RACIAL CONFLICT 1
Communicating for Change in Racial Conflict
Terrian Harris
Liberty University
BMAL 504 – Leading Organizational Change
Author Note
Terrian Harris has no known conflict of interest.
Correspondence may be addressed to Terrian Harris
Email: tmharris19@liberty.edu
RACIAL CONFLICT 2
Communicating for Change in Racial Conflict
No matter what side you are on when discussing the topic of the American Civil War, the
shooting that occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, opened an old wound that never fully
healed (Heinz, 2021). The Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, agreed to remove the
confederate statues from his city. Landrieu felt that the city did not need representation in a war
that supported thousands of slave trades, lynching, raping our fellow Americans, and it was time
to turn the page on the war that represented the worst of our American history (Heinz, 2021). In
Matthew 13:22-23 states, "the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man
who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth chokes the word,
and it becomes unfruitful and the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man
who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a
hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty" (New American Standard Bible, 1611/2021).
The speech that Landrieu gave in May 2017 coincides with Kotter thinking "that a shared
sense of a desirable future can help motivate and coordinate the kinds of actions that create
transformations." Mayor Landrieu's speech gave the people of Louisiana a clear vision for the
future and branded the city of New Orleans as a diverse cultural city that prides itself on food,
music, art, and dance (Heinz, 2021).
Landrieu's speech exemplifies the Key elements in the effective communication of vision.
In Exhibit 2 (Heinz, 2021, p.475), the Key Elements in the Effective Communication of Vision
are Simplicity, Metaphor, analogy, and example, Multiple forums, Leadership by example,
explanation of seeming inconsistencies, and Give-and-take.
RACIAL CONFLICT 3
Simplicity
Landrieu's speech was honest, direct, and straightforward. According to (Shakirova et al.,
2018), To effectively communicate your message, the speaker must clearly state what they want
that person to hear. If you cannot articulate your point correctly, the person listening will not get
the information you want them to receive. For example, in his speech, he stated, "To put the
Confederacy on a pedestal in our most prominent places of honor is an inaccurate recitation of
our full past. It is an affront to our present, and it is a bad prescription for our future" (Heinz,
2021, p. 493). Landrieu bluntly stated that New Orleans could not move forward until the city
learned from its mistakes.
Metaphor, analogy, and example
Mayor Landrieu used metaphor and analogy to get his point across when he told a story
about Terrence Blanchard, a celebrity musician who watched one of the statues get taken down
with his family. Terrance stated, "I've never looked at them as a source of pride… It's always
made me feel as if they were put there by people who don't respect us" (Heinz 2021, p 494).
Mayor Landrieu telling that story made the people of New Orleans picture their families looking
at the statue and wondering what it represents every time they walk or drive by it.
Multiple forums & Repetition
The one thing Mayor Landrieu failed to do is post his vision for the future of New
Orleans on build boards, commercials, Facebook, radio, and television. Multiple forms and
Repetition go hand and hand. There are several ways he could have gotten the message across.
According to (Grewal et al., 2012, p. 125), "research suggests that the medium through which a
message is communicated can influence its effectiveness and illustrate that consumers use more
RACIAL CONFLICT 4
relational processing when encoding ads presented in print format than in digital format,
potentially enhancing their memory retrieval when exposed to ad cues during purchasing
decisions."
Leadership by example
Mayor Landrieu's past achievements show that he cares about the community and is
ready to unify the city. In the past, he "worked on reforming Louisiana's juvenile justice system
to favor rehabilitation and reform over punishment and incarceration, and leading legislative
efforts to create, fund a state cancer research consortium and represented the artistic community
and associated venue owners in repealing a state surtax on earnings made in venues that offered
live music" (Heinz 2021, p 489).
Explanation of inconsistencies & Give-and-take
Mayor Landrieu addressed the city's inconsistencies of having a statue that signifies "a
war that was fundamentally fought over the institution of slavery" (Hall et al.,2019), "self-
appointed defenders of history and these monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized
Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it stood for"
(Heniz 2021, p 491). Mayor Landrieu called out all the defenders that wanted to keep the
confederate statues standing but left out the facts about inequality and slavery.
With Mayor Landrieu, there was no give and take regarding keeping the confederate
statues standing. He knew it was time for New Orleans to have a new vision for the future, and
there is no future if they are focused on the past. He stated in his speech that “New Orleans is
truly a city of many nations, a melting pot, a bubbling cauldron of many cultures. There is no
RACIAL CONFLICT 5
place quite like it in the world that so eloquently exemplifies the uniquely American motto: e
Pluribus Unum—out of many; we are one" (Heinz, 2021, p. 491).
Conclusion
Mitch Landrieu gave New Orleans a new perspective on the city's culture. He challenged
his city to see a new future that could pride itself in the culture only New Orleans can offer, such
as food, music, art, and dance. The mayor wanted to ensure that the confederate statues did not
define his city but to learn, overcome and grow despite what the civil war represented. He
branded a new future in which everyone could participate.
References
Hall, A., Huff, C., & Kuriwaki, S. (2019). Wealth, Slaveownership, and Fighting for the
Confederacy: An Empirical Study of the American Civil War. American Political Science
Review, 113(3), 658-673. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055419000170
Heinz, A. (2021). Leading Organizational Change. McGraw-Hill
Create. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781307709100
Grewal, R., Gupta, S., & Hamilton, R. (2021). Marketing Insights from Multimedia Data: Text,
Image, Audio, and Video. Journal of Marketing Research, 58(6), 1025–
1033. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222437211054601
New American Standard Bible. (2001). https://nasb.literalword.com/ (Original work published
1611)
