The rules of conduct

Boston Globe
By Vanessa E. Jones - Globe Staff
October 9, 2007
Some black men say they're held to higher standards than whites in the workplace

On Fridays, employees at the Boston Architectural College have the option to dress casually. But when Michael James, a director of human resources and diversity at the school, donned denim shorts one recent Friday, his clothing elicited a few comments. One person wasn't used to seeing James dressed so informally, someone else asked him, "What happened?" and another supportively told him to "fight the fight."
The interest in James's attire wasn't based on a pitched battle about what comprises casual dress. James believes the comments reflected the fact that he was a black man who decided to dress down at the office. "Even when we have casual Fridays," says James, 36, "I'm expected to wear a suit and tie."
Like many other black men, James says unspoken rules limit how they interact in predominantly white workplaces. In some cases, they must dress more formally than their co-workers, speak softly, or generally comport themselves in unaggressive ways to counteract stereotypes that paint black men as unintelligent, violent, and dangerous. These biases are based on long-held beliefs about black masculinity and sexuality that grew out of this country's history of slavery and segregation.
In the past, black men had no choice but to succumb to white society's fears and present themselves deferentially. But today a new generation of black men are bringing attention to and trying to change these implied rules of conduct.
Last month in an interview on HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel," Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb talked about how black quarterbacks have to work harder than white ones to prove their worth. He said even when he plays well in a game, critics will say of him: "We would have scored more points if he would have done this."
Isaiah Washington, who uttered a homophobic slur on the set of the television drama "Grey's Anatomy," has spoken bluntly about the predicament of being a black man in the corporate world. After it was announced last spring that his contract was not renewed, he told Newsweek: "I had a person in human resources tell me after this thing played out that 'some people' were afraid of me around the studio. I asked her why, because I'm a 6-foot-1, black man with dark skin and who doesn't go around saying 'Yessah, massa sir' and 'No sir, massa' to everyone? It's nuts when your presence alone can just scare people. . ."
Although some have criticized Washington for using race to excuse his alleged homophobia, his statement shows just how outspoken some black men have become about inequities in the workplace. It's usually black men with the wealth, fame, or social class to withstand the negative consequences of speaking out about such issues who discuss it.
Tessil Collins, 55, believes his age has earned him the right not to cater to these pressures. Collins works as an industry cluster coordinator of arts, media, and communications at the Boston Public Schools' Office of High School Renewal (he's currently organizing with the Globe Foundation the Media Matters conference for high school students). In addition, Collins runs his own webcasting and creative services business, Spectrum Broadcasting Co. Being an entrepreneur with a second job gives Collins the luxury to speak bluntly.
"Black people with options are always going to give people cause for pause," Collins says. "They're not intimidated by whiteness. They can say things and not feel like it's going to cost them monetarily."
Those who are dependent on corporations for job security learn to deal with this issue by approaching it with a different mindset.
"You can't simply see it as somehow an erosion of who you are," says Mark Anthony Neal, a professor at Duke University and author of last year's nonfiction work about black masculinity and sexuality, "New Black Man," "that you're inauthentic because you're 'acting white.' It's simply a strategy that needs to be employed in order for you to be successful in your career and in your life."
As an allocation analyst at TJX Companies Inc. in Framingham for three years, starting in 2000, Wynndell Bishop says he made a conscious decision to speak with a softer voice and present himself in an unaggressive manner. "I would say 60 percent of the division I was in was young white women between the ages of 21 and 28," says Bishop, 28, who received his MBA from Boston College in May. "A lot of those women, to my knowledge, didn't have a lot of interaction with black folks other than what they saw on TV."
James makes accommodations because of his 6-foot-2 height, which, he says, has made people view him as "threatening and menacing even though I'm the most peaceful person out there."

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