Pag* Z...THE PEN...Octob#r, IMS
Corporate comer
Blacks struggle for success
By Larry G. Daniels
By now, the first article should
have been read and your curiosi
ty should be at an all-time high.
As I stated earlier, the objective
of these articles is to stimulate
ideas, suggestions, techniques,
and strategies to improve the ef
fectiveness of one’s performance
in pursuit of business and career
success. Also, it was mentioned
that precise and concise com
munication will be the main in
gredient. Therefore, keeping in
line with this point, let’s get to the
heart of the matter and get our
feet wet with some basic informa
tion to satisfy your curiosity.
Blacks and other minorities
have been seen in research and
literature as constantly struggl
ing to attain success in all areas
of life. Many problems have been
identified but much of the data
collected are seen as negatives
and few solutions have been of
fered for consideration.
Likewise, Blacks are faced with
certain identifiable problems in
all-white organizations and in
stitutions. For example, when
companies hire Black profes-
sionalB, they hire qualifiable peo
ple. There are Blacks who are
supposedly not qualified but can
be trained. Many companies feel
they are lowering their standards
to admit Blacks. Whether thU is
true or not. Blacks have managed
to move into positions in these
companies. Generally speaking,
industry has not found workable
means of training and develop
ment Blacks for higher
managerial positions; but neither
have existing racial barriers
stopped the trickle of upward
movement of Blacks. Organiza
tions have not yet begun to deal
with the internal problems that
arise after Black professionals
are hired.
If Blacks have managed to slip
between the doors opened by
equal employment opportunity
legislation and, in addition, have
moved into higher levels with lit
tle help from the white industries,
then what kind of factors are in
volved in surviving in these in
stitutions? Historical data in
dicates that institutions have
been hostile to the survival of
Blacks. How is it some Blacks
have managed to be successful in
spite of the barriers presented to
them? What kinds of attitudes do
they have? How do they behave?
What is their emotional set?
What kinds of job skills do and
have they developed in order to
survive and be successful?
When whites have been suc
cessful under adverse conditions,
then the human behavior profes
sionals want to know how they did
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it. Blacks have managed to sur
vive and be successful for hun
dreds of years in a society that
has been hostile to them. How
then do we proceed to gain
knowledge about what the
avenues for survival and success
have been for Black people? One
way we may be able to begin to
understand what has happened is
to look at the attitudes, emotions,
behaviors and job skills of Blacks
who have been successful under
adverse conditions.
Many of the studies about
Blacks in the past have been com
pleted by white researchers who
did not attempt to understand or
accept racial differences as
positive factors. Many of these
studies have been of Blacks who
have not been able to survive, not
been able to cope with a hostile
environment. These Blacks have
not presented us with
characteristics of success or
what it takes to be successful. It
is certainly time to take a look at
the positive side of survival and
success for Blacks in the white
corporate setting.
For all practical purposes, I
will be using a model for
understanding what happens to
Blacks psychologically and what
learnings they gain pertaining to
survival and success in organiza
tions. This framework will pre
sent a road map of what Blacks
might expect to encounter and of
fer suggestions about which
roads to travel.
If properly used, this data can
steer Blacks on a course of
positive coping that will promote
growth and development.
An important aspect of this
model is that it focuses on the
strengths in Blacks and the out
put of positive coping behaviore-
As stated earlier, much of the in
formation gathered in the past
about Blacks has pointed up
deficits or weaknesses in the
Blacks’ struggles. Most Blacks,
reglardless of their position or
status, tend to be lumped with the
poor and defeated. As Blacks and
minorities have moved into white
male institutions over the past
years, we have been presented
History of Black firsts
The first Black churches were
established in the Revolutionary
War period in South Carolina,
Georgia and Virginia. Some
authorities believe the first Black
church was a Baptist church
established between 177S and 1775
at Silver Bluff, S.C. across the
Savannah River from Augusta,
Ga.
• The first Black church in the
North was the African Church of
St. Thomas, which was dedicated
in Philadelphia on July 17, 1794.
On August 12,17M the St. Thomas
parishoners affiliated with the
Episcopal Church. Richard Allen
and his followers organized
Philadelf^ia’s Bethel African
Methodist Episcopal Church in
July, 1794.
• ilie first Black minister cer-
tifled by a predominately White
denomination was Lemuel
Haynes, who was licensed to
preach in the Congregational
Church in 1780. Haynes was also
the first Black pastor of a White
church in Torrington, Connec
ticut. In 1818 he was called to a
White church in Manchester,
New Hampshire.
• The first Black bishop was
Richard Allen, who was elected
at a general convention of the
African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Philadelphia on April
10,1816. James Varick was nam
ed bishop of the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
on July 90,1822.
• The first Black bishop of a
predominantly White demonima-
tion was James A. Healy, who
was consecrated bishop of the
Roman Catholic diocese in Maine
on June 2, 1875. The first Black
Roman Catholic bishop in the
20th century was Harold R.
Perry, who was consecrated in
New Orleans Januaiy 6,1966.
• The first Black bishop to head
an Episcopal diocese in America
was James M. Burgess, who was
installed as bishop of
Massachusetts on January 17,
1970. On September 24,1977 John
T. Walker was installed as the
sixth bishop of the Episcopal
diocese of Washington, D.C.
Apartheid and the
U.S. involyement
By Emmanuel B. Oritsegafor
South Africa’s policy of apartheid expresses the determination of
the 300-year-old white group to retain its privileged, social, and
economic status at all costs. The white minority government in South
Africa excludes blacks from political participator in the national
government. The potential danger of allowing black participation in
governmental decisions means the loss of both the political and social
status of the white minority government officials in South Africa.
A vast apparatus of laws and administrative procedures separates
white from blacks in every walk of life in south Africa. Blacks, by law,
are required to cai^ a passport at all times. The passport also serves
as an identification of social status. The movement of blacks are
supervised with this passport. The white minority government,
through their aggressiveness, has created a separate homeland for
blacks. The homeland is more of a concentration camp. Life for blacks
in the homeland is hopeless. Lack of medical facilities or convenient
living is part of the homeland.
Many of these blacks living in the homeland work as miners; some
grow crops on patchy, unfertile land for subsistence. The blacks living
standard is not comparable with the way the privileged whites live in
cities like Johannesburg or Capetown, where the whites live within
convenient facilities.
We are all aware that the United States supports the racist govern
ment in South Africa. The United States is also the backbone for other
Western national’ investment in South Africa. Under the constructive
engagement policy of President Reagan, full economic investment is
encouraged. Some of the 400 companies that are of American origin
residing in South Africa are Gulf Oil Company, Kentucky Fried
Chicken, and I.B.M. Under the Constructive Engagment policy, any
American company that payes taxes in South Africa can deduct their
apartheid taxes from the U.S. income tax. The Reagan administration
is saying that economic consideration is more important than the ill-
fated blacks.
The Unites States also considers the racist government to be an im
portant military strategic point. The country is rich in gold and
uranium, which is necessary for the development of nuclear weapons.
These unfortunate acts by the United States is glaring to you and me;
why don’t we try and rectify the situation? Join local organizations
that are against apartheid. Write your congresspersons, and make
your protest more visible. I hope the country of South Africa will be
ruled by blacks in the near future, and with our help, it might be.