Ella Louise Bell

Myths, Stereotypes, and Realities of Black Women: A Personal Reflection

It is well over a year since the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. His appointment and the aftermath of the hearings remain controversial in the public’s eye. The event is credited by feminists for energizing the women’s movement. It was a catalyst for significant changes in the 1992 political arena. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of sexual harassment incidents reported. However, Anita Hill’s story represents more than sexual harassment for many Black women. The event serves as a painful reminder of how vulnerable they are especially when it comes to having their stories of sexual abuse heard and taken seriously. This article speaks to that pain and the complexity of understanding racism when entangled with sexism within the Black community.

Interpreting Silence and Voice in the Workplace A Conversation about Tempered Radicalism among Black and White Women Researchers

This article began as an exploration of Black and White women’s efforts to address inequality and make changes in the workplace, but we soon turned the mirror back onto ourselves as Black and White women engaged in change efforts. Our struggles over interpreting the data revealed how Black and White women struggle to make sense of whether the other is a reliable ally. Black women wonder whether White women will raise their voices or be silent yet again. White women wonder whether Black women can trust that silence is sometimes a strategy. Charting a course through defensiveness, questioning, and some distinct “aha” moments led us to understand our phenomenon and ourselves more deeply. We end this article at a way station, not a final destination, with open questions about the prospects for cross-race collaboration.

The Race Relations Competence Workshop: Theory and Results

This paper presents the theoretical basis and the associated perceptions of race relations that characterized a race relations competence workshop which served as the educational component of an overall program to improve race relations among managers within the fictitiously named XYZ Corporation. Workshop activities combined didactic and experiential methods and focused on group and individual levels of learning based on embedded intergroup relations theory. An assessment of the race relations competence workshop was carried out as part of an overall effort to evaluate the race relations improvement program in the company. Employing measures of both global evaluation and perceptions of race relations among managers, the study showed that Blacks evaluated the workshop more favorably than Whites, that reports of having information about the workshop were positively associated with favorable evaluations of the workshop, that workshop participants more than nonparticipants were likely to perceive Whites as hurting Blacks and less likely to perceive Blacks as hurting Whites. Additional analyses showed that, while the workshop generally had favorable effects for participants, the groups most likely to show unfavorable consequences were White male first level managers younger than 41 years and White female first level managers older than 40 years.

Racial and Ethnic Diversity: the Void in Organizational Behavior Courses

Diversity, particularly the significance of ethnicity, race and race relations in the workplace are relatively neglected topics in organizational behavior courses. Although many aspects of diversity are discussed in this series of articles, diversity in this one refers to a multicultural workplace where men and women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds have equal participation, respect and an opportunity to achieve in organizations. The relationship between racism, sexism and diversity are tightly interwoven. Due to the socio-psychological history of race and its legacy of racial oppression, racism is one of the most volatile issues in this society. Sexism is one of the oldest forms of oppression and can be found on varying levels in all societies. Consequently, knowledge of both racism and sexism