After Election, Diversity Trainers Face A New Version Of 'Us Versus Them' _ Code Switch _ NPR

12/18/2016 After Election, Diversity Trainers Face A New Version Of 'Us Versus Them' : Code Switch : NPR
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/11/28/503000392/after-election-diversity-trainers-face-a-new-version-of-us-versus-them 1/13
Ǻfțěř Ěŀěčțįǿň, Đįvěřșįțỳ Țřǻįňěřș Fǻčě Ǻ Ňěẅ
Věřșįǿň Ǿf 'Ųș Věřșųș Țħěm'
Ňǿvěmběř 28, 2016 · 10:46 ǺM ĚȚ
ĶǺȚ ČĦǾẄ
After the election, professional peacemakers may feel they have to work harder to tamp down heightened feelings of "us
versus them" in the workplace.
Marcus Butt/Ikon Images/Getty Images
On election night, as it became clear that Donald Trump would be the country's next
president, Dorcas Lind was feeling unsettled. With her children tucked in bed, Lind
ǾŇ ǺİŘ ŇǾẄ
ŇPŘ 24 Ħǿųř Přǿģřǻm Șțřěǻm

watched as the results trickled in and battleground states like Pennsylvania, Florida
and North Carolina turned red on the TV map. She thought about work.
Maybe, she thought, this would be good for business. Or, maybe, it was time for a
career change.
Lind is a diversity consultant in the health care industry. It's her job to go into
companies and help them create inclusive environments for their employees.
For consultants like Lind, the election's polarizing nature, which especially divided the
nation on issues of race, is two-fold. While it means some of their business will almost
certainly boom, a new set of challenges emerges for the professional peacemakers.
Now, they say, they have to work harder to tamp down heightened feelings of us versus
them; they have to hear the concerns of people usually thought of as privileged; and
they have to navigate a language minefield where the wrong word can ignite conflict.
Studying the maps of how people voted, Lind was disturbed by the stretch of red in her
district, a New Jersey suburb, which she said had once been celebrated for its
diversity. Like many others in the business, Lind equated a vote for Trump with a vote
for intolerance.
"I thought that my whole career had blown up in front of me," said Lind, who has
worked in the field for more than two decades and is founder and president of
Diversity Health Communications. "I felt so absolutely overwhelmed with the depth of
how much work had to be done. And on the other hand, I felt like I didn't even want to
do the work. ... Given the results and how the map looked, I felt my work would be
futile."
“
Dorcas Lind
İț'ș țħǿșě ẅħǿ vǿțěđ fǿř Țřųmp ǿř șųppǿřț Țřųmp — ǻňđ
ěvěřỳǿňě ěŀșě. Ǻňđ țħǻț'ș ǻ řěǻŀŀỳ đįffįčųŀț đįčħǿțǿmỳ țǿ
ǻđđřěșș.

It might feel futile, but many consultants said they expect to see an uptick in calls in
the months ahead. That makes sense: The corporate world is a microcosm of the larger
world. People who voted for Trump work at the same companies as those who voted
for Hillary Clinton or other candidates. And with a contentious postelection
environment, employees will inevitably clash over matters of race. Reports will be filed
with human resources. Management will be notified. And company leaders will have
to figure out how to deal with it all.
"There's a whole toolkit of language we need to create [in order] to talk about this
polarization," Lind said. "It's those who voted for Trump or support Trump — and
everyone else. And that's a really difficult dichotomy to address."
Luby Ismail is the head of Connecting Cultures, a diversity consulting business in the
Washington, D.C., area. She said one of her biggest tasks is to break down any feelings
that people are on warring sides. Ismail, who's an Egyptian-American Muslim, has
worked with companies including The Walt Disney Co., Nike Inc. and Sodexo to lead
sessions that help employees better understand Arab-Americans and American
Muslims.
"The workplace is very tricky," Ismail said, "because what do we say if you want to
remain friends with people? 'Then don't talk about politics and religion.' And yet,
people are needing to talk about it. So if only we had some way to bring civility with
caution, and for people to feel that instead of doing an us versus them, a right versus
wrong, it's, you know, 'Help me understand why you believe something.' "
The Department of Justice uses one of Ismail's training videos on identifying anti-
Muslim bias as part of its cultural competence curriculum. She's updating the DOJ
training now, but she said she's not sure what will come of it after Inauguration Day.
That "us-versus-them" sentiment Ismail mentioned is particularly tough to manage
now. Doug Harris heads The Kaleidoscope Group, a diversity company in Chicago. He
PǾĿİŤİČȘ
Ǻ Ẅǻșħįňģțǿň Țřǻňșįțįǿň Fǿř Țřųmp, Ǻňđ Fǿř Țħě Řěșț Ǿf Ųș

said that he has to help people of color deal with "historical garbage" — he means
racism — while also helping white people who, he learned during this campaign, feel
strongly that they're "out of the power base."
"I think right now there's a temperament within society of exclusion on both sides of
the table," Harris said. "And those who may have been seen to have been historically
included are feeling just as excluded as everyone else. It's always a fight today in some
ways [over] who's most excluded. Historically, it might have been about women,
people of color, gay and lesbian. There's another group that's more powerful called —
uh, I don't know the right name of it, but white males — who feel they haven't been
given their fair shake. And so how do we make sure their viewpoint is heard?"
Usually, Harris uses an exercise he calls "insiders and outsiders" to get people to self-
reflect. In this exercise, employees list who might feel like outsiders in the company.
Maybe it's new workers or people at lower levels or people who have English as a
second language or introverts, Harris said. Inevitably, the list turns to women and
people of color.
"So we look at the list. If you're not part of the list, that means you're probably one of
the ones causing the exclusion," Harris said.
ČǾĐĚ ȘẄİŤČĦ
Țħě Ǿųțŀǿǿķ Ǿň Řǻčě Ǻfțěř Țřųmp Vįčțǿřỳ: Fěǻř, Řěșįģňǻțįǿň Ǻňđ Đějǻ Vų
PǾĿİŤİČȘ
Ěňěřģįżěđ Bỳ Țřųmp'ș Ẅįň, Ẅħįțě Ňǻțįǿňǻŀįșțș Ģǻțħěř Țǿ 'Čħǻňģě Țħě Ẅǿřŀđ'
ĢǾǺŤȘ ǺŇĐ ȘǾĐǺ
Șǿmǻŀį Řěfųģěě Mǻķěș Ħįșțǿřỳ İň Ų.Ș. Ěŀěčțįǿň

White people as a group, and particularly men, don't typically make that list. But the
presidential campaign, Harris said, unearthed the strong sentiment among white
people that "they don't feel like the lead group that's been privileged, and if you look at
their lives, they're not."
Those who do diversity, he said, have a responsibility to address everyone's concerns.
"It's not about a special effort toward white men," he said. "That's not the effort I'm
talking about. It's more-so that ... if you honor everybody's challenges, they're more
likely to own their privileges."
Lind adds an amendment to that thought, one that underscores the tension diversity
consultants, like the rest of the country, are tasked with resolving. Longstanding racial
discord, fueled by the "historical garbage" Harris mentioned, collides with the idea of
honoring everybody's challenges when some of those challenges spring from racial
ignorance and racism. Thinking of all challenges as equal, she said, is a problem.
"I think the backlash we're seeing is people who work in the diversity space — and also
civil rights folks in general — are saying, 'We are not going to be inclusive of ideas and
values that are explicitly detrimental and harmful,' " Lind said. "Because the rhetoric
is, 'One side has lost, one side has won, and everybody needs to get together and move
forward for all Americans in the country.' "
Walking that line of competing interests is made even tougher by the language of
diversity, including the word diversity itself. Leah P. Hollis, president of Patricia
Berkly LLC in Philadelphia, said she actively avoids language that might be polarizing
so she can keep everyone in the conversation. After all, in a swing state like
Pennsylvania, where nearly 6 million people voted and Trump won by fewer than
70,000 votes, she has to assume that half of the employees she'll be working with
voted for Trump, half for Clinton. So figuring out what tone to strike is important.
“Ẅǻŀķįňģ țħǻț ŀįňě ǿf čǿmpěțįňģ įňțěřěșțș įș mǻđě ěvěň țǿųģħěř
bỳ țħě ŀǻňģųǻģě ǿf đįvěřșįțỳ, įňčŀųđįňģ țħě ẅǿřđ đįvěřșįțỳ įțșěŀf.

Even the phrase "diversity consultant" can be divisive to some. Hollis said she has to
frame her focus as "workplace bullying," because many folks seem unable to admit
there's a diversity problem. Her workaround, she said, is this: "Everyone is caught in a
power differential, so a lot of my training has a lot to do with workplace bullying and
how it disproportionately affects those from different backgrounds."
Hollis said the minute she uses words like "diversity," she loses the room. People who
believe that others are too "politically correct" won't continue to play ball, she said. "If
I glom onto or attach those trigger phrases, it's over," she said.
"My training is about who you are. I don't know where you're from. You may be from
Middle America. You may root for the Jacksonville Jaguars. You might love barbecue.
I'm a black woman from Western Pennsylvania. I grew up eating pierogies. I grew up
on the Rust Belt. ... In the trainings I have, it's not about whether I'm PC or not. It's
about how people feel different. I try to peel back the layers of the labels."
Looking ahead, the consultants said that now, more than ever, they'll have to take a
harder look at their own practices, both in terms of how they'll frame training and how
they'll choose clients.
Ismail said it's not enough to be an ally to groups that are feeling attacked. Be an
accomplice, she said: Defend and speak up.
"You're at lunch or dinner or on a break and someone makes a disparaging joke about
anyone, let's say Muslims or Jews or being gay; don't let it pass," she said. "I need you
to pause that statement ... Maybe you have to say, 'That's unacceptable here, I don't
appreciate that here.' ... That's one way to be an accomplice."
Postelection, Lind is thinking about the best way to be effective, and it has something
to do with where she'll do the work. She said she doesn't want to consult with a
company that normalizes intolerance or discrimination or tries to brush them under
the rug. She said she wants to work for a company where leadership has already made
a demonstrable commitment to diversity.
She pointed to the number of CEOs who have doubled down on their corporate
mission statements since the election. Leaders of PepsiCo, General Electric, Apple,

Șųbșčřįbě țǿ țħě Čǿđě Șẅįțčħ Pǿđčǻșț
İŤŲŇĚȘ
ĢǾǾĢĿĚ PĿǺỲ MŲȘİČ
ȘŤİŤČĦĚŘ
ŘȘȘ
Mǿřě Șțǿřįěș Fřǿm ŇPŘ
Medtronic and others have reiterated their support for diversity and inclusion.
Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak, in an email to the medical device-maker's employees,
took a stand that would surely be heartening to those who do the work of diversity. He
called the company's principles around inclusion "an irrevocable priority."
đįvěřșįțỳ čǿňșųŀțǻňțș ěŀěčțįǿň řǻčě

After Election, Diversity Trainers Face A New Version Of 'Us Versus Them' _ Code Switch _ NPR

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After Election, Diversity Trainers Face A New Version Of 'Us Versus Them' _ Code Switch _ NPR