TAN – The Afro News

By Frank T. Scruggs:  The Afro News International

The African Diaspora has many issues that are not unique to one faction. A large number of African people sometimes think that the problems of the entire African Diaspora are a responsibility and a universal obligation. In many cases this holds true but effective leadership locally is a more reason and achievable for addressing many local issues that plague our communities throughout the Diaspora. Approaching these problems require insight and a way to achieve a strategic agenda for dealing with the problems of the African people around the world.

Developing an insight and awareness as to how to communicate across the cultural divide that exists throughout the African Diaspora that is multicultural; not culturally monolithic as perceived by non-African people is important for African leaders everywhere. The recognition of other cultural factions comes with a caveat that must not be ignore; and that warning is to reject members of illegitimate factions whom pretend to care about the strength of the community. This warning also includes those factions whom hold onto corruption, criminal values, exploitation and greed. Often, some of these factions claim to possess a culture of the street but they act in detriment to the African community; often preying on the same people from whom they ask support. The late Kwame Ture issued a warning about allowing coalitions to be formed with those factions that would seek to corrupt the forward progress of the African Diaspora. Ture said:

“Exposing the corrupters is not a matter of giving aid and comfort to racists; it is a necessary requirement for purging the struggle of charlatans and a means of protecting the legitimacy of that struggle from its detractors. Drug dealers, con artists and sycophants of whatever color are not legitimate political leaders, notwithstanding the number of people they influence.”

Although many people from the several cultural groups possess street values, the line of demarcation is drawn at outright corruption and criminality.

When our African leaders and we as African people come to better understand the myriad of different cultural factions that make up the entire black or African community we will have enabled ourselves therapeutically. Hence we are enabled to heal our own collective psyche and spirit from the ravages of colonialism, corruption and racism.

African leadership when placing emphasis on commonalities, humanity and specific common objectives and achievable goals can then build coalitions for political and economic power. The greater reality of potential occurs when cultural differences are bridged through communication and self- awareness. Self-awareness before negotiation throughout the Diaspora must be adopted in order to:

• Effectively understand one’s own position and the position of others

• Therapeutically approach mediation, which is necessary in order to deal with conflict.

• Recognize that what you as an individual want and desire (since coalitions start with individuals who become founders of coalitions).

Cross-cultural approaches within the African Diaspora are necessary since it recognizes that minority groups may be complex and diverse even though they are situated in an even larger society of African people. These diverse groups although constantly changing and diverse are capable of reaching consensus. This can be accomplished when there is a blueprint and a vehicle for addressing issues and a model for communication and articulating goals and objectives even across great cultural and ideological divide throughout the African Diaspora.

By Frank T. Scruggs The Afro News International

Organizational expert Andrew DuBrin has indicated that conflict can be good for an organization; in the right amounts. Companies therefore need to confront perceptions of racism; rather ignore or pretend it doesn’t happen. The issue of racism and its influence on how black people approach conflict resolution is an issue that still remains in need of further investigation (as in all accounts of perceived racism). Harold Saunders, a conflict management expert, when recounting one of the annual community breakfasts in Baton Rouge, LA., recalled one particular incident.

The convener asked members of the mixed audience to check their individual reaction to the word, racism. She said: That reaction, she said, would be their answer on the value of talking about the subject, she revealed that if your bodies sensed any form of discomfort, i.e. anger, tension, fear—when hearing the word racism then that was a sign that racism was worth exploring. When quoting the convener of the breakfast, Saunders said: She stated that racism is often treated as a civic concern in much the same way as child abuse…people cringe. People can avoid it [the term racism]. People also lack understanding about it. Some people hide it. People can only heal if they talk about it.

While the perception that race and racism are still present and prevalently exists in Corporate America as a form of structured, hidden violence and as white privilege; the corporate workplace also is a place of psychological distance which can also serve as an impediment to effective resolution of workplace disputes.

Psychological distance may be defined as the behavior that results within a corporate culture when workers do not feel they are part of the organization and when they hold the perception that their needs are not being met. Therefore a reasonable assumption might be made that in the case of African Americans in Corporate America many would feel a sense of psychological distance from the organization. This psychological distance can wreak havoc in the workplace and exacerbate conflicts. Bullying also creates havoc in a workplace.

In a recent research study on workplace bullying conducted by S. Fox and L.E. Stallworth found that racial/ethnic bullying had been experienced by 97% of the 262 participants surveyed. In their study participants reported being bullied more by supervisors than by co-workers. The researchers also found that when bullies were supervisors, there were associated increases in negative emotional and attitudinal responses of victims and decreased trust in the ability of the organization to deal effectively with bullying were substantial. Overall, the effects of workplace bullying can be quite disempowering and may result in loss of dignity and self-esteem. Finding solace from such behavior may prove to be difficult for anyone bullied and as one participant in the study added, if you work or a racist and his boss is a racist, you are doomed. While bullying is something entirely different and has no place in any workplace, conflict will frequently occur.

Author and Mediator Christopher Moore has identified for mediators, managers and other interested people, four stages that may be employed to overcome the barriers of misperceptions and stereotyping:

1) Identify the perceptions held by the parties involved,

2) Assess whether or not the perceptions appear accurate or inaccurate,

3) Assess whether or not the perceptions are hindering or furthering a production substantive, procedural or emotional settlement and

4) Assist the parties in revising their perception of other disputants when they have characterized the other disputants with stereotypes or other image distortions and in minimizing the negative impacts of such misperceptions.

During a conflict situation in the workplace, for black managers and others, understand that misperception and stereotyping will also occur. When a mediator or a manager can negotiate between conflicting parties, then progress towards resolution becomes possible. Let’s make our workplaces someplace we want to spend time at and practice real conflict management. Ask your human resources officer or personnel manager how to get a program started if a formal program is not already in place. If one exists ask how you can participate. Keep the conversation going and include me if you like. I’m athttp:// fscruggs@yahoo.com

Ozone Depletion & Global Warming

By Frank T. Scruggs  M.A.Ph.D. The Afro News USA International

When venturing away from one’s own city, town or village a keen sense of the vastness of the African Diaspora becomes apparent. Even more people of African descent populate our planet when serious consideration is given to Keith O. Hilton’s TALO theory which explores the idea of acknowledged and unacknowledged African people. Black people are everywhere on the planet and yet so many of us think in terms of only what we can readily see from a domestic or local point of view. Changes occurring in populations and the environment combined with political considerations has propelled the transformation of world politics and created a number of global policy issues. These issues affect us as Black people as much as civil, human rights, the economy and the politics in general. Present and projected trends continue to shape the world during this century. We as Black people must now compare how each of the developed and undeveloped nations creates policies for addressing these issues which include:

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By Frank T. Scruggs The Afro News International

Across the world today many people have come to believe that with the election of Barack Obama to the Office of President of the United States that somehow racism magically vanished. Many institutions in North America still retain a culture that favors white males over everyone else.

The practice of white privilege, micro-aggression and subtle racism confront Black people in North America on a daily basis. Although people like former General Electric’s CEO Jack Welch present the idea of a healthy corporation in terms of healthy corporations as having the ability to do the right thing, the Glass Ceiling Commission found three major individual barriers for Black people: 1) subtle racism and prejudice, 2) managing duality and bicultural stress and 3) tokenism and presumed incompetence. It is believed that racism is the most insidious and tenacious of the barriers of this category and carries the strongest implications for both the group and the organizational barriers. Mary C. King author of Occupational Segregation by Race and Sex stated that: There is a myth that companies are colorblind…more accurately; discrimination is ever present but a taboo topic for blacks as well as whites. This is the kind of racism that is being referred to as a subtle form of racism.

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