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Planning for Prejudice
August 10, 2010
Aaron Kesher

In my last post I talked about the potential impact of Lino Lakes impending decision to make English the official language of the city government. Since then, they’ve not only approved the measure but Governor Pawlenty seems to think a similar measure would be useful for the whole state.

The very definition of the word “prejudice” is to pre-judge. Creating policy that affects individuals around something that might happen is exactly that—a pre-judgment. And it’s fascinating to read some of the comments posted to the Pawlenty article. Many are simply a knee-jerk “Yeah! I support this!”, with no apparent consideration of its effects on non-English speakers. Those who look back to an idealized past when “my ancestors learned English!” are not only indulging in weak analogies, they’re simply missing the fact that times have changed. Immigrants and immigrant communities are different, the places they’re coming from are different, our culture and society are different. Our approach to the needs of immigrant communities must also be different.

There is nothing sacred about English—it is only one of many languages spoken every day in this country. Now, I’m not saying that English doesn’t have a special place in American society, both currently and in the past—it does. But its future will be different than we’ve perhaps imagined, maybe than we can currently imagine. To try and hang on to a past legacy, especially one built from historical accident, only excludes those outside that history, those whose voices will become part of a future history. We owe them the right of hearing their voices.

No matter what language they’re speaking.

Cultural Moment
English, Immigrants, Prejudice
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Planning for the Future?
July 1, 2010
Aaron Kesher

Here’s a gem: http://tinyurl.com/28bpoth

Lino Lakes (Minnesota) City Council Member Dave Roeser would like to make English the official language of the city of Lino Lakes. Now, this kind of idea is nothing new—it pops up on local and national fronts with a fairly wearying regularity. However, it’s Mr. Roser’s reasoning that really caught my attention this time. Even though, at the moment, only around two percent of Lino Lakes residents actually need city documents translated, he’s thinking about the future cost. You heard that correctly: He views this idea as good financial planning, since, as he states, “things are changing.” That’s right, and we all need to get ahead of the discriminatory curve.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. I’m going to assume that Mr. Roeser is authentically concerned about his community, but just hasn’t thought through the implications of the policy he’d like to implement. See, he’s worried about the future cost of translating all the requisite documents into who knows how many languages. But what’s the real wealth in a community? Is it just actual currency? Or is it the sense of connection and belonging of those who make up the community?

If we accept the latter choice, then this sort of policy actually has the opposite effect. It’s true that Lino Lakes, as a community, is going, inevitably, to become more diverse. Therefore, shutting off the connection and sense of belonging of a growing percentage of the community is going to create a deficit of what truly matters if a community, of whatever size or composition, wants to thrive. Communities do need to plan for the future. But if it’s a future that doesn’t include and respect all the voices of the community, no matter what languages they’re speaking, it really ends up looking more like the past.

Cultural Moment
cultural differences, Language discrimination
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Leaders can change their company culture
June 17, 2010
Sara Taylor

“Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got.” – Peter Drucker Spot on: Drucker is spot on when he compares company cultures to those of countries. Leaders don’t often think of their organization as even having a culture, much less comparing it to country cultures, but that is exactly the case. I think about culture as the unwritten rules of a group and whether that group is a country, a company, a family or geographical region, its members don’t think too much about those unwritten rules and don’t even realize when they are operating by them. Those rules could be related to everything from communication norms, decision making, expectations of leadership or even seemingly mundane things like when and how they take breaks. Missed the mark: Drucker missed the mark by recommending leaders should not even try to change their company culture. Many times that is exactly what is needed and it is the leader’s responsibility to create those changes. Cultures are fluid—created and maintained by the individuals within it—and can certainly be changed. An effective leader will recognize the aspects of her company culture that need to be changed and follow up with the difficult work of changing them. Cultures of apathy, low productivity, ineffective communication….change them!

Cultural Moment, Leadership
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Do leaders need to be committed to diversity initiatives? (Does it snow in Minnesota?)
June 8, 2010
Sara Taylor

In a recent article, Luke Visconti (aka “The White Guy") argues that “CEO commitment is essential to diversity-management programs.” As my kids would say, “No duh,” that’s pretty obvious. But I would add another reason that Visconti didn’t mention. That is that CEOs must be committed because successful diversity initiatives are actually successful change initiatives. The organizational culture must shift to be more inclusive and adaptive to difference. Without this shift, you don’t have a successful diversity initiative; you just have a bunch of diversity programs stacked up in an organization with no results.

Visconti also argues that if you don’t have this CEO commitment, don’t bother. Here’s where I disagree. I’ve seen effective diversity councils and capable, savvy directors of diversity make a difference. They can initiate programs and create change in pockets throughout the organization even without full commitment from the CEO. Is it whole-scale change? No. But it does make a difference. Another factor to keep in mind is that good leaders listen to feedback, suggestions and certainly, groundswell movements. With skillful maneuvering, diversity councils and directors can influence CEOs and create buy-in. Remember too, that CEOs, particularly in some industries, turn over quite frequently. Worst case scenario, is that successful individual programs can plant the seed today for tomorrow’s CEO to grow.

Cultural Moment, Leadership
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Reading, Writing, and Real Proficiency
June 2, 2010
Aaron Kesher

“Minnesota's lowest-performing schools are plagued by uneven teaching quality, fuzzy academic goals and minimal parent support, the Minnesota Department of Education says it has found.”

This opening paragraph from a recent Minneapolis Star Tribune article jumps right into what has almost become a national sport: trying desperately to figure out what’s wrong with the nation’s schools. All too often, however, we spend way too much time looking at the symptoms instead of the cause of the academic malaise.

I mean, don’t get me wrong—I think the school system is messed up, and I should know—I was a high school English teacher for five years, both in the inner city and the suburbs. I know what challenges both teachers and students face each day. But the beginnings of a solution are shown in what’s behind the problems mentioned above: lack of cultural proficiency.

Here’s the thing, though. I don’t mean your grandma’s cultural proficiency—taco days and passing mention of Kwanzaa, Ramadan, and Hannukah; I mean serious, look-yourself-in-the-cultural-mirror proficiency. We can’t begin to really understand someone else’s point of view until we understand our own, and many of us, especially those of us who’ve grown up in the comforting arms of the dominant culture, aren’t really used to thinking about our own cultural norms, cultural comforts and discomforts, cultural assumptions. And until we do, we can’t really understand the potential impact of those assumptions on those who don’t share them.

Now, again, please don’t misunderstand—I’m not talking about taking white folks to task for being white folks. Frankly, I find that approach next to useless and potentially damaging to all involved. Everyone needs to understand their cultural starting point if they’re going to build proficiency in communicating comfortably and effectively across cultural differences.

Last week I attended the first annual Intercultural Development Inventory Educational Summit, sponsored by Dr. Mitch Hammer. It was attended by a wide variety of intercultural practitioners, teachers, and administrators from around the state. There was a lot of exciting discussion and planning, and the end result was to begin working out real, useful cultural proficiency standards for anyone involved in education.

Not a moment too soon.

Cultural Moment
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