Are Black Bosses and Their Employees at Odds?
An Appearance of Solidarity
Some black managers are willing to ignore inappropriate acts of “racial familiarity.” “Sometimes we might not want to address it because we want to maintain an appearance of solidarity,” said Nicole R. Giles, acting executive director of the African-American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
Giles was formerly employed as the only African-American manager at an arts and cultural organization in Philadelphia. While there, she hired the organization’s sole black intern. But Giles’s hire, a recent college graduate, ended up as the only intern who needed basic training in promptness.
“My intern came in late consistently,” Giles said. “As a manager, half the time trying to mentor a young African American, I didn’t want to be too harsh (but) I had to address that before my other colleagues clued into it. You want to protect, but … at the same time you don’t want to seem like you’re giving preferential treatment, or like you’re looking the other way about a basic issue like arriving on time. Sometimes we ought to know better than to take advantage of a situation. I felt annoyed that I even had to have that conversation,” she said. “It goes back to courage, the courage to speak up on behalf of the community and the courage not to self-destruct.”
Disrespect can create office tension you can slice, making it difficult if not impossible to do one’s job. Theoretically, extreme cases could rise to the level of harassment or result in an “adverse employment decision,” which is legal speak for discrimination. But that is rare, and usually the worker is the victim, not the boss.
Is Black-on-Black Discrimination Real?
Does black-on-black discrimination really exist in the workplace? Perhaps, though lawyers are hard-pressed to cite specific cases; and so it’s more a topic of dinner conversation than a courthouse reality. Among friends, some black managers are quick to level charges of black-on-black discrimination, casting aspersions on certain black CEOs who tend to surround themselves with white managers even though thoroughly qualified black executives have come knocking.
Racism is a serious charge, one that has no bearing on the personnel decisions of most black chief executives. But are they all beyond reproach? Are their job pipelines primed for black talent?
Why Hire Black?
The owner of a Philadelphia-based marketing and information technology company, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that as an African-American he is often torn about hiring black workers. “I definitely feel a responsibility to offer a black person an opportunity, just like I got. But many black people take you for granted and might not work as hard as their (white) peers. Some (African-Americans) rely too much on racial connections.
“You’re going to find people, no matter what race, who are not going to live up to their potential, but they should treat working for a black organization the same as working for a non-black organization.”
The entrepreneur, who formerly owned a design firm, periodically discusses hiring strategies with other black business owners, but has serious concerns about job candidates. “I’ve seen a difference in how some African-Americans interview for a job versus non-African-Americans,” he continued. “Some of that is based on (less) education. I try to give them some pointers, but I think that they relax when they should be extremely professional and aggressive.”
He may well be formulating an excuse for not taking a chance on a black worker. But don’t black entrepreneurs have as much right as anyone to entertain doubts about a prospective hire’s ability regardless of race?
