![]() ![]() Today, how to confront racial bias at work and in life. In this show, I'm taking you inside the minds of fascinating people, to rethink how we work, lead and live. So, who in your workplace might be wearing themselves out whistling Vivaldi? Or might you be doing it yourself? And either way, what can we do about it? I'm Adam Grant, and this is WorkLife, my podcast with the TED Audio Collective. It's exhausting to have to kind of carry a flag that says, "This is who I am. But I have to actually put who I am on display, because otherwise people are distracted by the case that carries my brain. My glasses are chosen because they're the nerdiest looking I could find. Everything, even from the way the background is lighter around my head and darker as it gets on the outside, it's all designed to like. But it's such a weird situation to have to curate everything, 'cause we're looking at each other over Zoom right now and everything you're looking at is curated. Sometimes it's like you know who you are by how the world reacts to you. I slide through the system that is designed to kind of catch me. The way I talk is like classical music and therefore people find it less difficult to handle. It took the threat out of the air, which is what John's accent often does. Instead of crossing the streets to avoid him or averting their eyes, people would smile at him. As he walked home, he made it a point to whistle well known uplifting tunes, ranging from the Beatles, to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The title is inspired by the experience of a black man who is working on his doctorate in Chicago. It's a powerful book about the psychology of stereotypes. It's the the virtual equivalent of Whistling Vivaldi. So, my mom was like, "You're going to be a massive black man, you will not have an accent like you're from Stockport." It's a protective mechanism. Well, the Stockport accent makes you kind of aggressive and dim at the same time. It's a tiny little town, near Manchester. I may not be as cool as Jay-Z, but I'm still properly black. It hurts a little bit, actually, because white people will say to me, in the nicest possible way, "You don't sound black." And I know it's meant as a compliment.īut it wounds because I am, I'm still properly black. Because my name is written John Amaechi, people think I'm Italian a lot. And if I turn my camera off, people wouldn't assume that I am black person. Do you have completely different professional interactions with people when your camera is on versus off? It's interesting to me also that you have the privilege of a British accent, which I- I would estimate adds at least 20 IQ points, if not more. One of the things that reminds of that one kind of privilege doesn't always offset a- another kind of disadvantage. It doesn't take away from the fact that I don't worry about how much a pint of milk costs, but the privileges, they're not thing where there's a, kind of a zero sum game, they create a landscape that describes my experience and that landscape is different than for somebody else.įirst of all, John, I'm sorry that you have to go through that. John happens to be a six foot nine black man.Īnd that's the nature of it. I also walk to the gym in the morning at 5:00 o'clock and I don't put my hood up because it's dark and I walk past a police checkpoint and I have to make sure they can see me smiling with my eyes and with my face so that I don't get stopped as I walk past them. I also get stopped in the search three times a year, like I'm a criminal. He's a New York Times best selling author, the CEO of his own consulting, advising and training company, APS, and a recipient of an OBE, a prestigious honor awarded by members of the British Royal Family for extraordinary achievements and contributions to society. He has a very long list of accomplishments. I'm very privileged, I live in a penthouse in Covent Garden, in the center of London. ![]()
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