How Can A Black Person Pass The Red Face Test?

I’m black and don’t get red in the face so why do you keep asking me to pass the red face test.

I once had a white senior leader whose favorite expression was that one needed to be able to pass the red face test at all times. The first time he mentioned the term, I a black woman, felt uncomfortable.

And somehow whenever he did say it, he would look across the room and his gaze would cross mine. For the love of me, I couldn’t understand how at that specific point in time, he didn’t realize that that expression may be inappropriate.

We don’t all get “red” when embasrassed

I’m not playing over sensitive here, I know exactly what the expression means — the need to engage in ethical behaviors so as not to cause the company or oneself embarrassment with law enforcement or in the media.

It’s a great term for white people I guess — because some do turn a shade of red when embarrassed, but is it appropriate when you are speaking to a diverse audience of black, and brown people who don’t? No folks, it isn’t.

This senior manager kept mentioning the term in every single meeting, so I summed up the courage to share my uneasiness with his support staff during one of our social events. I didn’t want to make a big deal and have a formal meeting about it, so the end of year Xmas party seemed like the ideal place.

He continued to use the term

I thought that a slight mention would find its way back to him and that he would adapt his behavior. I was wrong. He continued to use the term — and even more concerning, looked at me directly and defiantly in the eyes when he did.

Needless to say, I got the message. He was white and powerful and I was but a powerless black woman in the white corporate maze. He didn’t care. He surely thought, “ How dare she even say something, she should be grateful to even have a job here”.

Blind-sided by his white privilege, he couldn’t even begin to understand how his words and actions could affect a black person like me.

Why invest in diversity if you haven’t rooted out racists

His refusal to re-evaluate his use of the term symbolized something a lot more in my view. This was a company that was hiring diversity consultants left, right and center, spending millions on diversity and inclusion programs, trying to crack the diversity equation, and yet a senior leader, an N-1, didn’t realize or even care that his words may be offensive.

So here again is another example of why diversity programs fail. Their focus shouldn’t solely be on hiring more ethnic minorities, LGBTQs, or individuals with diverse leadership styles. They should also be genuine change agents, systematically rooting out conscious or unconsciously biased and racist leaders, and coaching them to change.

Leaders need to model the right behaviors

Since this could indeed be an expensive undertaking, companies should first focus such programs on leaders at the very top of the organization. These leaders are often highly visible and you need them to be modeling the right behaviors at all times.

Black and brown employees know who these biased and racist leaders are — we sometimes discuss exactly who these people are and advise each other not to join their teams. Yes — in many companies, there exist an informal network of black and brown employees discussing these matters.

Internal mechanisms to report racism are needed

Furthermore, if companies really want to seriously tackle racism, they would set up an anonymous mechanism to report biased and racist leaders. Corporations do have such mechanisms in place to report unethical behaviors — why not add racism to the list? It surely is unethical in all its shapes and forms and definitely does cost the company money at the end of the day — even if it might be more challenging to measure the exact costs.

I think that once these individuals are identified, they should be coached and educated and given an opportunity to change. If they don’t change, then they should be terminated.

Not all diversity is good

Companies cannot continue to hide behind the wrongly held belief that diversity in character is also important for businesses to thrive. If someone is a proven racist, but rakes in the money, companies should have the courage to terminate him/her. One racist in leadership will undo years of diversity efforts and demotivate or scare away black and brown talent.

Organizations can even go further and provide anti-racism training to all their employees, a bit like they do ethics and compliance trainings. This in my view will create entire workforces that are conscious and aware. The sociologist in me is convinced that this is how we could begin to effect real positive impactful change in society.

I still can’t pass the red face test

Needless to say, I still haven’t been able to pass the red face test, and maybe you still feel I am making much ado about nothing. But consider the fact that a large majority of people in the world aren’t white and will never be able to pass that test either. Does it still make sense to use that expression if it excludes a large part of the world?

Thanks for reading my perspective.