I was asked to join a hiring panel for a program intended to hire entry level field employees into corporate positions. I had the pleasure of co-interviewing candidates with a focus on career competencies. Fitness for specific roles were left for the hiring managers to assess. After a full day of interviews, all the interviewers met to review the candidates and make talent selections. While my focus was on two specific roles, I listened to conversations about the other positions. I was particularly curious about the roles that my mentees were being considered for. In one specific example, my mentee’s competencies concerned the panel.
“I think he just needs a little more time to bake before he’s ready for corporate.”
“Yes, I agree, he’s lacking in executive presence…He needs to work on elevating his verbal communication.”
“I really thought he would be a great fit for the role… But yes, I can see your point, he is a little rough around the edges.”
While it wasn’t my place to join that conversation, I listened to the feedback. I thought about how I could use this information to assist my mentee with future interviews.
Several days later, my mentee called after his turn-down conversation with the hiring manager. I inquired, “Did you ask for feedback?”
“Yes, she said I was too passionate.”
Too passionate? I dug deeper. I assumed that my mentee was adding his perspective to the telegraphing of the conversation.
“What exactly did she say?”
“She said that we all felt that you were just too passionate for corporate, and that you’ll get bored very quickly.’”
I struggled to make sense of the very different conversation I’d heard between the interviewers. I probed further to glean whether any of that critical feedback made its way into the turn-down conversation. None of it found its way to Breante. As I racked my brain to make sense of the discrepancy, I unearthed my own career memories where the biggest piece of critical feedback was “too passionate.” I’ve been told that my biggest strength is my passion… And yet my biggest opportunity is that I’m “too passionate.” My head whirled as I looked for the connecting strand of truth. More memories surfaced. Two of my other mentees shared the same thing over the past year: their managers explaining to them that they are “too passionate.”
What’s the similarity? Are we all very emphatic? Loud? I was looking for even a modicum of nuance that I could use to help my mentees and to help me become a better employee and mentor. Unable to find a competency we all share, I stumbled into an unsettling realization. Breante, Ayana, Jaden, and I are all Black.
Please, say it ain’t so. Is passion the new Blackness meter? Is “too passionate” the new code for “too Black?”
Black is a foreign culture
There’s an assumption that Black Americans share the same culture as White Americans. Black culture has influenced American culture for 300+ years, so it’s often mistaken that we live in the same America. We don’t. I don’t listen to top 40 music, and I’m often not aware of top 10 movies. Thanks to the internet and a variety of entertainment options, I don’t have to be exposed to things that don’t interest me.
Recently, when my team began raving about a recent movie that seemed pretty popular with White America. I asked what movie they were talking about, and I received very judgmental looks. My manager responded, “You’ve heard of it, it’s like the number 3 movie in America right now.”
Actually, I hadn’t. And I didn’t know who Anna Kendrick was until I looked her up after this conversation.
Once upon a time, Blacks had to embrace White entertainment. We lacked options that reflected our own culture. Even now, I’m expected to align with White cultural values and fit in as much as possible. When Blacks and Whites started working in the same spaces, we needed to adopt White cultural expectations to keep our jobs. Whites have never had to embrace or learn much about Black culture at all.
So, for the sake of establishing some cultural baselines, I submit the following:
· We’re loud. (Not always in volume but usually in some form of expression.)
· We’re rhythmic and enjoy movement.
· We’re taught not to trust authority because that has historically been the truth.
· We’re taught that we must fight for anything we want because it’s not going to be given to us.
These are sweeping generalizations, and certainly don’t apply to everyone… But did they surprise you? Did it make you upset? Did it make you uncomfortable?
These are in fact stereotypes perpetuated by American mass media. While we may all agree that stereotypes are rooted in some thread of truth, I’m sure that most readers felt uncomfortable reading and potentially agreeing with the baselines I presented above. The reason for this discomfort is because stereotypes are linked to bigotry, and bigotry happens when stereotypes are used to disenfranchise a group of people.
This list of ‘baselines’ is a part of the Black culture most White Americans are exposed to through their media choices (with a wealth of other more derogatory stereotypes not relevant for this discourse). And though it’s easy to see how it might translate to passion, these traits aren’t unique to Black culture. So why are these traits used to disenfranchise Black and Latinx individuals but not Italians or Indians?
Why aren’t these parts of Black culture considered unique in the same way that the Indian head bobble or Chinese pushiness are? Why, Instead, is it regarded as unfamiliar and unnecessary, then tossed aside as a trait not aligned with corporate culture and not worthy of the latest diversity and inclusion efforts trending around the country?
I suspect that these traits are rejected because of their potential to challenge the status quo. If these traits were meeker and deemed less disruptive, they might be embraced by the Kumbaya-ness permeating corporate America today. I also suspect that true corporate inclusivity of Blacks hinges on accepting Black culture as a distinct foreign culture to White Americanism. Instead of looking at us as “not quite White people,” recognize us as a distinctly separate culture to which you’re not privy no matter how much hip hop you listen to, soul food you eat, or basketball you watch.
Make Comparisons to be Objective
Shift your perspectives about Blackness from a notion of simple skin color to one of a foreign culture. Once you change your approach, you can begin to truly question your unconscious biases. By elevating Black culture to that of a world culture, we can begin to be treated as equals at work. Give us the same consideration as you would for someone that is from Mongolia by drawing on comparisons. Ask yourself, what types of considerations do you give to other cultures when you don’t understand something?
One example for me is the acceptance of accents but the nonacceptance of Ebonics in a corporate setting. I am surrounded by folks with lovely accents from around the world, some of which are hard to verbally understand. Some of those language barriers translate into unclear written communications. My best guess is that those individuals are hired because of their value outside of their ability to communicate in White American English. The thought must be that despite the language barrier, their skills and intelligence make them fit for their roles. So why isn’t the same treatment given to someone with an Ebonics twang in an interview?
Muhammed Ali, Michael Eric Dyson, Cornel West, and Sean “P Diddy” Combs are all examples of extremely accomplished Blacks that speak with varying level of Ebonics or AAVE. It’s not lost on me that each one was able to make national or global impact aside from traditional career paths of success through formal education. I shudder to think how each one might have been dismissed in a corporate interview due to the way that they speak.
The United States has dozens of subcultures that influence our speech. If Southern, Boston, or Brooklyn accents would not prevent someone from being taken seriously in a corporate interview, then why are Blacks expected to speak the queen’s English in order to be considered professional?
To my up and coming Black corporate hopefuls
I want you to know that the world is changing into one where we are indeed recognized as equals. Sometimes you must work within a system to change it, instead of fighting and mowing it down, as we’ve been taught.
The first step to shaping your narrative may seem counter intuitive. It’s acknowledging that your authentic self the way you currently define it isn’t welcome in a corporate environment…yet.
Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of hosting my own mentee as an intern in my corporate department. He is the first Black intern I’ve had, and we had a series of conversations leading up to his arrival to prepare him for the preconceived notions he’d be met with. One particularly difficult discussion was that about his attire. While most others in the corporate offices may wear t-shirts and jeans, he couldn’t wear the same, especially with a non-coifed afro. The potential to be dismissed as a thug was too great. I asked him to elevate the way he dressed so he could offset his individual choice of sporting the ‘fro. I explained, “It doesn’t have to be blazers or button downs, but you must find a more professional attire than everyone else without abandoning who you are. Remember what your true goal is: to land a role at corporate, not to fight the good fight.”
I’m not suggesting that you compromise who you are as a person. However, if the only thing standing between your current salary of $30K a year and a new salary at $90K is someone else’s preconceived notions, and increasing your financial means is a goal, then I’d recommend figuring out a way to play the corporate game while remaining true to who you are at the core.
At the end of my conversation with Breante, I provided the feedback that I’d heard during the panel discussion at the hiring event. We talked through accepting that feedback, finding the truth in it, and what he could do to showcase more executive presence. The most critical feedback that I had for him, and have given to each of my mentees, is to remain authentic to the core of who you are. Don’t give up all of your culture or individuality because that’s a sure-fire way to an identity crisis, lost sleep, and a very expensive therapy budget. (I’ll save the details of my own journey to ethnic authenticity at work for a future article.)
I later learned that the main goal of this hiring program was to hire more Blacks into this particular team at corporate. This shocked me. I was one of only two Black people interviewing candidates out of approximately 40 interviewers… Especially considering I was invited at the last minute. We completed selections after 2 hours of deliberation — none of the candidates selected was Black. Several hiring managers purposefully went through the candidate pool to correct this issue. If unconscious biases were truly addressed in corporate America, perhaps this motion, a motion that affirmative action opponents frequently cite, wouldn’t be necessary. Unconscious biases need to be addressed before stepping into an interview. To do this, we must first acknowledge, understand, and respect Blackness as a unique culture unto its own.
On my part, I now love and appreciate that I can add “passionate” to that list of descriptors when I refer to my people. The next time I’m given the “too passionate” feedback, I’m excited to agree with them by saying, “Yes, we are a very passionate people.”
