When Minorities are Silent, You May Need to Be Concerned

Power is the ability or official capacity to act or perform effectively or the ability to get others to do what one wants them to do. (according to Webster).  There are two Types of Power; Formal Power- A function of position, rank or status, and Informal or Personal Power- Chiefly this a function of ability, personality or association.

Power can be abused, as we know.  

Take ethnic insensitivity.  Its been around for centuries.  Sometimes we refer to what we see as Prejudice (a negative attitude or feeling toward certain groups based on faulty, inflexible generalizations.  Any preconceived opinion or feeling, favorable or unfavorable toward certain groups could be considered prejudicial. 

Discrimination however goes beyond prejudice when people use power to convert prejudice into action. You can easily think of actions/practices by members of various dominant groups which have had a harmful impact on members of subordinate groups.  

Often it begins with our creating ethnic stereotypes.

Ethnic stereotypes aren’t just emotionally hurtful. If they’re deeply ingrained, as many are, they can actually prevent the recipients from advancing in the workplace. 

Consider Asians — and here we speak generally of the roughly 20 countries that make up Asia — who are often thought too quiet and meek for leadership positions. Deserving candidates may be consistently overlooked for their more vocally daring counterparts, while that perceived silence is actually a demonstration of respect for hierarchy and leadership.

This is discussed at length in a recent article I read in Diversity Executive, entitled "All Asians are Not Quiet" that discusses this matter in depth.  In that article, Anna Mok, a partner at Deloitte; founding president of the Northern California chapter of Ascend; and current chairman and national vice president for the national board of Ascend, a membership organization focused on advancement of Asians in the workplace, said these stereotypes — being less vocal, less assertive, more technically skilled or very smart — can prove challenging and even make some Asians more critical of themselves as they attempt to adapt unique communication or management styles to a given situation.

Cultural Diversity is with us to stay - and that's a very good thing.  We in the workforce however need to recalibrate how we approach diverse workers so that we can fully integrate their gifts, talents and perspectives into our daily workflow.