Black Faces in White Places

Randal D. Pinkett,Jeffrey A. Robinson,Philana Patterson

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780814416815
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Workplace Culture
• Index: Business

Discover how African-American professionals can combine their personal strengths with the wisdom of others to plant the seeds of a positive, lasting legacy in the workplace.

Randal Pinkett was the first African-American winner on The Apprentice. When he won, he also became the only contestant to be asked to share his victory with a white woman.

For generations, African-Americans have been told that they need to work twice as hard as everyone else to succeed. However, as millions of black Americans were reminded by Pinkett's experience, sometimes hard work is not enough.

Black Faces in White Places is about "the game", the competitive world in which we all live and work. The book offers 10 revolutionary strategies for playing, mastering, and changing the game for the current generation, while undertaking a wholesale redefinition of the rules for those who will follow.

In this book, you will:

• Expand yourself beyond your comfort zone
• Recognize and demonstrate the four facets of excellence
• Build beneficial relationships and powerful networks
• Identify different mentors and learn from others' experiences
• Discover ways of working with others to facilitate collective action

Based on the authors' considerable experiences in business, in the public eye, and in the minority, the book shows how African-American professionals can (and must) think and act both entrepreneurially and "intrapreneurially".

Black Faces in White Places not only explains shattering the old "glass ceiling" and changing the concept of success, but also examines the four dimensions of the contemporary black experience: identity, society, meritocracy, and opportunity.

PART I

LEARNING THE GAME

Whatever you choose to do, you will end up playing in one game or another. You may play a corporate game, you may play an education game, you may play a health game. You can play any game, but if you want to be successful, you need to understand the rules and the subtleties of that game. Take it seriously. It’s a serious game.

—Bruce Gordon

America is commonly described as the “land of the free,” “home of the brave,” and “the Land of Opportunity.” America has also been described by a series of alternative phrases that speak to its orientation toward race. Expressions such as “segregated” and “integrated,” “multicultural” and “multiethnic,” “pluralist” and “post-racial”—are a reflection of America’s prevailing, yet evolving, laws, customs, norms, and attitudes regarding race during a given period. But it is important to understand how these notions have changed over time, because it helps paint a historical picture of why being a Black face in a white place can be a challenging experience, while at the same time an empowering one.

America’s Story: The United States and Race

Looking beyond the era of African enslavement, the years of reconstruction and Jim Crow (1876–1965) were a period of “separate but unequal.” Legal segregation of public facilities was in effect in many places in the southern United States, including public schools, restaurants, restrooms, and transportation systems—leading not only to substandard facilities but also poor treatment of non-whites based on the notion that they were inferior to whites.

As European immigrants came to the United States in the early twentieth century, the term melting pot emerged to describe the American experience. The idea behind it was one of assimilation: To get ahead in America one must shed his distinct ethnic identity and become something new. While this may have been useful for Europeans coming to a new country in search of opportunity, clearly this metaphor overlooked the history of African Americans who were brought to this country against their will (and Native Americans, who were displaced or decimated by European colonialists).

The Civil Rights Era (1955–1968) challenged American society to give all of its citizens equal rights and live up to its motto of “liberty and justice for all.” This was a period of desegregation during which America came to be regarded as a more “integrated” society. In putting an end to legal restrictions in housing, voting, education, and the like, the Civil Rights movement marked a period of significant progress in terms of granting rights to people of color—rights we were previously denied.

In the 1980s, the “multiculturalism” movement gained prominence as a way to recognize the history, perspective, and contribution of all cultures to the development of America. Culture is defined as the history, norms, and values embodied in the people, organizations, and institutions of an ethnic group. Multiculturalism led to proactive measures such as accepting different types of clothing in educational and professional environments; organizing cultural celebrations and festivals; and providing government services in multiple languages, to name just a few. For example, this movement embraced Black History Month and created month-long celebrations for other under-represented groups (e.g., Hispanics, Native Americans, women, etc.).

Building upon the tenets of multiculturalism, voices also emerged in the 1990s to challenge the age-old metaphor of America as a “melting pot”—a country where cultures mix and combine to form a multiethnic society that is homogeneous and reflects a general combination of the ingredients in the pot (i.e., the various cultures). Instead, these voices argued that we actually live in a pluralist society, and they described America more accurately as “a salad bowl”—a collection of distinct cultures that, like ingredients in a salad, coexist while maintaining their individual uniqueness. As a result of both multicultural and pluralist advocates, we have a much greater recognition of the various, distinct cultures that comprise American society.

Finally, here in the new millennium the phrase “post-racial” has begun to receive attention. We see this expression as referring to two phenomena. The first phenomenon is the increasing number of people who are perhaps more naturally inclined to see beyond race. This includes members of Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, who neither grew up nor were born during the years (or the years immediately following) the Civil Rights Era. Generally speaking, this generation fully reflects the changing demographics of American society and, as a result, has no firsthand experience with an America that is not an integrated and diverse America, much less a segregated America. While they are certainly aware of race and racism, these are not the defining issues of their generation.

The second phenomenon is the increasing number of people who, across all generations, desire to move beyond race. These individuals are more concerned with character than color. They are more focused on ethics than ethnicity. They are more interested in right and wrong than race and racism. Once again, they fully acknowledge that racism still exists, but endeavor to prevent it from biasing their thoughts or actions and would like to see our country get past it (despite the obvious and inherent challenges to doing both).

Part I: Learning the Game is rooted in the Kwanzaa principles of Nia (Purpose), which means “to make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness”; Kujichagulia (Self-determination), which means “to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves”; and Imani (Faith), which means “to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.”

Learning What the Game Is All About

Looking across these interrelated and intertwined eras, America has clearly become more receptive to the entire spectrum of colors within our society. This has slowly opened the door for people of all backgrounds to be accepted for who they are and to fulfill their destiny. But inasmuch as America is closer, it has yet to achieve the post-racial reality being bandied about nowadays. America’s prevailing orientation toward race continues to have direct implications for if, and how, Black faces in white places achieve greatness. This speaks again to the four basic questions implied by the four dimensions:

1. Who am I? (Identity)

2. Can I be judged on my merits? (Meritocracy)

3. Is society color-blind? (Society)

2. Do I have equal opportunity to fulfill my destiny? (Opportunity)

Even today, the answers to these questions can be significantly influenced by race.

Part I: Learning the Game is comprised of three strategies that directly address the first two questions. Learning the game essentially means four things:

Learning about yourself

Learning about the world

Learning about your craft

Learning about your game

In the first two strategies, you’ll learn more about us and how our experiences help illustrate the importance of being firm about your identity and purpose—the first, and most important, strategy in redefining the game and reshaping America. Strategy 1: Establish a Strong Identity and Purpose relates to defining who you are and why you are here. Strategy 2: Obtain Broad Exposure conveys the importance of exploring the world around you and how that experience not only informs your identity and purpose but also enhances your effectiveness in a global society. While we delve deeply into exposure in the second strategy of this book, we want readers to also note that it is an important component of what it takes to establish a sense of self and direction. The first two strategies are actually interdependent. If you have questions about additional ways to accomplish Strategy 1, you’ll likely find your answers within Strategy 2. Through our stories and those of other emerging African-American game-changers, Strategy 3: Demonstrate Excellence explains the value of demonstrating excellence, being among the very best at your personal and professional craft and understanding the context of your “game” or professional landscape.

Together, these three strategies speak to the what, why, and how of defining yourself and doing what is within your power to excel and be judged on your merits. Successfully establishing a strong identity and purpose, obtaining broad exposure, and demonstrating excellence are part of a foundation that ultimately gives Blacks the ability to forge ahead independently—that is, without being encumbered by society’s expectations of who you are and what you can achieve. This is all part of “learning the game.” Knowing who you are in the context of your upbringing and the world around you, having a broad worldview and an openness that allows you to learn, and working to be among the best at whatever it is you choose to pursue, puts you in a position to effectively play the game—a concept that we’ll tackle in Part II. In fact, everything we discuss in subsequent parts of this book is wholly dependent upon your ability to implement the strategies from Part I in your life.

Jeffrey, Randal, America, and Race

Our stories begin in the early 1970s. We were born in 1971 on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement. The Movement spawned significant legal advances toward equal opportunity in America, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which barred discrimination in public accommodations, transportation, education, and employment; the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made the ballot more accessible to African Americans, especially in the South; and the Housing Act of 1968, which banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

While the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s was pivotal for African Americans—ourselves included—as we reflect upon our experiences, it’s clear that the circumstances that shape our experiences date back to 1954 and the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which made it possible for Black children to be educated in the same classrooms as white children.

In the early 1970s, a growing number of African-American families, fearful of gangs, crime, and poor school systems in the inner city exercised their new rights. In 1973, Randal’s parents, Elizabeth and Leslie Pinkett of Philadelphia, and Jeffrey’s parents, Doreen and Ronald Robinson of East Orange, New Jersey, moved their preschool aged Black sons out of the mostly Black inner cities and into predominately white New Jersey suburbs.

The Pinketts settled in a subdivision 45 miles across the Pennsylvania state line in East Windsor Township—near Exit 8 on the New Jersey Turnpike. Having earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Randal’s father was starting a new job at a New York investment bank, and the couple wanted Randal and his older brother, Dan, to live in a quiet, affordable community halfway between their father’s new job and their relatives in Philadelphia. East Windsor, with just 12,000 residents, was a stark contrast to Philadelphia, with nearly 2 million citizens at that time.

About a one-hour drive away, the Robinsons moved to an apartment complex in Parsippany—a quiet area which, when combined with neighboring Troy Hills, counted about 55,000 people. While it had just 20,000 fewer residents than East Orange, the seventeen-or-so-mile move meant a world of difference. East Orange neighbors Newark—a city still struggling today to overcome problems with drugs and crime. Ronald Robinson was known to say, “After they stole tires off our cars for the second time, it was about time to go.”

The Pinketts and Robinsons didn’t know each other back then—but both couples had something in common. They found communities that offered better schools and an escape from the escalating violence that permeated the cities they left behind.

The moves weren’t without challenges. Not long after Randal’s mother began ...