Foreword
Race in Organizations: Often Cloaked but Always Present
ELLA L. J. EDMONDSON BELL STELLA M. NKOMO
Even as we pronounce the death of race, we cannot overlook the fact that our attempts to articulate it into oblivion, to pronounce the last word on race, simply have not worked!
—Holland (2005, p. 406)
We are honored to write a foreword for Race, Work, and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience. As senior scholars who have spent the bulk of our academic and professional lives studying race and gender in leadership and organizational life, we decided to use this space to reflect on the past, the present, and the future of race in the workplace using insights from our scholarly and practical work, as well as the contributions in this volume.
Almost thirty years ago, we were among the contributors to a special issue of the Journal of Organizational Behavior published in 1990 that resulted from a symposium presented at an annual Academy of Management meeting in 1987 entitled, “No Crystal Stair: Current Research on the Career Experiences of Black Professionals.” The special issue documented the career challenges encountered by black professionals, which were largely absent from organizational knowledge. In his commentary article in the special issue, Clayton Alderfer (1990), the pioneering scholar of race relations in organizations, acknowledged that he was unaware of a mainstream journal on organizational behavior having ever before devoted an entire issue to the subject of race. In her introductory article as the special issue editor, Ella Bell (1990) expressed the hope that the contents would stimulate and energize the study of race in organizations. All of us who contributed articles held similar aspirations for the volume. But most of all we were hoping for change.
Our special issue has been followed by a number of important scholarly contributions that Laura Morgan Roberts, Anthony J. Mayo, and Serenity Lee summarize in their introduction to this book. All of these contributions have helped document the challenging experiences of black professionals, and many have offered suggestions for change. The last twenty-five years saw the rise of diversity officers and diversity initiatives in organizations striving for an inclusive workplace. And yes, there was some evidence of progress in the presence of black men and women in the managerial ranks of organizations, though white male managerial overrepresentation remained virtually unchanged from 1966 to 2000 (Stainback & Tomaskovic-Devey, 2009, 2012).
However, Roberts, Mayo, and Lee make two important observations in their introductory chapter about where we are today. First, race has yet to be mainstreamed in the study of organizations in a way that matches its core relevance to workplace opportunities, behaviors, and relationships. Second, the explicit discussion of race and organizational leadership is still considered taboo or irrelevant in many business circles.
As this chapter’s epigraph suggests and as the chapters in this book attest, despite legislative efforts, declarations of a postrace America, and the turn to diversity as an organizational imperative, race still wields its power as a barrier to the ascendancy of African Americans to leadership positions. Race has managed to take the heat of pressures to erase it (Holland, 2005:405). In fact, recent developments in the broader society show ominous signs of its resurgence, not its demise.
Racism makes race matter (Holland, 2005). Currently, race and racism are being uncloaked in virulent expressions of white supremacy nationally and globally (Hage, 2012; Mishra, 2018; Swain, 2002). Mishra (2018) has described this phenomenon as the reawakening of a belligerent nationalism with deep historical roots. The Charlottesville march led by the alt-right in 2017 has been described as a coming-out event for those who wish to see a return to the days of the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws. So overt have been the expressions of racism and racial harassment that African Americans have had to plead “Black Lives Matter,” endure an increasing number of incidents of white people calling the police about African Americans engaging in everyday activities (e.g., swimming at a pool, barbequing at a park, selling lemonade, cutting grass, studying on college campuses, meeting in coffee shops), and tolerate being feared by whites as troublemakers and criminals (Hall, Hall, & Perry, 2016; Lowery, 2016; Patton & Farley, 2018). At the same time, there has been a rise in anti-immigrant sentiments that has been manifested in negative attitudes and restrictive immigration policies toward ethnic minorities (Hagan, Rodriguez, & Castro, 2011). Racial resentment arising from social and demographic changes has been shown to have a greater effect than economic anxiety on attitudes toward immigrants in the United States (Hooghe & Dassonneville, 2018; Miller, 2018).
Some of these phenomena are not new. The problem is that they continue to happen long after the end of segregation and declarations of a postrace America. While we can hope they are aberrations, organizations should take these developments seriously. What happens in society spills over because organizations are in society, not apart from it. Employees do not leave their race or racial beliefs at the entrance when they enter the workplace. A ready example is a well-publicized Starbucks incident. Two black men were arrested after employees called police to say the men were trespassing when they were actually waiting for a friend. Organizations are not immune from the troubling signs that are unfolding in societal race relations.
The Starbucks episode should make us aware of how stereotypical fears about black men may affect perceptions of them as potential leaders. However, beliefs about who can lead go even deeper than stereotyping. Roediger and Esch (2012) have traced the intimate relationship between racial beliefs and the origins of management in an industrializing America. At the time, a prevalent management practice was to rank racial groups in terms of both which jobs they were best suited for and their relative value compared to others. Blacks were only deemed suitable for the lowest and dirtiest jobs. Contemporary research has shown how the white standard for a prototypical leader limits the possibility that black men and black women will be perceived as suitable for leadership positions (Carton & Rosette, 2011; Rosette, Leonardelli, & Phillips, 2008).
Race, Work, and Leadership could not come at a better time, because too many Americans appear to believe that race and racism were somehow tamed with the breakthrough election of Barack Obama as president of the United States (Tesler & Sears, 2010), an office whose occupant has often been declared the leader of the “free world.” Yet today there are only three black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (after reaching a peak of twelve in 2002), and not one is a woman (Donnelly, 2018). We live in an era that seems to be a far cry from the time we could point to African American leaders like Kenneth Chenault, Ann Fudge, Richard Parsons, Franklin Raines, and Ursula Burns. While small gains have been made in the representation of African Americans in the workplace, the advancement of black men and women in management and leadership positions is stagnant (Stainback & Tomaskovic-Devey, 2009, 2012). This stagnation impedes meaningful progress toward inclusion and social justice (Abelson & Holman, 2017; Catalyst, 2017).
Roberts, Mayo, and David A. Thomas have assembled an excellent team of scholars and practitioners who provide empirical research on the impact of race on the careers and leadership experiences of black professionals in business, health care, law, and academia. The comprehensive picture provided through surveys, case studies, interviews, and archival historical data is compelling and thought provoking. The topics covered range from career pathways, authenticity, leadership obstacles, mentoring experiences, and leadership development to designing diversity initiatives. The chapters provide poignant data about the challenges and costs of not belonging to the majority group in America. Collectively, as we found in our own research over the years and as the chapters in this volume confirm, race continues to matter in the workplace.
We experienced mixed emotions while reading this book. On one hand, we are sad because we had hoped in 1990 that sharing the difficult experiences of black professionals would provide impetus for change. However, the contents of Race, Work, and Leadership echo many of the themes in the 1990 special issue of the Journal of Organizational Behavior. On the other hand, we are energized because of the apt timing of this book’s publication. The stoking of fears about endangered white power and talk of white genocide by some political leaders and Far Right conservatives advance the false notion that black progress is being achieved at the expense of white people. This book counters these assertions by showing just the opposite: racial inequality in workplace opportunities for black professionals persists.
It is time to turn up the heat on race and racism if we want to cool it down (Holland, 2005). We agree with the response James Baldwin gave to a question about what black folks should do to cool the 1968 riots after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “It is not for us [black people] to cool it” (Esquire editors, 1968). This book should help readers understand how black professionals labor daily to persevere and excel as leaders despite the racial barriers encountered. Ending racism requires personal and institutional work not just by the people affected but also by those who participate in its continuation in overt, covert, and benign ways.
We fear that some white people, seeing the word race in the title, may assume the book has nothing to do with them. Ignoring it, silencing it, and calling it anything but race will not stop its significance in perpetuating racial inequality in the workplace (Holland, 2005). As DiAngelo argues in her book White Fragility (2018), color blindness prevents white people from grappling with how race matters not just in society as a whole but specifically in the workplace.
Now is the time for reluctant white people to find the courage to engage in real conversations about race and racism in the workplace. No doubt these will be difficult and uncomfortable conversations. Race, Work, and Leadership must be read from a position of open-mindedness, not defensiveness. We believe this book will benefit several audiences. Consultants in the field of diversity and race relations will find valuable material for their work. We hope academics will not only read this book to gain a deeper understanding of why race is integral to the study of organizations but also share it with students. While black professionals and managers will certainly identify with its content, it is not a book only for them. It is a must-read for corporate and institutional leaders who want to build an inclusive workplace.
Dislodging race as an arbiter of organizational experiences requires more than reading and conversation, however. Effective change requires a strong relationship between knowledge and action. Several chapters in the book provide recommendations for action. If we don’t act now, thirty years from now the profile of leadership in the professions may calcify or even worsen. Changing the leadership profile of the workplace is critical to having the talent needed to address the complex twenty-first-century challenges facing organizations, both private and public. It is an undertaking that will benefit all of us. The stakes have never been higher, given today’s racially charged climate.
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