Have you created an atmosphere where people can bring up "uncomfortable" technical issues? Do people feel comfortable admitting mistakes? Is the group unified in motivated and introspective problem solving towards a shared goal? Hopefully the answers to the above are all yes. Where they are yes, how did someone foster those conditions?
Maybe if I were a manager, I could bring up such concerns in a one-on-one meeting, but if they seem reasonably happy but privately feel excluded, how am I supposed to know?
I think managers are precisely the ones to foster such atmospheres. I suspect that sub-cultural monocultures (cliques) are much easier to form than very self-aware groups. Also, technical issues are easier to talk about and settle arguments around. Social issues are difficult because they deal with so many things on the boundaries of our conscious awareness.
EDIT: In fairness, it seems likely that some of the steps she took to try and fit in may have contributed to her alienation. I think I understand this firsthand.
Well, I think the answer is yes, but then, probably so did most of her teammates. Certainly nobody's actively complaining, but that doesn't mean there isn't similar resentment churning beneath the surface. Just because I'm open to hearing about your problems doesn't mean you feel open to talk about them. But on the other hand, going around to all the minorities and asking them if they feel like I treat them fairly seems (a) supremely uncomfortable on a personal level, (b) more divisive and patronizing than anything else I'm likely to do, and (c) like a chore I really shouldn't be entirely responsible for dealing with just to avoid being labelled an oppressor.
Certainly nobody's actively complaining, but that doesn't mean there isn't similar resentment churning beneath the surface.
Isn't this applicable to all sorts of group pathologies, not just ones that touch on race?
But on the other hand, going around to all the minorities and asking them if they feel like I treat them fairly seems (a) supremely uncomfortable on a personal level, (b) more divisive and patronizing than anything else I'm likely to do, and (c) like a chore I really shouldn't be entirely responsible for dealing with just to avoid being labelled an oppressor.
Why does it have to be particularly about race/ethnicity and directed towards minorities? The goal of artistic collaboration in groups is to get to a point there there isn't any "thing you can't say." The sort of "chore" you're talking about is an exercise that can be used to gain awareness of anything that's supposed to be hard to talk about.
Also, if there's a workplace where people feel comfortable talking about anything that comes up except when it has to do with race, this strikes me as a symptom. And frankly speaking, I think this includes most workplaces out there. (So no wonder people take homogeneity as the easy way out!)
You write and think well about this topic. "Belling the cat" is the issue here as it would be extremely hard to implement a 'tolerance' program that would actually work. What exists today simply forces people to be more sophisticated and coded about resentments, jealousies, frustrations and prejudices. Or causes people to walk on eggshells which deepens the isolation that the author describes.
Have you created an atmosphere where people can bring up "uncomfortable" technical issues? Do people feel comfortable admitting mistakes? Is the group unified in motivated and introspective problem solving towards a shared goal? Hopefully the answers to the above are all yes. Where they are yes, how did someone foster those conditions?
Maybe if I were a manager, I could bring up such concerns in a one-on-one meeting, but if they seem reasonably happy but privately feel excluded, how am I supposed to know?
I think managers are precisely the ones to foster such atmospheres. I suspect that sub-cultural monocultures (cliques) are much easier to form than very self-aware groups. Also, technical issues are easier to talk about and settle arguments around. Social issues are difficult because they deal with so many things on the boundaries of our conscious awareness.
EDIT: In fairness, it seems likely that some of the steps she took to try and fit in may have contributed to her alienation. I think I understand this firsthand.