Our National Culture Needs a Reboot
From the torches of white nationalist hate in Charlottesville, VA to the gender biased memo manifesto written by an ex-Google engineer in Mountain View, CA, the stench of racism, sexism, anti semitism, transphobia, homophobia, Islamophobia, and xenophobia is suffocating the land. Some might ask who or what is responsible for the Pandora’s Box of hate seemingly evident at every turn?
Experts on complex organizations — and yes, our nation can be categorized as such even though we don’t think of it in these terms — will tell you that organizational culture, or the values, beliefs, principles and ideologies guiding the activities of individuals within an organization, is set at the very top. Reams of books, papers, and articles have been written on the importance of organizational culture because it is widely considered to be a key factor in the success or failure of an enterprise.
Recent events saw two prominent examples — one leaning positive and another an abject failure — of how people in leadership positions can respond to cultural threats undermining organizational stability and success.
The first was Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s decision to fire James Damore and his attempt to hold a company-wide discussion to address concerns about gender bias within the organization. Even though Google’s record on diversity and inclusion remains anemic in terms of the actual number of women and people of color working there, Pichai’s willingness to take action against Damore and to openly discuss the reasons why sent a message that diversity and inclusion is a value that Google’s leadership is determined to cultivate as they seek to recruit more women and people of color to their ranks in an effort to strengthen their organization.
The second was Donald J. Trump’s three part response to the racist violence spewing from Charlottesville. Trump’s twice stated condemnation of violence “on both sides” was a repugnant attempt to falsely make the actions of white nationalists — who tout their own superiority while calling for the oppression of other racial, ethic, gender, and religious groups — equivalent to those willing to stand for an inclusive democracy where all people enjoy equality of opportunity, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That he reversed course to condemn white supremacists only to reverse course again to seemingly sympathize with them within a four day period represents a leadership failure of monumental proportions.
Just last week, prominent conservatives lambasted Google’s “politically correct” decision to fire Damore even though his memo, blasted out to the entire organization, revealed his inability to accept diversity not set on his own terms, his belief that women do not possess the same qualities to excel in engineering as men, and his complaint that women shouldn’t be meeting in groups without men present.
Conservatives who typically extoll the virtues of private sector leadership should know that it is not good practice to let the beliefs of one individual not in a position of leadership set the tone of an entire organization. It is safe to say that not a single member of Congress would allow the personal biases of one of their legislative aides dictate how their offices are run. A lack of an appropriate response from Google’s leadership would have amounted to acceptance of the views Damore espoused and eventually the ability of those views to shape the company’s direction and undermine their business imperative for stability and growth.
The same can be said of our national leaders. When they are silent or equivocating in the face of domestic terrorism committed by white nationalists in Charlottesville, they are complicit in undermining the stability and growth of the nation. This result is intensified when they deliberately engage in rhetoric, politics and policies that inspire fear and weaponize hate.
There is no doubt that Donald J. Trump — who used overt racist, xenophobic, sexist and Islamophobic appeals to win the election and govern in his first months in office — has emboldened hatemongers, contributed to a coarsening of our national discourse, and to the destabilization of our democracy. Yet, Trump and Congressional leaders are acting as if they are in denial about the role they have played in shaping our nation’s organizational culture.
It is disingenuous for people in positions of national leadership to pay lip service to the values of diversity and inclusion when it is politically convenient to do while they carry out policies and practices that exclude, marginalize, and demoralize anyone they view as undeserving.
Make no mistake, eviscerating access to healthcare for low and moderate income families, gutting civil, women’s, LGBTQ and human rights protections across government agencies, neutering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau so that businesses can freely exploit consumers, demagoguing marginalized communities, undercutting climate science, breaking up immigrant families, blowing up regulations that protect workers, encouraging an anything goes mentality among law enforcement, disenfranchising eligible voters and negating democracy for partisan advantage, and advancing policies that benefit the rich at the expense of the poor are all actions designed to oppress and marginalize.
Non-white Americans are Americans. LGBTQ Americans are Americans. Muslim and Jewish Americans are Americans. Our children who need a healthy planet are Americans. Poor and middle-class Americans are Americans.
No single demographic has a superior claim to this country. The United States of America has been built with the contributions of all of its diverse people — whether our progenitors were native to this land, enslaved, or immigrants.
If we want the U.S. enterprise to survive and thrive, we must understand that our diversity is our promise not our problem. By leveraging it, our nation will solve the problems of our times, lead the innovations of the future, give hope and opportunity to humanity, and bring prosperity to our nation.
But to achieve this vision, our current set of national leaders must accept the diversity imperative and eschew attempts to rig our nation’s economic, political, and social systems to benefit only a narrow group of people with a determined set of characteristics.
For we are all a part of the body politic that is America, we all contribute to its vitality, and we and our children are deserving of its bounty today and for many tomorrows.
