Obama’s Speech, Race, and the Workplace: Are You Listening?

Beyond the political significance of Barack Obama’s epic speech this week, whatever its effect  on this year’s election, I hope and believe his remarks will kindle continued, thoughtful discussions about what race and color mean in our daily lives. More specifically, I’ve been thinking about the impact his remarks will have at work among people of different races who spend more time with one another than they do with their closest family members. I expect his comments will release a welled-up hunger in the workplace for discussions about what racial experience really means. This will surface in Civil Treatment^® classes and in more casual conversations among people of different races whose remarks will be initially tentative and guarded. Here’s my perspective and some suggestions for those teaching or attending CT sessions.

First, to say race means nothing anymore or is overblown ignores our history, our present, and the broad gulf that can still separate us. Most hope the awful negatives caused by racial differences will ultimately be in our collective past. But that won’t just happen. As with all forms of progress, it will continue to take work, risk, sacrifice and pain involving all of us, not just a few of us. Much has and can continue to be done in our workplaces where most of us have our greatest opportunities to get to know people from all different backgrounds.

Everything I’ve learned in my career as a practicing lawyer in the field of civil rights and employment law, and during the past 21 years at ELI, has reinforced my belief that most people are well intentioned about others who are different from them and with whom they work. Yet dealing with and understanding those differences among colleagues, even among those acting with the ultimate in good faith, is not easy because it raises two conflicting emotions: curiosity and fear. Curiosity about traditions, thoughts, and points of view of others but fearful of alienating or inadvertently offending someone whose beliefs or background are different from ours. So what generally happens? We avoid the issue entirely.

In Civil Treatment, we emphasize the importance of guarding words and actions: there is no place for racial, religious, ethnic, sexual, and like banter, jokes, cartoons, and similar actions, whether written or verbal. That’s a starting point for eliminating the most obvious forms of blatant discrimination that cause a special, vicious pain. Doing so has and will continue to accomplish a lot and make a huge difference. But there is a vital role for communication beyond what occurs in the classroom or in what are often well intentioned but poorly conducted “sensitivity” or awareness sessions.

What’s missing and sorely needed is a cultivated listening skill – and it hit me this past week that it’s the same skill we’ve been teaching in many of our classes in the context of creating a welcoming environment for discussions about business issues. It’s only natural that people want to understand more about others, especially workplace colleagues with whom they share so much of their time. Thoughtful discussions about race can enlighten us, but we need to listen and learn rather than teach. If you assume what your colleague has to say is worth listening to – worth taking the time to make sure you are hearing and absorbing and thinking about what is being said before reacting – and if he or she acts under the same assumption, there will be time for all of us to reflect and think. A quick reaction, absent reflection, will shut down discussion and progress. 

I learned a lot this week from several of my colleagues. We talked about differences in an everyday context – what occurs in my synagogue and their churches, for example. And we listened to each other. I heard some things that were new and unfamiliar to me and I know they did, too. We listened and took time to think rather than quickly judge or react. They were intense and unexpected conversations, and I believe they will add great texture to our working relationships.