THE BURDEN OF ASIAN INDIAN ETHNICITY IN AMERICAN CORPORATIONS

This is an edited version of my article that was published in the  Divesity Newsletter of my company  and also in some ethnic Indian newspapers a few years ago.  The present set of news items on violence against Asian Indians in the USA has drawn focus on certain acts of overt discrimination against them.  Lost in the noise, however, may be the subtle bias many suffer on a day to day basis which is the subject of this article.  Much as some new age corporations  (wonder why talent flees to these?) and even the U.S. federal government seem to have moved on to a new paradigm embracing diversity honestly, it is fair to say that classic corporate America has remained stagnant in this arena paying only lip service to diversity.  The anecdotes are based on real life stories although some names have been altered to protect the identity of certain individuals.  In Part 2, we will discuss how the Asian employee may deal with bias. 

 

In the mid Seventies, working a summer job as a door-to-door book salesman in rural and suburban Georgia, I sometimes became the recipient of an unsolicited advice  that went something like, "Son, them people are colored; they don't need no books."  Sometimes a stronger term emphasizing African descent replaced the more sophisticated epithet "colored" in describing the neighbor I was advised to pass, and irked me even more.  For us,  Indian students who had sought this unusual employment to augment our graduate fellowships, these were indeed our war stories. We indulged in protracted discussions about race relations, typical of some Indian living rooms even today, displaying all the way from intellectual snobbery - "How come, these idiots don't even know that white is a color too?" - to unabashed opportunism - "Hey, at least he didn't call you that and did buy from you, right?"  Not all were cynical, of course. One of us had even ventured to show outrage once by saying, "You sure love them, don't you?" only to get a prompt repartee, "Sure son, I love 'em. I sure love 'em.  Would love to own a couple of 'em."

  What is described above is blatant racism and bigotry in its ugly form that is easily recognized and unequivocally condemned by all decent people.   We have come a long way since the mid Seventies, and I doubt if even in rural Georgia such things as described above occur, at least with the frequency with which they did long ago.  Across America, the power of the railway track, highway, or creek to cruelly divide towns into racial subcultures is suffering a slow but sure decay.  Along with those sweeping social changes, the work place of the white collar Indian or Indian American has also become increasingly characterized by policies that do not tolerate discrimination. In the rare occasions when  failure does occur to implement corporate policy or the mandate of law, recourse is available in several forms both within one's corporation and within the legal system [although the latter gets steadily abridged by the USC].  This two part article is thus not about discrimination as defined in legal texts or as arouses mass protests, but about the subtle ways in which one's ethnicity affects one's work life and, more importantly, some thoughts on dealing with it.

The Faces of Bias

Lest one should doubt the existence of a subtle ethnic bias in Corporate America, let us begin by considering some real life stories.

A Rose is a Rose ...?

 Soon after joining an employer, I was asked by a colleague and former acquaintance, let's call him Tom, who the head of my  new department was.  The name, Raj Devaprakasam, was predictably unpronounceable to Tom, but his spontaneous reaction, "Whatever happened to the Americans?" was a total shock to me, given especially that Tom is a strong believer in the virtue of immigration as a catalyst for U.S. economic and scientific growth.  

The story above exemplifies a peculiar position the employee of Indian (and similar other Asian) origin finds himself repeatedly.  As of this moment, I do not yet know if Dr. Devaprakasam is or is not American, in the legal sense of being a U.S. citizen.  And if he indeed were a U.S. citizen, then what would make him less of an American than the many other types of Americans that we run into in our day-to-day lives who would not invite such a question?  Indeed, when I recently hired an American of Indian origin, I had to consciously correct colleagues who kept referring to him as the Indian who had  been hired recently, or more particularly those offering 'innocent' jibes, "The Indians are takin' over."  The common and unchallenged tendency to see a colleague of Asian origin as nothing other than "Indian", "Chinese", etc., and the inability to ponder over the possibility that he or she may well be an American are  irrefutable realities of corporate life in America.  To me, this attitude is as absurd as considering everyone wearing a yarmulke an Israeli or everyone speaking English a Britisher. Yet, it represents the mind set of even some of the most fair and intelligent among us as my friend Tom.  If Tom had to decide on the promotion of an Asian American, could he bring himself to act in his favor, or would he be searching for his brand of American?  I cannot help wonder!

Guilt by Association?

One may debate whether Tom's remark is indicative of  a subconscious bias or is just an inadvertent gaffe.  But, consider the following true story.

Anand is asked by two of his superiors to take into his group, temporarily for evaluation, an Oriental woman whose performance  ability, to them, is suspect. Instead of giving the employee a fair opportunity to be evaluated independently by Anand, Anand is, however, told that the employee may have been overrated by her own supervisor "whose objectivity could have been affected by the fact that the supervisor is also an Oriental woman. " Had this suggestion not come from two managers whom Anand genuinely respects for their demonstrated track record of promoting deserving minority employees and encouraging them actively in their career development, Anand would conclude right away that this is an instance of blatant bias and racism.   Yet, he finds it hard to accept that two bright, and more importantly otherwise upright, managers failed to recognize the unfairness of their innuendo, which had it been aimed at members of some other minority group would have immediately brought on them labels as racist, anti-Semite, etc.

Thanks to the efforts of NAACP, ADL and similar organizations, some communities are spared the indignities that one of Asian origin still has to bear. The success of these organizations and their efforts also underscore the important role ethnic organizations can play in creating the necessary sensitivities with respect to such issues.

By the way, the two Asian females of our story vindicated themselves subsequently with the subordinate moving on, under the same Asian, female supervisor, to earn an interim raise as a reward for quality service to customers beyond the call of duty.  That also helped to restore Anand's confidence in the two superiors, for, they had  to approve that raise.  But, the incident has left him often wondering if he, an Asian, enjoys the same trust from his superiors that his more fortunate colleagues can take for granted.

Not for the Store Front?

A recurrent complaint of Asian employees is that the pleasure of presenting the results of their hard work and innovation, be it a proposal or a final report, often goes to white colleagues even when the latter have contributed least to their development.  Their best subordinates, recruited, nurtured and developed by them, are sought after for work on key projects, but the projects themselves are assigned to other managers, white of course.  Instances also occur when such assignments are made without even consulting the immediate Asian supervisor.  When the latter protests on grounds of unfairness or points out the potential impact these actions could have on the morale of his group and his ability to lead and maintain the necessary chains of command, he or she is typically brushed away as overreacting and given a ton of advice on team work and co-operation, which, had it been applied in the first place to the erring raider, would not have become necessary for the victim.  The injury is sometimes also compounded by the insult of a condescending explanation that this is a "cultural" problem.

Generalizations and Stereotypes

Sometime ago, a wire line news story on the computer bulletin board, reported how a handful of fans of a movie-actor-turned-Chief-Minister in India had committed suicide upon his death.  Included was a gratuitous remark, "It is customary in India to self immolate oneself upon the death of a leader."  I was amused at the level of ignorance that characterized this statement, and could even laugh loudly.  In case this looks far fetched, ask yourself how relevant is the ethnicity of the driver in reporting the tragic accident that took the life of  Bob Simon, the great reporter of CBS?

Just as in the media, so also in Corporate America, does one see a tendency to make unfounded generalizations and offer outlandish explanations (for even legitimate concerns) based on unknown custom or culture.  Such recurrent appeals to culture as a giant carpet under which every questionable act of bias can be swept or the generalizations that result in the stereotypes of ethnic minorities are unfortunately not amusing.  In fact, a course on Diversity Management offered in our corporation was totally built around "culture" and made it appear as though all difficulties come simply from not understanding the "cultural background" of the minority employee.  Ironically, most often, difficulties seem to appear from not ignoring the irrelevancy of one's cultural background!

The above should suffice to exemplify the existence and nature of the subtle bias towards Asians in general, and the double jeopardy it creates for them. They lose if they suffer it silently, but also lose if they complain.

Acts of Omission 

One must note that the above are what one may call acts of commission, capable of discernment and correction by a perceptive superior.  The more insidious form of bias that almost always goes unseen, however, is manifested as acts of omission whereby meritorious employees are not selected for key projects with high visibility or recognized and rewarded for exemplary performance.  This also happens to be the most frequent complaint of the Asian employee.

     In today's impersonal corporations, to reap a reward, outstanding performance needs to be aided by the presence of a superior who has the imagination, courage and, above all, fairness to take initiatives to let one's special deeds known to those who collectively decide upon the selection of recipients for awards, be they raises or other rewards.  To the best of our knowledge, there is no effort undertaken (even by the minorities) to determine the efficacy with which reward processes work in the case of minority employees or to train superiors to be particularly sensitive to watch out for such acts of omission. The significantly large attrition rates among Asians, and particularly Asian managers, may have much to do with this sad state of affairs.

Certainly, many more examples than the few cited here could be given to exemplify the conscious and subconscious bias against Asians, but these columns are better spent discussing some solution approaches.  That then will be the subject of our Part 2.