp7juk-oyjAH-7HLr9f-byGDUV-9kRurU-bkMM4Y-bkMLU3-bkMM6E-bkMM8b-bkMLNw-byGDxe-9kRu7y-9kRu6Q-9kNqde-9kRur5-9kNqv2-4v2N3W-6vDQ2h-dTQ6Y-qZAv72-bxfZxP-9kNqct-6rkEqM-kzoomJ-65bqsg-34TJZ-bPDTJp-bAKeW1-bPDTNZ-F8uHN-6vDPJy-6vCXSd-bPrk7H-6vCXw1-3jmhu-6vDQnb-bPDTKt-nyQGh8-pN2Qdm-eXnGT3-9pJiiF-7S4Fm9-9P6EZM-ozV6q-69MP5u-kWjemn-rn8amV">daverugby83/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The latest raft of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/22/hollywood-so-white-diversity-report-us-film-industry-ethnic-minorities-lgbt-women">damning statistics</a> concerning diversity in Hollywood have revealed that only 12% of films or TV shows reflect the actual balance of ethnic minorities in US society. </p>
<p>These figures are particularly shocking if we consider that over 70 years ago, when African Americans were struggling for their civil rights, they were also engaged in a battle to improve their depiction on film. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112576/original/image-20160223-16459-1irmu06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112576/original/image-20160223-16459-1irmu06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112576/original/image-20160223-16459-1irmu06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112576/original/image-20160223-16459-1irmu06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112576/original/image-20160223-16459-1irmu06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112576/original/image-20160223-16459-1irmu06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112576/original/image-20160223-16459-1irmu06.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Walter Francis White, 1942.</span>
</figcaption>
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<p>In 1942 a man called Walter White travelled from New York to Hollywood, armed with a letter of introduction from the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. His aim was to try to persuade filmmakers to positively portray African Americans in movies.</p>
<p>White grew up in Atlanta. His parents, George and Madeleine White, had both been born into slavery. Many of their ancestors had been white, and they had fair skin. In his biography he emphasised this: “I am a Negro. My skin is white, my eyes are blue, my hair is blond. The traits of my race are nowhere visible upon me.” He became head of America’s largest civil rights organisation, the NAACP (The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Since its creation in 1909, the group had been concerned about African Americans in popular culture, believing that negative representations exacerbated racial tension and reinforced prejudice. As White told a meeting of film producers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Restriction of Negroes to roles with rolling eyes, chattering teeth, always scared of ghosts, or to portrayals of none-too-bright servants perpetuates a stereotype which is doing the Negro infinite harm. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He wanted to convince the film industry to produce more positive images. For White and his organisation, this largely meant more middle-class, professional characters which would challenge white stereotypes of African Americans. White also wanted more black characters and faces in interracial settings. </p>
<p>He was helped in his campaign by the atmosphere of World War II. African Americans were quick to realise that the changing climate of a war against fascism might offer an opportunity to press for improvements at home. Additionally, government agencies put pressure on the film industry to produce films which would help the war effort. This included “selling” the war to African Americans and helping to improve black morale. White, who for many years had been monitoring the film industry’s effect on race relations, saw this as the moment to take his case to Hollywood. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"701743921718755330"}"></div></p>
<h2>Bright lights</h2>
<p>So it was that in early 1942 he travelled to the West coast. The trip was a rush of meetings and dinners. Lunching with actors like Jimmy Cagney, Melvyn Douglas and Jean Muir was glamorous but White recognised that they weren’t the power-makers he needed to reach. The breakthrough came on the last day of his trip when he was summoned to the Biltmore hotel to meet with a group of producers. White boasted that during the meeting leading producer Darryl Zanuck stopped “puffing a cigar” to claim he’d never thought of the issue until White had “presented the facts”. </p>
<p>White returned to Hollywood later that year for more meetings and further attempts at persuasion. He was confident that his message had hit home. But all he actually got were murmurs of agreement and promises. Most film executives were happy to support vague notions of improvements but were suspicious of any real interference or change.</p>
<p>There were a handful of films made during the war which gave White cause for satisfaction and which he cited as proof that his campaign was working. Three war films from 1943 – <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035763/">Crash Dive</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035664/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Bataan</a>, and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036323/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Sahara</a> – showed African Americans in uniform, serving their country and making a great sacrifice. These were the positive depictions White wanted to see on movie screens. Other films made during the war also suggested a relaxation of the racial codes which had governed Hollywood’s use of black characters. </p>
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<p>But these were the exceptions rather than the rule. In fact, opportunities for black actors may have even decreased after the war. Hollywood decided the best way to avoid controversy about the negative portrayals was to remove African-American characters all together.</p>
<h2>Not much headway</h2>
<p>So White’s early attempt at changing racial stereotyping in film fell rather flat. Given the nature of his strategy, this might seem unsurprising – he was drawn to the glamour and dazzled by the bright lights of Hollywood; he enjoyed the chance to mingle with celebrities and powerful people. His campaign boiled down to little more than luncheons and parties and chatting to important people, backed up with frequent press releases and letters. </p>
<p>But at the same time, White knew that he had little leverage and he believed that there wasn’t much to gain from antagonising Hollywood with radical demands. He was an experienced lobbyist; he had honed his skills on Capitol Hill, and negotiated for civil rights, and he knew how to deal with large egos. But his options were severely limited. White made the most of the opportunities which presented themselves and cleverly tied his demands into the broader conversation about the war. He was able to form an alliance between his organisation, sympathetic government officials, and liberals within the studio system. Together they established a more racially tolerant tone which would linger throughout the decade.</p>
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</figure>
<p>The NAACP has continued to monitor Hollywood’s treatment of race. In 1967 it established the annual Image Awards as a necessary alternative to the almost exclusively white mainstream awards, such as the Oscars. And when this year’s Academy Awards were announced, the NAACP <a href="http://www.naacp.org/press/entry/naacp-statement-on-the-announcement-of-the-nominees-for-88th-academy-awards">issued a statement</a> explaining “our mission and efforts are as relevant today as they have been in the past”. Clearly much has changed in America’s racial landscape since Walter White went to Hollywood to press for improvements. Nevertheless, 70 years on, there are still far too few black people on the red carpet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54203/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Woodley has received funding from the AHRC.</span></em></p>
In 1942 a man called Walter White travelled to Hollywood to try and persuade filmmakers to cut the negative stereotypes of African Americans in movies.
Jenny Woodley, Lecturer in Modern American History, Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/53724
2016-02-04T11:07:51Z
2016-02-04T11:07:51Z
Intersectionality: how gender interacts with other social identities to shape bias
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110235/original/image-20160203-5865-yz096.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Everyone ticks multiple demographic boxes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=50008087">Form image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Actress Patricia Arquette’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgOxjdtRwWY">comments at the 2015 Oscars award night</a> drew criticism for implicitly framing gender equality as an issue for straight white women. She insisted that, “It’s time for all the women in America and all the men that love women and all the gay people and all the people of color that we’ve all fought for to fight for us now.”</p>
<p>Among other concerns, critics argued she <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/25/what-patricia-arquette-got-wrong-at-the-oscars/">overlooked the unique challenges</a> faced by queer women, women of color and other women at the intersection of multiple minority groups. This sentiment reflects <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2015/09/24/why-intersectionality-cant-wait/">a growing movement</a> within feminist circles to understand how people simultaneously face bias along multiple identity dimensions such as gender, race, and sexual orientation – an idea called intersectionality.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw defines and discusses ‘intersectionality’ – a term she coined in the late 1980s to describe how individuals may experience multiple forms of prejudice simultaneously.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Social psychologists have recently joined in this movement, but have also reframed the discussion. The politics on intersectionality can “resemble a score-keeping contest between battle-weary warriors,” argued social psychologists Valerie Purdie-Vaughns and Richard Eibach in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9424-4">an influential 2008 review article</a>. “The warriors display ever deeper and more gruesome battle scars in a game of one-upmanship.”</p>
<p>Setting aside these “oppression Olympics,” intersectionality is a fertile area for scientific research, argued Rutgers University psychologist <a href="http://psych.rutgers.edu/faculty-profiles-a-contacts/112-diana-sanchez">Diana Sanchez</a> at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (<a href="http://www.spsp.org/">SPSP</a>) conference last week. At this academic gathering, intersectionality was a major topic at a <a href="http://meeting.spsp.org/gender">daylong session about gender</a>.</p>
<p>Here are three lines of research illustrating how gender interacts with other social identities to shape bias in often surprising ways. People of multiple minority groups face both distinct advantages and disadvantages. Biases based on gender and race do not always simply pile up to create double disadvantages, for instance. </p>
<h2>When stereotypes can both help and hurt black women leaders</h2>
<p>Women are often viewed negatively for exhibiting <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00454.x">traditionally masculine behavior</a>. Assertive female leaders <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00239">are disliked</a>, while assertive male leaders <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.109.3.573">gain respect</a>, for instance. However, could this distaste for assertive female leaders vary by race?</p>
<p>Unlike white women, black women <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684312464203">are often stereotyped</a> as being assertive, confident and not feminine. These masculine traits are not only expected for black women but also <em>allowed</em>, at least in leadership roles, according to research presented at the SPSP conference.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/robert-livingston">Robert Livingston</a>, lecturer of public policy at Harvard University, presented <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611428079">an experiment</a> about how 84 nonblack participants responded to a corporate executive described as either “tough, determined” or “caring, committed.” The race and gender of the fictitious leader were also varied across conditions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DYtL_QFnlsA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Robert Livingston discusses his research on how gender and race interact to influence evaluations of corporate leaders.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both white female and black male leaders were rated more negatively when described as tough rather than caring. In contrast, black women faced no such penalty for behaving assertively and were instead rated similarly to white men. Livingston concluded black women “were able to show dominance, assertiveness, agency without the same penalty that either white women or black men suffered.” </p>
<p>He suggested that white women get knocked for being “tough, determined” because they are expected to be warm and caring. Black men are penalized because they are feared by others and activate other stereotypes such as being dangerous. In contrast, black women are expected to be assertive and confident, unlike white women, and they’re not feared in the same way as black men, Livingston suggested.</p>
<p>Livingston, however, emphasized that these evaluations are complex and likely depend on context. In <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2012.05.002">a follow-up experiment</a> led by Duke University associate professor of management and organizations <a href="http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/faculty_research/faculty_directory/rosette/">Ashleigh Rosette</a>, black female leaders were evaluated especially harshly if their corporation had performed poorly during the past five months. Under those conditions, black women were rated more negatively than white women or black men for the exact same business scenario.</p>
<p>If you are a black woman, you can be an assertive leader as long as you don’t make any mistakes, Livingston argued. “But the first time you make a mistake, your competence is called into question well before the white woman or the black man.”</p>
<h2>When multiple minority identities render groups invisible</h2>
<p>Individuals of multiple minority groups may be overlooked and marginalized for not being prototypical of their respective groups, argued <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Erim2109/Rebecca_Mohr/Home.html">Rebecca Mohr</a>, doctoral psychology student at Columbia University. For instance, white women are seen as prototypical of “women.” Black men are seen as prototypical of “black people.” But black women are seen as neither prototypical of “black people” nor “women,” Mohr argued based on <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9424-4">prior research</a>.</p>
<p>Racial minority women can therefore be rendered metaphorically invisible. Along with Columbia Associate Professor of Psychology <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/fac-bios/PurdieVaughnsV/faculty.html">Valerie Purdie-Vaughns</a>, Mohr tested whether racial minority women are featured in mass media less frequently than more prototypical others.</p>
<p>In a currently unpublished study, the researchers analyzed covers of <em>Time</em> magazine published from 1980 to 2008. They chose <em>Time</em> because it’s one of the longest-running U.S. publications and is published weekly, offering a large archive of covers. It’s also a general interest magazine, meaning that people on the covers should presumably “appeal to a wide swath of Americans,” Mohr pointed out.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=791&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110232/original/image-20160203-5850-7qdsco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photos of racial minority women, like this one of Condoleezza Rice, were underrepresented over the 28 years of analyzed <em>Time</em> covers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Time</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The study found that racial minority women were underrepresented when racial minorities were on the cover of <em>Time</em>. For instance, women were only 20 percent of the covers that featured racial minorities. Conversely, when women were on the cover, racial minority women were underrepresented relative to their share of the U.S. population. </p>
<p>Mohr suggested that these results reflect the broader invisibility of racial minority women in American society. For instance, even though three black queer women <a href="http://blacklivesmatter.com/herstory/">started the Black Lives Matter movement</a>, most media attention <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/05/black-women-police-killing-tanisha-anderson">has focused</a> on black men killed by police. In contrast, black women killed by police such as Meagan Hockaday, Tanisha Anderson and Rekia Boyd are invisible, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/21/black-women-matter_n_7363064.html">critics argue</a>. </p>
<h2>How gender gaps in STEM participation vary by race</h2>
<p>Gender gaps in pursing natural science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields surprisingly sometimes vary by race, noted <a href="https://tulane.edu/sse/psyc/faculty-and-staff/faculty/obrien.cfm">Laurie O’Brien</a>, associate professor of psychology at Tulane University. Women of color in STEM may sometimes face “<a href="http://www.uchastings.edu/news/articles/2015/01/double-jeopardy-report.pdf">double jeopardy</a>” because of both racial bias and gender bias in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/haer.81.2.t022245n7x4752v2">some contexts</a> such as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167202288010">gaining influence over others</a> in academic departments.</p>
<p>However, “double jeopardy” is not the full story, O’Brien argued in her SPSP talk. For instance, when entering college, black women are more likely than white women to intend to major in STEM. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037944">Her research</a> shows that black women hold weaker gender-STEM stereotypes than white women, helping explain that difference.</p>
<p>O’Brien also pointed to research by psychologists Monica Biernat and Amanda Sesko about <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.01.008">bias favoring male computer engineers</a>. This bias was found only when undergraduates evaluated fictitious white, but not black, employees. Black women were instead evaluated similarly compared to white men. </p>
<p>In one large nationally representative experiment, gender bias in STEM even <em>reversed</em> by race and ethnicity. <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/apl-0000022.pdf">STEM faculty responded less often</a> to emails from white female than white male prospective graduate students. However, STEM faculty consistently responded <em>more</em> often to Hispanic women than Hispanic men.</p>
<p>O’Brien emphasized these data are complex. For instance, even though black women start out in college more interested in STEM than white women, black women <a href="http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/09/women-stem-majors.aspx">may face unique barriers</a> such as race-based stereotypes to completing college with a STEM degree. In her current research, O’Brien studies how the effects of interventions to bring girls into STEM may vary by race. </p>
<h2>Thinking beyond ‘double jeopardy’</h2>
<p>This research on intersectionality challenges the simple narrative that prejudices such as sexism and racism always combine to create “double jeopardy.” For instance, racial minority women can be rendered “invisible.” But this invisibility may also <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9424-4">protect them</a> in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.01.008">some cases</a> by making them less prototypical targets of common forms of bias. </p>
<p>This research is still in its early stages. For instance, more studies are needed to test how evaluations of black female leaders found in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797611428079">small laboratory experiments</a> generalize to real world settings. Attendees at the SPSP conference also emphasized the need to develop theoretical frameworks that can help explain the nuanced results. The emerging data show that gender can interact with other social identities to shape perceptions and evaluations in complex and often surprising ways.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Miller receives funding from National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>
No one is only their sex or only their race or only their sexual orientation. Social psychologists are starting to investigate how people of multiple minority groups are perceived.
David Miller, Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology, Northwestern University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/51370
2015-12-01T04:33:56Z
2015-12-01T04:33:56Z
Decolonisation should be about appreciating difference, not despising it
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/103668/original/image-20151130-10243-1gr9c30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The skylines of Alexandra township and Sandton City. Decolonising education involves helping students understand how different experiences shape our world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Kim Ludbrook </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>My concern with grand narratives such as “decolonisation” is that they tend to silence what I would call “local narratives”. They are often accompanied by populist, often overwhelming rhetoric in ways that silence (if not obliterate) smaller narratives about who we are, where we are, how we got there, and how we can move forward. </p>
<p>What is implied within the decolonisation rhetoric is well captured by University of Dar er Salaam linguistics and foreign languages expert Doctor <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=qDxQBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Multilingualism+and+Education+in+Africa:+The+State+of+the+State+of+the+Art&source=bl&ots=iVVFeLNIhg&sig=mP527oy9GqyOR_v7C7H5vEaMUDo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiXweb8-NLaAhXCDMAKHX9kAF4Q6AEIRjAE#v=onepage&q=Multilingualism%20and%20Education%20in%20Africa%3A%20The%20State%20of%20the%20State%20of%20the%20Art&f=false">Michael Kadeghe</a>. He points out:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One only learns within the familiar habits of thought, experience and expression suggested by one’s traditional culture; and that colonialism occasioned a disruption of the natives’ traditions and experience that left them culturally impoverished, spiritually dislocated and in a state of moral decline.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While there is some truth in this, what it suggests is that culture, including how we know, what counts as knowledge, who is the legitimate author of it, is an entity that stays the same, remains pure and unadulterated.</p>
<p>In this narrative, later generations will “always find” the culture, and it will still be usable generation after generation. All they need is simply to go somewhere and find “it”. Hence, it is within their traditional culture that people are most at ease with themselves, and that there is a comfortable coexistence between the world and them.</p>
<p>Within this is an idea of African identity as an irreducible essence of the race, whose objective existence is the traditional culture as the only thing that defines the world. This has developed into some kind of an African philosophy, or way of life and society.</p>
<p>Inherent in this logic is an erroneous belief that African traditional values and a concept of the world form significant, if not permanent, essences of our identity. And, as such, the use of knowledge other than our own leads us to become something other than our “real selves”, a state of affairs at the root cause of our underdevelopment. </p>
<p>It follows then that as a corrective measure, the way forward is to reclaim African “ways of being” (I’m not sure exactly what this means) in knowledge generation, learning and academic expression. One may ask: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Can one only learn within the familiar habits of thought, experience and expression suggested by one’s traditional culture?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Smaller narratives</h2>
<p>Smaller narratives, I argue, get obliterated as the decolonisation grand narrative takes over. Right now my students are here to learn the specific disciplinary content they wish to specialise in. But, they are also getting educated to become critically aware citizens who live in a country with a constitutional democracy, where different races, cultures, life styles and religions coexist.</p>
<p>This means I need to create opportunities for my students to learn knowledge from Africa, but also the world. In other words, I want my students to learn to appreciate difference, rather than despise it.</p>
<p>For me as an academic, decolonisation means creating an environment for my students to receive a holistic educational experience which will ensure intellectual exposure to aspects of life in general that formal disciplinary content may not necessarily offer. </p>
<p>In the context of South Africa, for example, the Group Areas <a href="https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv01538/04lv01828/05lv01829/06lv01839.htm">Act</a> ensured that South Africans were raised apart from one another. While it is true that today’s generation of students is different to the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s generations, as a nation, South Africans still do not fully know one other.</p>
<p>In this context, decolonising education will mean exposure to opportunities that will ensure that students learn more about other fellow South Africans who might be different to them. </p>
<p>A law student, for example, needs to understand reasons we find prisons populated mainly by a specific race group and gender. Or a Bachelor of Commerce student needs to understand why the expression “I’m broke” means completely different things to different people. For example it means one thing to someone living in leafy Sandton in Johannesburg, and another to someone living in the neighbouring black township of Alexandra or in Rhini (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape. </p>
<p>You often hear students, and sometimes adults, labeling certain groups of people as lazy and others as “working hard”, simply on the basis of different economic positions they find themselves.</p>
<p>There is no realisation, for instance, that privilege or under privilege are in fact generational. This realisation has the potential to inculcate creative, sensitive and context responsive future professionals that would commit to rebuilding our beautiful land. What I call the “after colonial occupation” land". </p>
<p>There are enumerable examples that could be used to educate our students in ways that decolonise their minds. But the decolonising should be in ways that respond to the “local narrative” and take them beyond mere disciplinary knowledge whose focus and scope often limit them to just being learned, but not educated. Colonial education produces learned people. Decolonised education produces educated citizens.</p>
<p>This is not some kind of dogma. Just my thoughts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel Mgqwashu receives funding from National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>
Decolonising education should be about ensuring that students learn more about other fellow South Africans who might be different to them.
Emmanuel Mgqwashu, Professor of English Language Teaching and Literacy Development, Rhodes University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/50957
2015-11-25T19:09:46Z
2015-11-25T19:09:46Z
A refugee, like me: why the Golden Rule matters in an era of mass migration
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102771/original/image-20151123-18250-dxe0kt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tolerance develops when empathy is encouraged, because it allows a child – or adult – to enter the shoes of another.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Georgi Licovski </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the refugee crisis worsens, various “destination” countries, including Australia, are engaging in internal debates around multiculturalism, integration and tolerance. People are worried about cultural cohesion, racial divides and religious differences.</p>
<p>As we approach these debates, psychological research can remind us that tolerance of differences, including racial and cultural divides, is a function of moral reasoning and behaviour. The archetypal example of tolerance – the Golden Rule – is based on perspective-taking, reciprocity, altruism, care and empathy. </p>
<p>The Golden Rule is most familiar in the Western world as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, but it has reflections in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2012/06/28/golden-rule-in-world-religions-quotes_n_1628731.html?ir=Australia">every major world religion</a>. Confucius provided the first written examples, but Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism all prescribe some form of “ethic of reciprocity”. </p>
<p>Intuitively, there is some form of understanding about the inherent meaning of this rule since it appears to be used across cultures, religions and the secular world<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDmeMjsV35U">.</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102772/original/image-20151123-18246-1ycpqge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrant children warm themselves around a bonfire as they await permission to enter the registration and transit camp after crossing border between Greece and Macedonia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Georgi Licovski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Golden Rule is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/tolerance-is-more-than-putting-up-with-things-its-a-moral-virtue-31507">moral obligation to treat others well</a>. Understanding the Golden Rule – in whatever form it takes – is one of the important aspects for creating racial tolerance in young people, and society more broadly. </p>
<p><a href="http://works.bepress.com/rivka_witenberg/">My own research</a> about tolerance to human diversity, using dilemmas about colour, creed and culture, found that empathy, fairness and justice were motivators for tolerance. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/233167262_The_moral_dimension_of_children's_and_adolescents'_conceptualisation_of_tolerance_to_human_diversity">one study</a> I undertook, 112 students, aged between six and 17, were presented with dilemmas concerning racial bias. In this case, the Golden Rule was used to justify a tolerant stance almost a quarter of the time. </p>
<p>Empathy, which was was a strong predictor with students over 15 years of age, was very often expressed through the Golden Rule. But children from the age of 12 would also justify tolerant attitudes by referring to some form of the Golden Rule. </p>
<p>In a subsequent study the results showed that empathy is a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237099559_some_personality_predictors_of_tolerance_to_human_diversity_the_role_of_openness_agreeablnessand_empathy">significant factor for tolerance to human diversity</a>. Empathy, indeed, is a prerequisite for the Golden Rule and persepective-taking. </p>
<h2>Perspective taking and imagination</h2>
<p>In response to dilemmas concerning exclusion, for example of young Asians from a nightclub because they did not “belong” in Australia, respondents in my research evoked the Golden Rule by replying, “Put yourself in his shoes” or, “Imagine how it would be/ feel to be in her shoes or her place”. </p>
<p>Putting oneself in another’s shoes requires a degree of imagination and a sense of perspective-taking and reciprocity. These require an understanding of the mental states of others, their thoughts, feelings and desires. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102774/original/image-20151123-18230-1q5hbbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Description: epa05029821 Migrants wait in line at the Slovenian-Austrian border in Spielfeld, Austria, November 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Erwin Scheriau</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Likewise, imagining how it would feel to be rejected or discriminated against requires creativity and a degree of empathy. Those are essential aspects of morality and are paramount for the understanding of both the Golden Rule and tolerance. </p>
<p>Tolerance was revealed through thoughtfulness, empathy and perspective-taking where the students were able to “<a href="https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=56689&osCsid=a0bb0e25e6951f37606d9c6ed6fadc11">step into another person’s shoes</a>”. </p>
<p>Empathy and perspective-taking was revealed in responses such as, “I would ask you, how would you feel if you were an Aboriginal person and would always be served last?” (a 12-year-old) or, “How would you would feel if you were Asian and a shopkeeper wouldn’t serve you?” (a 15-year-old).</p>
<p>Such responses were favoured more by females. And it’s not surprising that a greater number of females evoked the Golden Rule, as <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1963313/">plenty of studies</a> show that <a href="http://dsclab.uchicago.edu/documents/Michalska,%20Kinzler,%20Decety%202013.pdf">females tend tend to appeal to empathy more often than males</a>. </p>
<h2>Empathy and moral judgements</h2>
<p>The ability to take someone else’s perspective and empathise are <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ose5vtvDoBoC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=empathy+and+moral+development+hoffman+2000&ots=Sz4VY24g88&sig=j2qvLEag2xyj59I6m8yVdiAvqQA#v=onepage&q=empathy%20and%20moral%20development%20hoffman%202000&f=false">important motivators of “pro-social” behaviour</a>; that is, actions that promote social acceptance and friendship. </p>
<p>Children <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Philosophy_of_Moral_Development.html?id=Deh-AAAAMAAJ">develop empathy and perspective-taking</a> as part of their <a href="http://people.stern.nyu.edu/jhaidt/home.html">moral development</a>. One of the motivators for tolerance is empathy. </p>
<p>That means tolerance develops when empathy is encouraged, because it allows a child – or adult – to enter the shoes of another. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102776/original/image-20151123-18267-174j3lh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Refugees and migrants arrive in an overloaded rubber dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos (Lesvos), Greece, November 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Orestis Panagiotou</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Crucially, while tolerant attitudes lead to acceptance of other people’s differences, this is a two-way street; exposure to different cultures and attitudes can increase the ability of children and adolescents to empathise and relate. </p>
<p>Research also demonstrates (somewhat intuitively) that successful cross-cultural contact depends on the <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.65">quality of interaction</a>. </p>
<p>Conditions for successful interaction include: the opportunity to bond, support from authority figures and a cooperative situation. Also vital is an initial open-mindedness, and finding at least some common ground. </p>
<h2>Integration, not assimilation, is the key</h2>
<p>As Europe and other places around the world prepare to meet an influx of refugees, governments must play their part in supporting positive contact between different cultures, particularly for young people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102777/original/image-20151123-18227-1elz9dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Syrian migrant Muhamed Selmu plays on his instrument as his group cross the border line between Greece and Macedonia near the city of Gevgelija.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/ Georgi Licovski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Integration, whether social, political or cultural, into another society is difficult and will take time. </p>
<p>Some Muslims groups who have moved to Sweden, to give one example, have integrated better than others. Bosnian Muslims have integrated well in contrast to immigrants from Iraq who are less successful. Iraqi integration into work is <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1011145">strikingly low</a>. </p>
<p>Cultural differences between these groups no doubt underlie those outcomes. But we need further research into ways of integrating immigrant communities into Western standards of human rights and liberal democracies while respecting their own values, provided those values do not violate human rights. </p>
<p>The Golden Rule, moral philosopher <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-golden-rule-9780195110364?cc=au&lang=en&">Jeffrey Wattles</a> argued:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>is part of the planet’s common language, shared by persons with differing but overlapping conceptions of morality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet we know that racism and discrimination occur – and will continue to occur as vast swathes of humanity migrate around the globe. We must be prepared to use creativity and empathy when responding to global catastrophe, and understand both our differences and our universal values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rivka T. Witenberg receives funding from Large ARC SPIRT Grant; Department of Psychology Research Support Scheme, University of Melbourne and Australian Catholic University; Centre for Education for Human Values and Tolerance, Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv, Israel; The University of Melbourne Collaborative research Grant. Australian Catholic University, School of Psychology research grant.</span></em></p>
With vast numbers of people migrating around the world, understanding how racial tolerance is created – and encouraging more of it – is more important than ever.
Rivka T. Witenberg, Honarary Research Fellow in Psychology , Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.