Prologue
BEING BLACK IN CORP AMERICA
I don't profess to be a "know it all" but I do believe I truly have an understanding on why so many companies miss the mark, and others hit the mark, when it comes to dealing with minorities in the workplace. In particular, Blacks in Corporate America companies. Fortune 500 companies. White and blue collar employers.
I actually believe this book can serve as a guide to help employers' better handle workforce relations with minorities (African Americans) and ultimately all employees.
Two books ago, I wrote HEALTHY MARRIAGES, 19 Principles Designed to Rejuvenate Your Marriage. Within the book I stated I don't believe in the "perfect marriage" but I do believe in healthy marriages. A perfect marriage suggests "perfection" nothing is ever wrong or out of alignment. Healthy Marriages make good out of tough situations. In a Healthy Marriage you deal with real life obstacles and manage to survive and even be drawn closer together as partners. In that book I talk about 3 concepts to begin your approach towards developing a healthy relationship. Self-Conviction, Repair and ABCnD's (communication). I'll refresh the meaning of the three shortly. Similarly, I don't believe in the perfect job. Even a dream job (NFL superstar, actor or actress) has its ups and downs.
In my 2nd book The Reinvention of OJ Smith (my autobiography), I clearly talk about the many obstacles I've overcome in life to get to where I am today. Similarly, I believe the same applies to the Corporate America workforce. In particular to the Black leaders in the corporate world.
Self-Conviction
When you self-convict, the first thing you want to do is stand in front of the mirror. It is almost impossible to lie to yourself when you look at your reflection. So when you're identifying where you have missed the mark in any of the principles, be sure you are looking at yourself in a mirror. In more contemporary terms, you messed up and you're acknowledging to yourself you did. I can't emphasize enough how much easier life is when you admit mistakes. The longer you blame someone, or something else, the longer a problematic situation will persist. So, own up.
Let's take what's happening in our country today. We've experienced the shooting of Breonna Taylor in her home. Breonna Taylor, 26, was an EMT and aspiring nurse who was shot to death by police in her own home on March 13, 2020. It was described as a "botched raid;" officers barged into Taylor's apartment in Louisville, Kentucky, as she lay sleeping, and fired multiple rounds. Taylor was shot eight times by the police. Her killing was the result of a botched drug-warrant execution. No drugs were found; the warrant in question targeted another person, who lived miles away and who was already at the time in police custody.
We've experienced the knee on the neck of George Floyd, which would eventually kill him. We've experienced the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. We've experienced two shots in the back of Rayshard Brooks, which eventually killed him.
On the night of June 12, 2020, Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old African American man, was fatally shot by an Atlanta Police officer. Two police officers responded to a complaint that Brooks was asleep in a car blocking a restaurant drive-through lane.
The officers began to handcuff Brooks. Brooks scuffled with the officers, got hold of one of the officer's taser, punched the other officer, and ran. With the officer pursuing him, Brooks half-turned and fired the taser toward the police officer, who then shot Brooks twice from behind while a third shot struck an occupied car. Brooks died after surgery.
We've experienced the fatal shooting of unarmed Botham Jean.
Botham Jean was a 26-year-old accountant who in September 2018 was fatally shot by an off-duty Dallas police officer who entered his apartment thinking it was her own apartment and mistook Jean for a burglar.
We all experienced the brutal beatings of Rodney King and Reginald Denny. Rodney King was an American man who was a victim of brutality by the Los Angeles Police Department. On March 3, 1991, King was beaten by LAPD officers after a high-speed chase during his arrest for drunk driving. A civilian, George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to a local news station. The footage clearly showed an unarmed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public furor.
Reginald Denny is the White former construction truck driver who was pulled from his truck and beaten during the 1992 Los Angeles riots by a group of Black men. The attack was captured on video and broadcast live on national television. Four other Black LA residents who had been witnessing the attack on live television came to the aid of Denny by getting him to a hospital. While their beatings weren't fatal they were extremely painful for me to watch. We've all experienced the brutal slaying of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Emmett Till was an African American who was lynched, severely beaten, mutilated, shot and thrown into Mississippi's Tallahatchie river in 1955 after being accused of offending a White woman in her family's grocery store. His killers were acquitted in my opinion primarily because there was not a court in Mississippi that would ever convict a White for killing a Black.
In my opinion, what these events have in common is they've all touched our racial emotions. As the country goes into a mode of such high racial sensitivity it can sometimes create feelings that are uncomfortable. We see it in reactions in schools, churches and even in the workplace. The problem is, when it's not appropriately addressed, there's opinionated gossiping that leads to misunderstandings and perhaps even argumentative altercations. You could be in church and the family sitting right next to you has a totally different perspective than you on the Trayvon vs. Zimmerman case. How awkward and uncomfortable it would be when the two families engage in conversation and find out you have opposite perspectives on this. Imagine two school classmates who share different perspectives on the George Floyd killing. Over lunch when the topic comes out neither can believe how they've been that person's friend for this long if they think like that. Then all of a sudden these two good friends are friends no more.
The other thing in common is that the perpetrators have never self-convicted. Remember, self-conviction is not an acknowledgement of guilt. It just says your actions could have possibly led to a different outcome. I'd like to think whenever someone is killed the human heart will always root a different outcome. They've all tried to justify why what they did was necessary. In some cases they've never even acknowledged wrongdoings. This even with the fact that in 1956, Till's killers publicly admitted they killed him. They knew they were protected against double jeopardy. The point I'm trying to make is if we never acknowledge or self convict, how can we ever move forward. Without self-conviction, the act or behavior will simply continue to happen. The problem is that whoever creates the tension, doesn't always feel they are doing so or perhaps worse may even enjoy. They don't even feel there is tension. In this book I'm not dealing with the latter. My focus is more on the way these topics enter into our workforce. How these topics can often have impact while being Black in Corporate America.
In Corporate America, minorities walk away often saying "I can't believe this happened" or "You'll never guess what they said today" or "they just don't get it". I've often heard people say "they claim to care about the professional development of minorities but we're still the last and least promoted".
All in all I believe that just like within a marriage before you can move towards a healthy relationship someone must acknowledge that you're "off course" and that they can contribute to making things better. Just like with the above-mentioned victims someone must acknowledge there was preventable wrongdoing instead of trying to justify what they did. Similarly, in Corporate America, companies, HR departments, CPO's have to look in the mirror and self convict. They have to say things like "does this org. chart reflect who we claim to be?" or "Let's study the percentages of our minorities being promoted" or "the best way to get more minorities into our organization is to treat those that are currently here well". By doing this it makes your company look more appealing. It tells me that I would be rewarded for my performance. If I come in and do a great job I can move up the ladder. I can feel this company isn't afraid to promote its minorities as I can see with others that are currently here.
Repair
I think the next thing that needs to happen is for companies to go into "repair mode". This means making an obvious and serious effort at resolving the problems. This effort must be seen by everyone and should be visibly obvious to both sides (employer and employee) of the organization.
In my Healthy Marriages book I described repair as: "Repair - What can you do, action-wise, to fix the situation and avoid it the next time? Keep in mind that
