Safety class

RACE & EMOTIONAL WORK

Addressing race & social equity is emotion laden work

It involves managing ones professional self, which may be incongruent with personal

feelings

Joy, happiness, love, anger, fear, & grief are emotions

Emotions entail subjective feelings, body response, expressive behavior

Nervousness may be conscious, brains response to stimuli as fearful is unconscious

& automatic

 e.g. defensive behavior to danger

EMOTIONAL LABOR

Component of dynamic relationship between two people; worker/client,

worker/worker

Not in job description but implicit in public servants position

Range on continuum from superficial friendliness to deeply felt human emotions

Cost/benefits of emotional labor

 Cost: fatigue, burnout, cynicism

 Benefits: job satisfaction, empowerment, sense of community & inclusion

EMOTIONAL LABOR & RACE/SOCIAL EQUITY

Emotional labor is occupation specific

Women engage in emotional labor more so than men

Degree of engagement on race at work dependent on organizational

leadership/culture, & external events

Individual levels of fear common across spheres (internal/external)

RACE TALK @ WORK

Array of factors influence comfort level communicating about race – preferences,

family background/attitudes, historical, cultural, societal influences, org. culture,

prior work experience, etc.

 Table 3.1 Instrument designed to measure individual nervousness relative to race

Baseline level of nervousness influences likelihood public administrator with raise

issue of racial equity relative to administration of public services

Absent outside stimuli, baseline level indicator of likelihood of addressing racial

equity

Avoidance common strategy to manage nervousness

STRATEGIC COLORBLINDNESS

Race among first and fastest automatic categorizations made of others

Many whites report inability to do so – fail to acknowledge racial differences to avoid

appearance of bias

 to “not see race” infers its not viable factor to consider in administration of public services

 “anything but race” strategy often employed to explain differences, e.g. SES, class, etc.

Strategic colorblindness to avoid appearing biased often backfires, leads to negative

interpersonal perceptions among blacks, is indicative of greater racial prejudice

ASSIMILATION

Assimilation/melting pot strategy based on, single, ideal, homogenous culture

 Traditionally northern European core culture (WASP) in US given our history

Discounts personal, institutional, culture impact on those that are “different”

Public Administrators adhering to assimilationist strategy approach dialogue, analysis,

& recommendations as serving one public rather than multiple or diverse publics

CONVERSATIONAL VARIABILITY

Speaker able to negotiate conversational space on race based on group’s perceived

receptivity

Allows public administrator to shift messages on racial equity in agency to fit

contextual factors, e.g. setting, audience

 Can express one set of statements to sr. management, another to line staff, &

another to citizens/residents

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Subjective anecdotal experiences about race, racism, or racial groups can’t be

externally verified

Speaker positions self as observer/authority on facts & events

Audience role is to accept facts as true

Anecdotes operate as generalizations, behavior of some extrapolated as

representative of larger group individual belongs to

Negatively affect organization when public administrator uses personal experience as

substitute for data-driven decision-making within agency

CULTURAL PLURALISM

Diverse groups maintain distinctiveness within multicultural/ethnic society

Increased knowledge/understanding of other racial/cultural groups can reduce

prejudice/stereotyping

Perspective values cultural differences rather than seeing as distraction, threatening,

divisive

 Does not give practical strategy for engaging racial/ethnic groups in mutual

coexistence

 Can be used as avoidance strategy to replace critical discussion of racial disparities

with more comfortable discussion of class, urban, inner-city factors etc.

MULTICULTURAL MOSAIC

Recognizes oppression exists and is manifested through structural, institutional, &

social arrangements

Focuses on complexities of human relationships acknowledging cultural

distinctiveness & need to work across differences

Administrators using this strategy explicitly research & acknowledge institutional

influences on racial patterns of public service delivery

 e.g. racial distribution of traffic ticketing patterns