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Integrating Culture and Management in Global Organizations

INSIDE

The DynamicsBetween Intercul-tural...by J.P Singh

Volume 5, Number 1

Personal andOrganizationSecurity...by Ray Leki

Is Diversity TrainingAnti-American?by Kristin Hibler

A quarterly publication producedby the Intercultural ManagementQuarterly and the Intercultural

Management Institute,School of International Service

at American University

Book Review:Unrooted Child-hoods: Memoirs ofGrowing Up Global

The Unconscious CulturThe Unconscious CulturThe Unconscious CulturThe Unconscious CulturThe Unconscious Culture Gape Gape Gape Gape Gap

HollywHollywHollywHollywHollywood’ood’ood’ood’ood’s Ws Ws Ws Ws War on “Reel” Bad Arabsar on “Reel” Bad Arabsar on “Reel” Bad Arabsar on “Reel” Bad Arabsar on “Reel” Bad Arabs��

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9On September 11, 2001, 19 suicidal Arab

Muslim terrorists attacked the Pentagon anddestroyed the World Trade Center. The terror-ists slaughtered nearly 3,000 people from morethan 60 nations. Now the United States and itsallies have joined force-of-arms with force-of-facts to crush the guilty.

We have launched an information war; a warto crush the myths that this conflict has anythingto do with America against Islam, or Arabsagainst the West. Instead, this war has every-thing to do with the marginalized fanatics re-sponsible. Our political and communicationleaders must not attribute the actions of a fewfanatics with the vast majority of peacefulArabs and Muslims.

I have spent my adult lifetime honing my

skills as a professional observer and analyst ofAmerica’s image-making factories. On a canvasfar broader in terms that its title indicates, mybook, Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood VilifiesA People, paints the dangers of severe and re-petitive stereotypes when we lump “those people”together indiscriminately. I document and discussnearly, 1000 pre-9/11 Hollywood feature filmsthat abused Arab Muslims, showing them as onethe most maligned group in the history of Holly-wood.

For more than a century, Hollywood hasbombarded audiences worldwide with motionpictures and TV programs that portray Arabs,Muslims, and their descendants as quite literallythe scum of the earth: lechers, terrorists by defi-nition, subhuman to the last man, woman and

Before the September 11th attacks, it was easyfor Americans to feel that our similarities werefar greater than our differences with our foreignallies, trading partners and even our opponents.We were united by the language and practicesof international business and diplomacy. Dif-ferent as we might appear, we all wanted verymuch the same things: peace, prosperity, a bet-ter life for our children.

After the terrorist attacks, after the wars inAfghanistan and Iraq, it became clear that sub-stantial populations perceive the world in pro-foundly different terms than we do. The differ-ences run deep beneath the gloss of diplomaticdiscourse and far beyond the differing nationalcustoms and conventions to which a foreigner

can adapt. Some of these differences may havearisen from what were once life-and-death issuesin a culture’s distant past. Some, because theyare religious in nature, go beyond life and death.

As a journalist, I’ve worked in different cul-tures, in places as varied as Kosovo andMongolia. As it happens, though, my first en-counter with profoundly different cultural val-ues occurred right here in the United States,among fifth-generation Americans.

I got my start in broadcast journalism 27 yearsago in southwestern Alaska. I worked for nearlyseven years at a bilingual radio and TV stationin a region populated mainly by Yup’ik Eskimos.Early in my career there, we had a summer visitfrom a television producer who was sponsored

by Jack Shaheen

by Corey Flintoff

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Intercultural Management QuarterlySchool of International Service

Phone: (202) 885-1846Fax: (202) 885-133

E-mail: imqeditor@american.edu

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Executive Publisher• Dr. Gary R. WeaverManaging Editor • Sherry ZarabiPublication Manager • Anna Lee

Contributing WritersCorey Flintoff

Dr. Jack ShaheenRay S. LekiDr. J.P Singh

John Kelley RobertDr. Kirstin Hibler

Editorial Review Board Dr. Gary R. Weaver, Heidi Ashton, Hamilton Bean, KimballBrown, Ian Larsen, Anna Lee, Darrel Onizuka, Sherry Zarabi

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© 2004 Intercultural Management Quarterly

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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmit-ted in any form or by any means, without the express written

permission of the Publication Manager.

The Interculutral Management Quarterly (IMQ) is publishedby the Intercultural Management Institute at American Univer-sity. IMQ combines original research conducted in the field ofinterculutral management with the applied perspectives of in-dustry experts, professors and students.

EDITORIAL POLICY

Professionals, scholars and students are invited to submitarticles of no less than 1,000 words and no more than 1,500 onissues related to the contemporary study and practice of inter-cultural management. Submissions could consider aspects oftraining, research and any other scholarship that relates to thearea of intercultural management.

Articles must be innovative and contribute to the knowl-edge in this field and yet authors should avoid overly aca-demic jargon. Footnotes or endnotes are discouraged exceptfor direct quotes, paraphrasing or citing the research of others.

Each submission is refereed by members of the IMQ edi-torial review board and accepted pieces are subject to editingto conform with the writing style appropriate to IMQ.

Welcome to the Winter 2004 edition of the Intercultural Man-agement Quarterly. We are pleased to bring you this special edi-tion released in conjunction with the Intercultural ManagementInstitute’s 2004 Conference “The Global Diversity Advantage:A Forum for Business, Education and Training Professionals.”

During the last few years we have directly experienced theinterconnectedness of the global community through incidentslike terrorism, global epidemic scares, and moments like the sightof a soldier safely reunited with his or her family. These imagesillustrate our shared joys and despairs despite our differing cul-tural background. However, as our world becomes related in somesense, it also becomes more complicated too. Our shared trag-edies and victories compel us to have shared approaches to theseevents-making it imperative that we collectively address our ap-proach in ways that integrates our cultural nuances. By bringingbusiness professionals, educational experts, and professional train-ers with students interested in intercultural management, the In-tercultural Management Institute’s 2004 Conference proposes justthis solution. This special issue of the Intercultural ManagementQuarterly provides a forum for collective brainstorming and col-laboration to address some of complexities we face due to globaldiversity.

Whether you regard Operation Iraqi Freedom as a shared trag-edy or triumph, we can agree that we are all globally judged byour actions in Iraq. Corey Flintoff in his article, “The Uncon-scious Culture Gap,” advises us to prepare our soldiers not justfor the combativeness of war but the aftermath as well.

Dr. Jack Shaheen’s analysis of the U.S media in “Hollywood’sWar on ‘Reel’ Bad Arabs” warns against the overly stereotypicaldepictions of Arab Muslims in the U.S media. He urges that aslong as the U.S media portrays Arab Muslims as clones of SaddamHussein and Osama Bin Laden, then Arab Muslims will be lessreluctant to see the United States as their alley.

While there are many studies on the role of cross-culturalcommunication in human resource hiring, education and otherfields, little attention has been paid to development. What roledoes intercultural communication play in development efforts?Dr. J.P Singh’s article “The Dynamics Between Intercultural Com-munication and Development” addresses this important issue.

Also in this issue, John Robert Kelley eloquently reviews thebook “Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing Up Global,”which is based on third culture childrens’ memoirs. Ray S. Leki,discusses some of our vulnerabilities when traveling in a globalage and presents the TravelSafe approach as an alternative modelfor addressing them. And Dr. Krisitn Hibler, questions whetherDiversity Training programs are anti-American.

Thank you for your interest in the IMQ.Sincerely,Sherry Zarabi

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PPPPPersonal and Orersonal and Orersonal and Orersonal and Orersonal and Orggggganizational Securityanizational Securityanizational Securityanizational Securityanizational Securityin a Global Agin a Global Agin a Global Agin a Global Agin a Global Ageeeee

A few years now into the first truly global century we areconfronted with the disheartening reality that we are, seemingly,no more secure than during the primitive times of the last century.We can travel reasonably quickly almost anywhere in the world.We can communicate instantly with vast legions of people on ev-ery corner of the earth with whom we have never met. We cantransfer ideas and images at light speed. And yet we find our-selves in stocking feet, our pockets inverted, our laptops bootedup, our loose change and keys and belt buckles in a plastic traywhen we attempt to partake of this Global Age. We become thetargets of criminals and terrorists and – yes – sometimes MotherNature, based on our place of birth, gender, economic class, pro-fession, or travel destination. But we have assets, too, as well asliabilities, and that is the focus of some work that I started a de-cade ago with my longtime interculturalist colleague Lee Lacy.We both continue to be intensely concerned with the safety andsecurity of Americans overseas.

From a series of revolving professional perches, we watchedthousands of Americans go overseas and, mostly, return. Whatcould we learn of a prescriptive, diagnostic, predictive, develop-mental nature that would allow us to improve the chances of suc-cess for these sojourners? How could we identify who would be-come the easy “marks”, and how could we get them to put onsome behavioral, cultural, or personal body armor to help themprotect themselves? We realized early on that we needed to cometo understand the range, scope, prevalence, and patterns of theexternal threats present for individuals and organizations. We thencame to recognize a yet more powerful determinant of threat – theinternal profile of each individual, and collectively, the organiza-tions they represented.

The relationships between the external and internal threats,the security of the individual and the organization, became clearerafter parsing the decades of our combined experience with scoresof thousands of travelers and experimenting with different con-ceptual models. First, though, it is useful to state a few assump-tions and caveats. The individuals we dealt with wanted to liveand travel and work overseas, albeit to varying degrees. While weworked with both adults and children, the focus of our work hasbeen on adults – normally functioning adults who understood andaccepted that they were responsible, in the end, for their own se-curity. Finally, the available data on instances of crime againstAmericans overseas is notoriously suspect. Non-reporting, under-reporting, non-collection, and political and financial considerationsall skew the data in troubling ways.

Basic FactorsThe security experiences of individuals and organizations run

parallel and interrelated courses. The basic factors at play for in-dividuals are reflected at a higher level for organizations, and thelessons learned from the personal profile translate into compe-

tence for the organization. Fundamental to any riskanalysis is a weighing of benefit against the threat –why is the individual – or the organization – there inthe first place? What is the goal for the individual andwhat is it worth? What is the mission for the organiza-tion? In clarifying the value of the expatriation experi-ence, and comparing that value to an assessment of thethreats posed, individual and organizational risk pro-files can be usefully analyzed.

Both the individual and the organization have inher-ent risk factors that form the underpinnings of theirrespective risk profiles. For the individual, for ex-ample, immaturity, inexperience, poor decision mak-ing skills, and poor or non-existent planning and or-ganizational skills can sabotage any traveler. Similarly,a corporation, academic exchange program, or NGOthat is unaware of or has not developed its securityand survival capabilities is stacking the cards againstitself.

The assets that an individual or an organization canbring into the expatriation experience are reflected inthe risk profile as well. Specifically, the energy and fo-cus that the individual brings to the on-going challengeof intelligence gathering on the external threats posedplay a critical role in developing effective responsivebehavior. Knowing and understanding the specificthreats within a particular context – from pick-pockets,earthquakes, infectious disease, terrorists, traffic mad-ness to ineffectual police and tainted water supplies –defines boundaries for the traveler’s reasonable and ra-tional behavior. On an organizational level, knowingand understanding the way business gets done, includ-ing the tricky culture-based lines around what consti-tutes corruption, entitlement, the legal boundaries andthe psychological contract between organization, em-ployee, regulator, and host community, form the paral-lel guidance for rational organizational behavior.

Finally, a person, or organization, desperately needsa Plan B, and a Plan C, and adequate resources andinsurance to deal with what is an unpredictable busi-ness. In the most extreme case, going overseas withouta legal and valid will and estate plan is courting disas-ter. It is irresponsible behavior that will be paid for by

by Ray S. Leki

Personal Profile: Security skill, knowledge, andattitude that will minimize the impact of threatsposed.

Organaizational Profile: The sum of anorganization’s mission clarity, policies, practices,and work force competence. work force.

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For over three billion people in Af-rica, Latin America and Asia, the lackof material comforts and the stresses ofeveryday living are hardly ever concep-tualized as problems of interculturalcommunication.

The role of cultural communicationin development is barely addressed bydevelopment communication. The In-tercultural and Development Commu-nication chapter of the InternationalCommunication Association is an um-brella for two separate subfields wherethe two will unlikely converge in thenear future. It is also highly unlikely thatyou will meet more than a handful ofcross-cultural or intercultural commu-nication specialists working in theworld’s prominent development agen-cies. However, as international devel-opment efforts are concerned with un-derstanding and restoring the dignityand basic needs of people, finding waysto communicate effectively across cul-tures would seem to be an indispens-able task.

The need for cultural communicationUnderstanding the role of cultural

communication in aiding developmentis foremost about conceptualizing de-velopment in more human and interper-sonal terms. This has several implica-tions for the development practitioner.

Development, as intercultural commu-nication, is about us, not them. It is fun-damental for development practitionerto understand that development is thepractitioner’s problem, not the devel-oping society’s. It is not about a groupof people who are too traditional orbackward to develop, rather the solu-tions lie with the practitioners, who maynot know how to understand the aspi-rations of the people they affect or arenot able to communicate their strate-gies.

Development, as intercultural commu-nication, is about human dignity and notabout the implementation of a pre-fab-ricated magic formula. Practitionersshould balance the developing society’scultural values with the goals of the over-all development efforts. While develop-ment practitioners are committed to end-ing human suffering, they are all toooften focused on the right combinationof resources and incentives that will de-liver a predetermined goal. Practitionersneed to go a step further by listening,and not dictating, to the individuals mostaffected by their solutions. As culturalcommunication specialists, we would bebetter disposed to find out what peoplevalue in their lives and the kinds of ev-eryday habits – conceived broadly asculture – that inform such values.

Development, as intercultural commu-nication, is about dialogue. Develop-ment practitioners are often portrayed aselite workers with specialized informa-tion who are to be given access to localresources and populations. As practitio-ners in a dialogue, it means recognizingour humanity as well as those of peopleaffected by our interventions. Develop-ment as cultural communication in-volves thinking about communicationamong equals, not hierarchies.

What needs to be done?Development involves re-configur-

ing or modifying the socio-economicrules and institutions that govern thedaily lives of people. The iceberg modelof culture presents the rules and institu-tions that govern society. These soci-etal rules and institutions are placed atthe tip of the culture iceberg above thecognitive maps and the learning pro-cesses of societies – what Gary Weaverand others call the beliefs and values ofcultures. Given this context, develop-ment as cultural communication canproceed in two ways, not mutually ex-clusive.

By understand a society’s culture, prac-titioners can modify the existing devel-opment rules and institutions that arehindering the overall development ef-fort. Here we start from the top of theiceberg with the task of building trustand relationships. Take a very simpleexample of elite multilateral develop-ment agencies that are often perceivedin a negative fashion by the very peoplethey are trying to help.

By understanding culture, practitionerscan empathize with the society’s valuesand beliefs – the cognitive maps. Herethe task is to understand what types ofinstitutions and rules are even possible,

The Dynamics BetwThe Dynamics BetwThe Dynamics BetwThe Dynamics BetwThe Dynamics Between Intereen Intereen Intereen Intereen Intercultural Commcultural Commcultural Commcultural Commcultural Communication and Devunication and Devunication and Devunication and Devunication and Developmentelopmentelopmentelopmentelopmentby J.P Singh

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The Iceberg Analogy of Cultures

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Each domain empowers, or in its absence, sabotages theothers. Cultural awareness empowers safety and security com-petence by providing context for observed and perceivedthreats; personal awareness and interpersonal skills add valueto the decision process around appropriate behavior againstthe backdrop of the threat by creating effective means forgenerating and receiving honest information and feedbackfrom cultural informants within a specific context. Securitycompetence provides the Maslovian bedrock of human needsupon which cultural and interpersonal interaction can developwithout peril.

That the domains interact is intuitive in essence, but inpractice, the power of the interaction is astonishing. Whetherthe experience of the traveler spirals upwards towards newlearning about self and the world, and greater personal actu-alization and fulfillment, or spirals downward towards disil-lusionment, an inability to meet basic needs, and danger/di-saster is largely a function of the competency matrix an

This model’s value for travelers is limited by the accu-racy and candor they can bring towards identifying improve-ment areas. Even marginal improvements might bring onquantum leaps in their personal competency profiles. Sev-eral tools exist to assist travelers in making better self-as-sessments, including cross-cultural inventories and prefer-ence instruments. However, on an organizational level, theTravelSafe model provides a rational and useful platformfor international HR professionals, their consultants, andcorporate security experts. It allows them to have synergis-tic dialogues that enhance and value their respectivedepartment’s contributions to their organization’s mission.

The TravelSafe model makes the interculturalist’s casefor more language and cross-cultural training. The oftenheard, and somewhat overstated, risk/benefit equation that afailed overseas assignment can cost a quarter to three quar-ters of a million dollars is beside the point. If organizationsunderstand the centrality of their missions, that half a mil-lion takes on a meaning – either as chump change or time topull up stakes. Without the mission context, it remains a ques-tionable and ultimately un-actionable number.

In the ten years of developing and deploying this model,a number of axioms and extensions have been developedthat go beyond this article’s scope. However, at a time whenAmericans traveling overseas are threatened by rampant vio-lent crime driven by increasing economic disparity in thedeveloping world, anti-Americanism, pandemic health risks,terrorism specifically directed against U.S citizens, and themundane, but no less deadly threats of commercial transpor-tation accidents and natural disasters, an integrated approachto understanding and responding to threats is presented touse for those who want to take control of their overseas ex-perience.

Ray S. Leki is an Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at Ameri-can University.

Personal and Organizational... Continued from page 3

TravelSafe

individual is able to bring to bear during a sojourn.The tablebelow lists some sample competencies and attributes withinthe three interactive domains.

grieving survivors at a time when they need those legal andlogistical hassles least.

If clarity of purpose, self-awareness, external awareness,and contingency planning are the basics, what are the per-sonal, and by extension, organizational attributes for the “hard-ened” traveler?

Security professionals, interculturalists, and human re-source practitioners all have valid, but incomplete measuresof a “hardened” traveler. Security professionals are likely tocome up with lists of security-savvy behavior and protectivemeasures to employ. Interculturalists will likely highlight lan-guage and both culture-generic and culture-specific cross-cultural skills as being crucial to survival. Human resourcepractitioners will focus on the personal and interpersonal at-tributes of the expatriate. In a model Lacy and I developedcalled TravelSafe, these three domains of competence areintegrated into an overlapping whole that comes closest tothe prescriptive, predictive, diagnostic, developmental modelthat we had pursued.

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by the state’s artist-in-residence pro-gram. His job was to work with localschoolchildren to produce a series ofhalf-hour television specials about lifein our region.

I admired the way this man worked.He didn’t just barge into the area andbegin filming. He hung out for weeks,getting acquainted, asking questionsand getting a feel for the community.When he began work on the skits,dances and songs that made up his TVprograms, I was impressed with howwell he had managed to avoid the Es-kimo stereotypes that are common eventoday. There were no jokes about ig-loos or iceboxes, polar bears or pen-guins. Instead, he seemed to have aneye for the real idiosyncrasies of life inour little town.

He had a particular genius for word-less comedy. Many of his segmentsfeatured local animals, fish and birds.One of my favorites was his mini-bal-let “Ptarmigan Lake.” The ptarmiganis a pigeon-like bird that lives in bigflocks on the open tundra. It turns aprotective white in winter. It is widelyhunted in the spring, when it providesa welcome addition to the local diet af-ter the people have spent months eat-ing dried salmon and walrus meat.Using the music from “Swan Lake,” ourproducer created a charming and – Ithought – extremely funny dance se-quence. It was performed by fourthgraders who waddled around in puffywhite ptarmigan costumes that madethem look like huge marshmallows withwings and beaks.

We promoted the first broadcastheavily, and we aired it with great fan-fare. Keep in mind that this was a small,remote town where you didn’t needArbitrons or Neilsen ratings to find outhow people felt about your program-ming. You could be sure to hear theiropinions when you met them the nextday at the post office or the grocerystore. We expected high praise.

We had barely gotten to the “Ptar-migan Lake” sequence when the phonesbegan to ring – caller after angry caller– each one more vehement than the last.A typical viewer response went some-thing like this: “What is this (expletivedeleted)? Get this (expletive deleted)off my (expletive deleted) TV!” Noneof our callers were really clear aboutwhat they didn’t like. The closest I gotto a real answer came from a man whosaid “It’s crap, that’s all. It’s stupid,white-man crap!”

We put off airing the other two pro-grams while we tried to find out whatwas wrong. That’s where we encoun-

tered the cultural divide. The Yup’ik staffers at the station,

some of whom had worked on the pro-gram, essentially refused to talk aboutit. I could see from the hurt and frustra-tion on their faces that they were hear-ing plenty from people in town.

Finally, one night, after a long si-lence, my best Yup’ik friend blurted outan answer. He looked me in the eye,and for the first time, I could feel hisdeeply suppressed anger. “You don’tjoke about food,” he said. “You don’tjoke about the animals.” Suddenly, itdawned on me. This was and still is, toa great extent, a hunting culture. Suc-cess in the hunt depends on the relation-ship between the hunter and his prey.

Yup’ik elders teach that animals yieldthemselves up to the hunter who treatsthem with proper respect. If they aretreated disrespectfully – that is, huntedcarelessly, killed with cruelty, or if anypart of them is wasted – they will nolonger allow themselves to be taken. Ina hunter culture, a food animal is morethan a factor in life or death; it’s a mea-sure of human identity in balance with

The Unconscious... Continued from page 1

“.. as the occupation goeson...we need to achieve

cultural harmony with the

people”

the rest of nature. You don’t joke aboutthe animals. That’s an outlook that isso profoundly ingrained in Yup’ik cul-ture that no missionary religion, nowestern-style hunting gear, no Saturdaymorning cartoon animal show has beenable to change it. It is true that it’s nolonger overt in most Yup’ik people. Infact, many of the viewers who dislikedour TV show didn’t fully understandwhat offended them so – they just knewit was wrong.

I’m often reminded of that incidentwhen I hear about the difficulties thatU.S troops are experiencing in Iraq. Ifmost Iraqi people are glad to be liber-ated from a cruel and implacable dicta-tor – and I believe they are – then whydon’t they like their liberators better?Clearly, any occupying force is an irri-tant to the population, and just as clearly,our troops were trained for combat, notcultural sensitivity. But as the occupa-tion goes on – and it will go on, longbeyond the return of Iraqi sovereignty– we need to achieve cultural harmonywith the people.

Some ways of dealing successfullywith other people can be taught, suchas respectful terms of address, or thecustoms and taboos associated with re-lations between the sexes. Sometimesit can be as simple as learning not totouch food with the wrong hand. Butother, more complex cultural knowledgecan’t be published in a pamphlet for thetroops or conveyed in a weekend work-shop.

It has to be acquired by observation,by assimilation, by gaining the trust ofthe people and learning to ask them theproper questions about themselves andtheir lives. That’s the only way to avoidtrespassing against taboos that are sodeeply embedded in the culture that nei-ther we, nor our hosts, are fully awareof what it is that causes the offense.

Yup’ik people have a way of gettingto know a stranger in their community.It involves visiting that person at homeand sitting quietly as the person goesabout his or her daily business. Yup’iksbelieve that, to get to know someone,you have to observe their behavior.

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Is DivIs DivIs DivIs DivIs Diversity Tersity Tersity Tersity Tersity Training Anti-American?raining Anti-American?raining Anti-American?raining Anti-American?raining Anti-American?

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by Kristin Hibler

“You either are an American or youaren’t an American. You are either partof this society or you are not part of thissociety!” An elderly white man criedout at a diversity training workshop forcounty employees. His reaction illus-trates how some U.S. diversity trainingparticipants struggle learning about is-sues such as discrimination, unequalopportunity and group dynamics.

In my experiences conducting diver-sity training and teaching interculturalcommunication classes, I have wit-nessed how the material may be per-ceived by some as contradicting U.S.values of individualism and egalitari-anism—or even appearing anti-Ameri-can. In other words, diversity trainingchallenges the worldview of U.S.American participants, particularlythose who do not consider themselvesa member of any minority group. Asdiversity training becomes more globalin nature, it must keep pace by recog-nizing the ways that different nationalvalues influence training participants.To do this, diversity trainers in theUnited States must become more awareof U.S. national values held by theirtraining participants.

Let me offer some examples. Di-versity training that presents the ideathat certain groups have a better chancefor success than others can challengethose with an extremely individualisticworldview. They believe that anyonecan make it if they work hard enough.Training participants might comment,“I think poor people should just pullthemselves up by their boot straps likemy family did. It doesn’t matter whatminority group they belong to.” I evenhad a student who commented thatpoor, urban African Americans “canmove out of the ghetto if they want to.”These comments indicate a belief in ahighly individualistic worldview, whereinstitutionalized discrimination doesnot exist.

An individualistic worldview canalso make it uncomfortable for partici-pants to talk about groups, a necessarystep in most diversity training programs.This is evidenced by statement such as,“I’m not comfortable putting people intogroups, I prefer to talk about individu-als,” or, “I don’t love or hate all Japa-nese; for instance—I love some and hateothers—it’s individual.”

Diversity training may also challengeindividualistic training participants be-cause they see the individual—not thegroup—as the core unit of society. As aresult, individualistic training partici-pants perceive change as occurring at anindividual, not a group level. They be-lieve that discrimination can only beeliminated when individuals treat otherindividuals better, not by improving theways groups interact with other groupsin society. As one training participantphrased it, “Racism is not as much of aproblem since the 1960s. Racism ismore of an individual problem today.”The main assumption here is that the pri-mary means of reducing racism is forindividuals to work on their own preju-dices and that societal-level cures suchas affirmative action or civil rights leg-islation are less effective. In addition,because individualistic training partici-pants view change as occurring at an in-dividual level, some participants willfeel personally attacked when discuss-ing—what has formed the core of muchof diversity training—race and race re-lations. For instance, I often hear com-ments like, “I didn’t own slaves, mygrandparents didn’t own slaves,” or “Ifeel like I have done something wrongbecause I was born a white male.” It isoften difficult for individualistic partici-pants to shift from an individual to agroup orientation. It may be even moredifficult for them to learn that far from aphenomenon of the past, structuralpower inequalities continue today.

Egalitarianism is deeply rooted in

U.S. history. Early European immi-grants came to the New World to pur-sue religious and economic freedom.For many, their journeys were fueled bya belief that all individuals (defined atthis time as white and male) have theright to succeed—that power stems notfrom a king or god, but from the self.They came to build what they saw as amore just society—one that would growprogressively egalitarian. As the Dec-laration of Independence frames it, asociety where “. . . all men are createdequal” and are endowed with the rightsof “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Hap-piness.” This value of egalitarianism,entrenched in U.S. American culture,can make it difficult for participants whodon’t see themselves as belonging to anyminority group to believe that discrimi-nation exists. Diversity training canconfront them with the fact that powerinequalities do still indeed exist in U.S.society.

The film, Color of Fear directed byLee Mun Wah, provides an apt example.In the film, a multiracial andmulticultural group of men meet once aweek for several months to discuss is-sues of race. David, an upper classwhite man, does not believe the storiesof racism relayed to him by the black,Latino, and Asian American men in hisgroup. One of the most poignant mo-ments in the film occurs when Davidfinally admits that the experiences of op-pression described to him by men ofcolor were actually true. When asked,what if these stories were true, he re-sponds with tears in his eyes, “Well thatwould be a travesty of life. You havesomething that shouldn’t exist. That’svery saddening. You don’t want to be-lieve that man can be so cruel to him-self or his own kind.” Society hadtaught David that all individuals havethe freedom to succeed, regardless ofstatus. He struggled for weeks to learnthat, due to group membership and un-

8

Continued from page 4

The Dynamics between..

Dr. J.P Singh is an AssistantProfessor in theCommunication, Culture andTechnology program atGeorgetown University.

Then, you can begin to talk.Perhaps the way to achieve cultural sensitiv-

ity between our troops and the Iraqis is to adoptthe Yup’ik method – to allow time for each sideto observe and understand the other in the most“natural” settings possible. That’s not going tobe easy as long as our troops are beset by ter-rorists and guerrilla fighters – as long as our sol-diers make “home visits” at gunpoint after kick-ing in doors. I’m told that even Saddam Hussein’sfeared secret police avoided entering homes toseize their victims, because of a deep-seated ta-boo against violating a person’s home or gazingat the women there. If the safety of our troopsreally demands that homes be searched by force,then so be it. But in the long run, our troops willbe safer if they learn to avoid transgressingagainst the unconscious or less-conscious taboosof Iraqi culture.

That kind of learning takes time. It can’ttake place if all the troops in a unit are rotatedout of the country at the same time, leaving re-placement units to start over again from scratch.Some soldiers are going to have to stay to pro-vide continuity. The military will need to pro-vide on-site instruction on Arabic and Iraqi cul-ture for some troops in every unit. It will haveto keep balancing “force protection” with theneed for American troops to have day-to-daycontact with Iraqi people. It will have to permitsome degree of fraternization, for the kind ofpersonal interaction that builds trust and allowsfor the small revelations that help us learn aboutother cultures.

Military organizations are usually geared upto expend resources and manpower to achievequick, decisive results; the biggest expenses herewill be time and patience. If the wars in Iraqand Afghanistan are ever to be truly over, though,if the war against terrorism is ever to be trulywon, if the United States is ever to achieve aworking harmony with the nations of the MiddleEast, then we have to find ways to build culturalunderstanding.

given the values and beliefs in a par-ticular culture. The cultural com-munication specialist must reachher audience here much like an an-thropologist in order to determinethe set of development alternativesthat are feasible in any society. Par-ticipatory development programsthus cannot go into the field with apredetermined set of goals seekinginput from people Instead theyshould seek the goals from thepeople themselves.

One of the most successfulslum dwellers program in Mumbai,India, asked groups of slum dwell-ers to design their own housingrather than providing them withblue-prints. The boundaries be-tween the NGO working with theslum-dwellers and the latter them-selves was seamless, making thisa development project in which actsof intervention are hard to define.The eminent anthropologist ArjunAppadurai, who writes of thisproject, calls such acts “deep de-mocracy.” Here, cultural commu-nication starts from the bottom ofthe iceberg.

Issues of powerSocio-economic development is

continually stifled by the oppres-sion and dehumanization ofmarginalized groups. Race, class,gender, caste, nationalism,ethnicity, and colonialism are but afew of the dimensions of this op-pression. Cultural communicationis about recognizing the humanityof people. Intercultural communi-cation is a humble, but important,start in two important ways.

Cultural communication can pro-vide important clues on the feasi-bility of a development interven-tion. For example, what goodwould it be to think of women’s

Corey Flintoff began his career in journal-ism at a bilingual (English and Yup’ikEskimo) radio and TV station in Alaska. Hehas been a Washington-based newscasterand reporter for NPR since 1990.

Continued from page 6The Unconscious...

empowerment project in an areawhere women presence is in anykind of an interpersonal networkmight be limited? Before assum-ing such participation, enough trustamong local networks, the publicsphere, must be established evento carry out a needs assessment.

It can empower the community. Byapproaching people as equals andengaging them in a dialogue, thedevelopment practitioner not onlyestablishes trust but also restoresdignity to people who have beendehumanized over centuries byoppression. It is in this sense thatthe great educator Paulo Freirethinks of development problemsalmost as a spiritual quest, or inhis own words as conscientizaçãoor consciousness awakening.

In conclusion, from needs as-sessment to post implementationevaluation, cultural communica-tion understands development asa qualitative, human, inter-per-sonal, trust-building, and a spiri-tual problem. It tries to veer awayfrom viewing development as aproblem of highly specialized eliteworkers to that of realizing howand why people act in their every-day lives. Effective cultural com-munication, to borrow Nobel Lau-reate Amartya Sen’s words, isabout development as freedom. Itenables both the development spe-cialists and developing societies tofind an appropriate cultural voice.

9

Book ReviewBook ReviewBook ReviewBook ReviewBook Review

Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs of Growing Up Global

Review by John Robert Kelley

In the twilight of his life, RudyardKipling recounted in his memoir Some-thing of Myself the stark contrast of hisrich experience in India against an un-welcome move at age six to England,without his parents, for schooling. “Myfirst impression is of daybreak, lightand color and golden and purple fruitsat the level of my shoulder,” he wroteof his early childhood in Bombay.“Then came a new small house smell-ing of aridity and emptiness, and a part-ing in the dawn with Father andMother…”

From Kipling’s early childhoodmemories, one can conjure images ofhis youth in India through the sharp-ness of his senses, only then to be in-terrupted by sudden changes in placeand people. The changes are indeliblefor Kipling as his shared affiliation be-tween colonial India and England be-comes the bedrock of an extraordinarycareer. In truth his unique voice owesto being neither Indian nor British fromchildhood, but to some unidentifiablemiddle ground. His is a “third culture.”Lying beyond existing taxonomies,third culture by definition involves liv-ing one’s life across hemispheres, sus-taining a range of emotion born of suchuniqueness.

We leave it to the articulators of thisexperience, like Kipling, to make usunderstand what it must feel like. Morerecently, we are educated by an assem-blage of accomplished writers fittingthis very profile. The product,Unrooted Childhoods: Memoirs ofGrowing Up Global, succeeds in con-veying the fundamental experience ofthe “third culture kid” (TCK) to a broadaudience.

Edited by seasoned authors FaithEidse and Nina Sichel, Unrooted Child-

hoods offers nineteen deeply personalchronicles of the TCK experience in allits breadth. Each of these authors, thesons and daughters of diplomats, mis-

sionaries, teachers, or military officers,explore the patchwork features of theiryouth through a spectrum of emotion.The book has divided these emotionalthemes four ways: Enrichment, Es-trangement, Rootlessness, and Identity.Like Kipling, the prototypical TCK-turned-author, these writers develop avoice throughout their formative yearsin the slipstream, sharing with almostconfession-like quality the ironic won-der and estrangement of being perma-nently foreign.

Some writers accentuate the roman-tic: Rather than harping on the sterilityand isolation of airports in “Living in theTransit Lounge,” travel writer Pico Iyerproudly seizes upon his sense of placein a riddle of metaphors. “Perpetual for-eigners in the transit lounge,” he writes,“we enjoy a kind of diplomaticimmunity…we are never obliged to growup, or even, really, to be ourselves.” In-deed, the narratives in the Enrichmentsection capitalize on the thrill of being

anything but ordinary. As a child in“Rain Light”, Sara Mansfield Tabersoaks up Holland “with the romanticopenness of my heart,” and revels in herbrief exposure to Dutch culture. Nov-elist Isabel Allende follows her diplo-mat uncle through La Paz and Beirut,recalling in “Arabian Nights” heramazement at the Bolivian starscape andthe magic of fantastic Arab tales.

For others, however, it would seemthe ever-present state of foreignnesscouldn’t suppress certain questionsweighing on young minds. Seekinganswers for “Where am I from?” and“Who am I?” mired these authors in alifelong search for familiarity, roots, andself-identification, which comprise theoverlapping themes of discussionthroughout the remainder of the collec-tion. Here, these writers are not roman-tic in their reverie, instead swallowedby the paradox that has defined theirentire lives. Faith Eidse gives us in hermemoir titled, “Embers”, a most pro-found insight, “the freedom of the no-mad is the loneliness of disconnection.”She explains how being set alight dur-ing her transient youth has made her anadult “afraid of losing myself in com-munity.”

This proves also to be the demonwith which writer Pat Conroy mustwrestle while growing up a “militarybrat”, moving over twenty times duringhis boyhood from base to base. His isnot a time of enrichment, but a lengthypenance to the U.S. Marine Corps, rup-turing the very heart of his own familyand inspiring his haunting best-seller,The Great Santini. In the moving “Un-discovered Nation,” Conroy goes on todescribe the personal toll of not know-ing himself or his place in the world. “Icome from a country that has no name,”

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Edited by Faith Eidese and Nina SichelNicholas Brealey Publishing/Intercultural Press2004, 318 pp.

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Hollywood’s War...Continued from page 9

he writes.The reader will sense the disconnec-

tion imbued in these writers from ayoung age and witness as it manifestsitself in adulthood. Anora Egan’s“Breath Roots” weaves haltingly, in andout of time, through her failed attemptsat building family and community, madereal in the divorce of her first husbandand later her restlessness as a Buddhistnun. “We have to know how to rootagain, or we will not survive,” she con-cludes. The TCK experience, for thesewriters, planted simple questions forwhich there were no simple answers,and life after childhood took on a com-plex search for resolution.

As TCKs themselves, Eidse andSichel are well positioned to identify apoignant set of accounts such as thosepresented in Unrooted Childhoods. Thedeft selection of these pieces is com-pounded by the way each one resonateswith the other, revealing, oddly enough,the existence of a group who can sharetheir distinctive experiences brilliantly.

On the outside looking in, one can-not help but feel satisfied that thesefloating souls have found each other,and that they would have much to talkabout if ever they should all be in oneplace. For the TCK who reads this col-lection as an adult, perhaps one mayrelate to the strange contrast inworldviews as seen by Kathleen Ander-son, or hear themselves in Ruth VanReken’s powerful “Letters Never Sent.”

But the authors may have foreseenthe need for Unrooted Childhoodsamong the coming generations of ex-patriate parents of their soon-to-beTCKs. Aside from being armed withthe quick-reference language guides,remedial cultural etiquette, and localemergency contacts, expatriate parentswould do well to add Unrooted Child-hoods to their list of required readingbefore departure.

Unrooted Childhoods asks for ac-knowledgment that the expatriate expe-

rience affects and transforms the fam-ily as a whole. And in TCKs, we findcompelling proof that their experiencesin the “third culture” will only becomemagnified by hindsight along the inevi-table path to adulthood. There is tre-mendous value in understanding theimpressions that a third culture kid willtake in, as they will undoubtedly shapehis or her sense of place and concept ofself for years to come.

child. Inherent in this barrage of im-ages is this message: We Americansdespise you and your religion.

Think about it. When was the lasttime you saw a movie depicting anArab or an Arab American as a regu-lar guy? Such images are as sparse asgeysers in the Sahara. This stereotypehas haunted us for decades. Its perma-nence results, I believe, from severalinventive factors: indolence, indiffer-ence, silence, and of course, greed isalso an incentive. Hollywood knowsthat evil and fear of evil is a mix thatsells. It leads some producers to ex-ploit the Arab stereotype for profit byfeeding movie goers a steady diet ofArab Muslim primitives infiltrating theUSA and threatening to massacre ourloved ones in their own back yards. The stereotypes prevail for anotherreason: politics. It’s no surprise to methat the stereotype began to intensifyin the early 1950s soon after the stateof Israel was established. Dozens ofArab-bashing movies that were filmedin Israel feature Israeli actors portray-ing Arabs as terrorists. U.S. Media sys-tems emulate and expand on the filmimage. Moreover, in their portrayal ofextreme anti-American Arab Muslimleaders, newscasters equate 1.2 billionMuslims as clones of AyatollahKhomeini, Osama Bin Laden andSaddam Hussein. Violent news reportsthat focus on extremists chanting“Death to America!” as they burnUncle Sam in effigy, reinforce and ex-acerbate the already prevalent myth:Muslims are evil.

As Hollywood is the world’s fore-most industry for molding public opin-ion, which helps shape public policy,some image-makers eagerly exploit thestereotype. West Wing creator AaronSorkin, for example, said at a recentWriter’s Guild symposium titled WeHate You : “I’m going to bring [ArabMuslim] characters onto the show and

Book Review: Unrooted Childhoods...Continued from page 1

John Robert Kelley has worked as anintercultural specialist to multinationalcorporations since 1996. He is cur-rently obtaining his M.A in Peace andConflict Resolution at AmericanUniversity

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Interested incontributing

to IMQ?

The Spring 2004submission deadline

is April 2, 2004.

To suscribe or submit to theIntercultural Management

Quarterlye-mail the Managing Editor

at imqeditor@american.edu

11

Dr. Jack Shaheen is an internationallyacclaimed author and media critic.Currently, Dr. Shaheen is a ProfessorEmeritus of Mass Communications atSouthern Illinois University.

you’re not going to like them.” Sorkin’sa man of his word. Since 9/11, he andother producers have saturated viewers’psyches with hateful Arab characters.

Weekly, ever since the tragic eventsof September 11, 2001, viewers havebeen bombarded with vicious ArabMuslims; the villains surface in dozensof movie reruns (e.g. True Lies, Execu-tive Decision and Rules of Engagement).And, Arab characters prowl about inscores of law enforcement, intelligenceagency, and courtroom dramas. Toname a few: Threat Matrix, WestWing,24, The Agency, Sue Thomas F.B. Eye, Law and Order, Family Law,Judging Amy, JAG, The Practice, TheDistrict, The Shield, and TV movies –The President’s Man: A Line In theSand. These shows falsely imply thatwe are a threat to our nation by labelingAmerican of Arab heritage as clones ofAl Qaeda-disloyal thugs and terroristwaging a Holy War against our next-door neighbors. We use mosques ashideouts, shoot dead our fellow Ameri-cans, and use dirty bombs to nuke Wash-ington D.C., Los Angeles, and Texas. These images ignore the fact thatAmericans of Arab heritage and Ameri-can Muslims — all nine million of us— are as courageous, as patriotic as ourneighbors, and every bit as intent onwiping out terrorism. My analysis of TVprograms has revealed that from thebeginning TV programmers have prac-ticed exclusion, not inclusion, banningus from the television landscape. Onlytwo antiquated TV series have ever dis-played Arab American characters. Onceupon four decades ago Danny Thomasrevealed his roots in the popular 1960sseries, Make Room for Daddy. And,during the 1970s, MASH’s Cpl. Klingler,played by Jamie Farr, noted his Arabheritage.

Why should we care about thesedehumanizing images? Because historyhas taught us that when any ethnic groupis demonized, innocent people suffer:

More than 100,000 Japanese-Ameri-cans were interred in camps; blackswere denied basic civil rights andlynched; American Indians were dis-placed and slaughtered, and in Europesix million Jews perished in the Holo-caust.

In general, Hollywood’s moviesand TV shows give prejudice a freepass. These movies and TV shows are

What should be done to curtail suchprejudicial behavior and twisted portraits?Ethnic stereotypes do not easily vanish.Hollywood’s image-makers should un-derstand that Arab Muslims, their beliefsand lifestyles, are worth the same re-spect that other nationalities receive. Thetime is long overdue for producers toembrace a spirit of fairness, and toproject Arab Muslim images on silverscreens as they display otherpeoples, no better, no worse,with a fair balance of villains and heroes.

Peace cannot happen when TVshows and motion pictures relentlesslydenigrate an entire people. Xenophobiaand prejudice are the flip sides of har-mony and togetherness. We need filmsabout Americans and Muslim Arabs thatelevate the human spirit. Producers needto shift gears and begin churning outmovies that help advance tolerance andunify people. After all, Christianity, Is-lam, and Judaism are religions of peace,advocating that all humankind is one fam-ily in the care of God.

During this period of global conflict,I suggest President Bush host a WhiteHouse Conference on Humankind. Itspurpose: To help advance diplomacy, andspell out the role Hollywood can andshould play in eradicating age-old ste-reotypes. Invited guests could usefullyinclude members of Hollywood’s 9/11Coalition, notably government officialsand media moguls, I’d be happy to be-gin a dialogue on how to portray realArabs. By working together we can helpshatter injurious stereotypes.

Hollywood’s War on...Continued from page 10

“history has taught us that when any ethnicgroup is demonized,innocent people suffer,”

being screened at a time when hatecrimes and attacks on mosques are onthe rise, when Americans of Arab heri-tage and American Muslims are beingharassed in schools, physically at-tacked, fired from their jobs, rudelyprofiled at airports, and even arrestedand imprisoned on the weak grounds. U.S government officials have at-tempted to down play U.S media’s ste-reotypical images by challenging thestereotypes abroad. Intent on reinvent-ing America in the eyes of 1.2 billionMuslims, President Bush appointed aformer ad executive, Charlotte Beers,(who resigned last year) asundersecretary of state to lead a $15million public diplomacy campaign de-signed to win the hearts and minds ofthe Muslim world. But experts believedBeers’ government-sponsored TVcampaigns not only flopped, but helpedadvance anti-Americanism in the Arabstreet. Muslims, I believe, did not fallfor the PR ploy because they are con-fronted daily with images of Americanmovie stars, such as ArnoldSchwarzenegger, invading Arab coun-tries, and blowing them to smithereens.

12

even perceive the training as anti-Ameri-can; but it is not. Their extreme viewof individualism and egalitarianism miti-gates other equally compelling U.S. val-ues such as pluralism. He implies thatthe ideal of equality has been realized inthe U.S., a fact contradicted by themany voices in this article.

As organizations continue to “goglobal,” diversity training will continueto take on a more international flavor.Leaders of diversity programs must rec-ognize how the national values of par-ticipants influence reactions to training.Individualism and Egalitarianism arejust two examples of national values thatmay influence U.S. Americans’ re-sponses to diversity training.

To reach international participants,diversity trainers have to explore na-tional cultural values and be aware oftheir impact on diversity training. Per-haps this calls for more dialogue be-tween diversity specialists—who havetraditionally focused on issues of race,class, and gender—and inter-culturalists—who have a long history ofexploring national values.

Announcing the InterculturalManagement InstituteSummer 2004 Skill Institute

To be held on the campus of American University in the nation’s capital,Washington, D.C.

Global Positioning: Cross Cultural Negotiating in aPost Global WorldJuly 17-18, Dean Foster, Dean Foster AssociatesThis skills institute will look at negotiations and cultural theory in today’s globalenvironment, and provide attendees with the opportunity to develop their skills.

For more information or to register, contact Anna Lee at imi@american.edu or 202-885-6439.

Registration forms and additional information availablewww.imi.american.edu

equal power relations, the odds for eco-nomic success are better for some indi-viduals than for others. I recall a similarsituation in an intercultural communica-tion class when a student said, “Somethingthat really hit me hard was hearing that ablack friend of mine is scared that he couldbe hurt, beaten or killed when he getspulled over. He is scared for his life ev-ery time a cop picks him up! As a whiteperson, that’s something I don’t have toworry about.” Like the character David,she too had never experienced discrimi-nation and, as a consequence, wasshocked to learn it still exists in Ameri-can society.

In addition to the disbelief that preju-dice still exists in American society, par-ticipants with a highly egalitarianworldview may also believe that culturaldifferences have no bearing on success,and should not be discussed. Thus, I hearcomments such as, “I don’t want to talkabout differences. I like to talk about howwe are all the same.” Or, “I dislike sepa-ration. I dislike the word diversity. I pre-fer a word that indicates we are all woventogether.” I even witnessed a student in amulticultural education class argue that,“Learning to show differences is teach-ing hate.” Because such individuals be-lieve that society is becoming progres-sively egalitarian, drawing attention todifferences might indicate inequality.Therefore, a sign of a liberated, educatedindividual is one who does not talk aboutcultural difference, and better still, onewho does not even notice it.

“We should all just be American, notall these labels—they’re too confusing.”Another consequence of an egalitarianworld view expressed in this quote is un-ease with discussing labels. One city di-versity training participant expressed thisdiscomfort clearly when she said, “I don’treally think of myself as having a racialor ethnic identity. We should all just beAmerican, not all these labels—they’retoo confusing.” Similarly, during my of-fice hours, a student in an interculturalcommunication class also struggled to la-bel a classmate: “I’m not sure what her

name was, I think she said . . . I don’tknow if I should say this it sounds sobad . . .” at this point he lowered hisvoice, looked me in the eyes, and con-tinued, “. . . but I think she said shewas Jewish.” Students and diversitytraining participants express confu-sion over which labels to use or whycertain labels sound inappropriate.They have been socialized to believethat society is a place where every-one has the same opportunities regard-less of group membership, and there-fore, it is inappropriate to notice, ordiscuss cultural labels.

At the beginning of this article, Iquoted a gentleman who exclaimed,“You either are an American or youaren’t an American. You are eitherpart of this society or you are not partof this society!” His worldview wasunder attack. He reacted to a trainingsimulation that brought out issues ofstructural-level inequalities and groupdynamics. In his worldview, there areno groups, only individuals, and theyare Americans; and there is no in-equality, we are all equal—all Ameri-cans. His reaction is similar to manyU.S. American training participantswho have highly individualistic andegalitarian worldviews. They may

Is Diversity Training...Continued from page 7

Dr. Kristin Hibler is a diversity trainerand consultant. Currently she is anadjunct faculty member at AmericanUniversity.