Module 2 Paper

Isaac Rodriguez

OGL 350

Dr. Robert Kirsch

January 21, 2018

ASU
Part I. Personal Connection

What key things did you learn about prejudice and discrimination?

In this week’s readings, I was exposed to a wide arrange of information including ranging from

humorous commentary, statistics on discrimination and personal stories of frustration about the

topic of racial tension in the US. After absorbing the information, there were three main

takeaways for me;

1. All ideas, including racism, evolve. Subtle racism is far different from historical racism

but still impacts our culture.

2. Listening to the viewpoints of others allows us to see the value of diverse opinions.

3. Everyone has tendencies to stereotype. We should allow ourselves to recognize our

tendencies instead of refusing to recognize them.

While ‘overt’ racism has been identified as “culturally unacceptable” by many including CNN’s

John Blake, the data which shows how EEOC claim payments quadrupling over the past 10 years

points to a shift in the type of racism that our culture is experiencing. (King, Avery & Sackett,

2013) Now, the glass ceiling and stereotyping a job applicant results in an imbalance in the US

workforce. However, the disagreements on how we have addressed the issue seem to be a good

starting point to invite open dialogue on the subject. There are many different perspectives. What

I found when watching the New York Times video on “Police and Racism” was that the different

perspectives brought a larger realization that was more than the sum of the individual parts. Open

dialogue and understanding the differences in other beliefs and opinions is critical to developing
better solutions. In this video, a retired female African American police officer mentioned that

the goal of her former precinct was to engage their community to build relationships with store

owners and local residents. (Gandbhir & Perez, 2015) There is value in understanding and it

seems to be one of the most powerful methods of overcoming the bias everyone has. Finally, it’s

important to admit that “our brains seem hardwired to create social categories that influence how

we see others.” (Greenfieldboyce, 2007) Without being honest with ourselves about this natural

tendency, we can cut off our ability to gain an understanding of others and invite diversity of

thought into our world. This ‘hit home’ in a way after I reviewed my Race Implicit Association

expanded on further in this assignment.

What, if anything did you really identify with in the readings, the other activities? Are you

aware of times in your life where you (or someone you know/love) have maybe benefited from

some angle of “privilege.” Or, on the flip side, are you aware of a time where you personally

experienced some unfavorable bias “against” you. (It may not have been intentional, but

unfavorable bias is the flip side of “unearned privilege.”

This is an unusual question for me. In many of the organizations I have worked in, I have been

accepted in the ‘leadership circle of trust’ because I can come across as ‘whiter’ than other

people with the last name “Rodriguez” and I bring the benefit of diversity on their executive

team. I am one of two latinos in the senior leadership team in my current organization and there

are times where I feel that if I had an accent or my skin was of darker complexion, it would be

much more difficult for me to promote over the course of my career. From that standpoint, I

believe that having a low phenotype identity from a personal opinion and also from a physical
appearance standpoint, I feel less internal ‘conflict’. With that said, I do feel that it has provided

me a privilege that other Latinos who had a stronger phenotype identity would not be afforded.

That is something that has not been at the forefront of my personal identity or awareness since

my personal phenotype identity is low. Regardless of the lower inner conflict I have, it is a newer

idea for me to admit that I may have benefited from favorable bias for most of my life while on

‘paper’ being listed as a minority.

Reflect on the short story you viewed from the New York Times. Do you identify with any of

these stories?

I selected to view the short story “A Conversation with Police on Race.” There were

several police officers from different races and genders (mostly retired) who commented on the

topic of racism in the US relative to their experiences as a police officer. What was clear to me

was that there were several opposing perspectives. From time to time, I have felt myself ‘swing’

from each of these perspectives when considering a recent news story about the police being

involved in a shooting of a civilian. Over the past few years, the topic of police officers using

deadly force has been recurring topic with polarizing opinions. That was not dissimilar from the

different perspectives in the video. One of the white police officers was adamantly against the

idea that policeman had an issue with racism while on the other hand, the African American

police officers took a more measured approach to their feedback. (Gandbhir & Perez, 2015) One

of the African American retired police officers stated that if police officers were more open

about what they saw or believed, they feared retaliation from their partners. An example he

provided was with the possibility of not having a call for back up go answered if a police officer
spoke out of turn and betrayed the brotherhood. (Gandbhir & Perez, 2015) Needless to say, these

wide range of opinions reflect the differences we have in our culture on this topic. The ‘ah-hah’

moment for me was where the older Caucasian police officer asked the question of why African

Americans were so upset. He answered by stating, “they cannot be upset for no reason at all”

(Gandbhir & Perez, 2015) This moment in the video helped remind me that seeking to

understand and empathizing with others is key to addressing stereotypes and lowering racial

tensions.

Report and reflect upon your results from the Race Implicit Association Test.

When I took the “Race Implicit” test in our module two coursework, my initial selection placed

me in a more ‘neutral’ opinion of favoring whites vs. blacks. I believe this is a result of people

typically not wanting to associate themselves with prejudice or racism. My initial thought was

that if the idea of stereotyping oversimplifies the characteristics across a group, the test in and of

itself seemed to beg a stereotypical answer. Furthermore, the method of the test was interesting

to me in that I was skeptical of how the word association and pictures of individuals drew a

strong causation to a bias I may have. Needless to say, I was suspicious of the methods of the test

and a little anxious of what the results might say about me. Ultimately, I took the test and my

results suggested I have a slight automatic preference for White people over Black people. It’s

possible that with the amount of negative stereotypes in social media, I can accept that Blacks

may be thought of as ‘less preferred’ vs. other races. That is a tendency that I should recognize

not only in me but in society as a whole. In fact, the test results show that almost 70% of people

who took the test have a slight, moderate or strong automatic preference for European American
compared to African American. Awareness is the first step to address an issue. This test helped

me to improve my awareness of a potential automatic bias.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=-1

Part II. Organization Application

 How does discrimination or prejudice show itself (subtly or not) in an organization,

group, or team with which you are or have been affiliated? Again, this could be a past or

present organization in your life. And, remember, prejudice and discrimination it doesn't

have to be ill-intended or malicious…sometimes these things are not at all intentional or

evil but still impact people and/or situations inside or outside the organization. Describe

enough of a situation concretely to provide context and use concepts from the readings in

your response.

In today’s society, “it is no longer culturally acceptable to be openly racist.” “Overt

racism is so widely rejected in America that a white supremacist in Montana recently

announced that he is created a new inclusive Klu Klux Klan chapter that will not

discriminate against people because of their color or sexual orientation.” (Blake, 2014)

With that said, subtle racism still reveals itself in data such as employment. There is still

a significant gap in the gender pay scale where: “Women workers averaged $33,900 per

year whereas male workers averaged $47,700 per year.” (Nier & Gaertner, 2012) While

there have been significant legislation to curb outright discrimination, these gaps seem to

stem from the newly evolved ‘subtle’ racism. For example, Nier & Gaertner point out a

study where resumes with a Swedish sounding name vs. an Arab Muslim name applied

for a job. The callbacks were overwhelmingly in favor of the Swedish sounding name

where “217 calls were returned for the native Swedish applicant, whereas only 66 calls

were returned for the Arab/Muslim applicant.” (Nier & Gaertner, 2012) The issue here is

that legislature is designed to protect employees of organizations more than potential

employees through the application process. These subtle forms of racism shape the

demographic of many organizations and filter into the pay gap. This is not dissimilar

from experiences in several organizations were I have worked. Most of the executive

leadership was composed of older Caucasian Americans and an analysis of the pay gap

between men and women revealed a similar pay disparity for men and women working in

the same type of position. As a result of the findings, many of the organizations where I
have worked eventually implemented a diversity committee in order to address the issues.

In fact, in my current organization, I am the executive director for our newly founded

diversity committee. I find that the information in this course will be helpful to bring

awareness and create a sense of urgency within our company to address the subtle

stereotypes that have resulted in these disparities.

 References

Gandbhir & Perez, November 11, 2015. A conversation on Race; New York Times. Retrieved
from: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/your-stories/conversations-on-
race?nytapp=true

King, Avery & Sacket, September 14, 2013. Editorial: Three Perspectives of Employment
Discrimination 50 Years After the Civil Rights Act- A Promise Fulfilled? Springer Science +
Business, Media New York 2013

Greenfieldboyce, Nell, January 27, 2007.Sterotypes are Only Human, NPR; Retrieved from:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7051541

Blake, John. November 27, 2014. The new threat: ‘Racism without racists.’ CNN; Retrieved
from: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/26/us/ferguson-racism-or-racial-bias/

Nier & Garrtner. 2012. The Challenge of Detecting Contemporary Forms of Discrimination. The
Journal of Social Issues Vol 68.