This Leslie Jones story just keeps getting worse.
Jones, the comic, SNL actor, and one of the four female leads of the Ghostbusters reboot, has once again been the target of racist and sexist online abuse.
Yesterday, her personal website was taken down after hackers apparently posted personal information about her, including her passport and driver’s license, along with nude photos, and in a particularly grotesque twist, a video of Harambe, the Cincinnati Zoo gorilla who was killed by zoo officials after a child fell into his enclosure.
And what has now become a ritual, famous people in her sphere tweeted words of support, like this, from Lena Dunham: “Let’s turn our anger at trolls into love for Leslie Jones and into strategies to protect all the heroines who don’t deserve this bull@#$%.”
It’s just not enough, says Rebecca Carroll, in a strongly worded opinion piece for The Guardian.
“Where is the practical response to this grotesque, debilitatingly mean-spirited violence? It’s one thing to offer her digital apologies for others’ racism. It’s another to actually take a stand to help eliminate it from our society.”
What strikes me about this situation, and so many others that happen online, is that it has become a workplace issue.
Jones is a public figure, and like so many even semi-public ones – like marketers, publishers, game-makers, academics, researchers, journalists, lawyers and advocates, to name a few – she needs the public spaces of the internet and social media to amplify her work and brand. Yet she is being driven from these important tools because we, as a society, are unable to wrangle the racism and bullying beast in ourselves and each other.
At least when it happens online, we can see the problem.
But for many other people, race-based and other forms of workplace harassment happen behind closed doors. Where is the practical solution for this?
In June, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace released a thorough – and thoroughly grim – report on harassment in the workplace.
The report says that of the 90,000 charges of discrimination received at the EEOC during their fiscal year 2015, one-third was for workplace harassment. The report also notes that up to 60% of workers have experienced race-based harassment in the workplace, and one study of LGBT employees reviewed by the report showed 41% of respondents said they had been verbally or physically abused by co-workers.
But that’s not the whole picture. Some three out of four employees who experienced some form of harassment based on their race, ethnicity, disability or LGBT status, never told their manager, supervisor or human relations contact, studies show.
“Most employers do very little training besides a policy in their handbook that states unlawful harassment is not acceptable,” says Karen A. Young, author and HR consultant. And the training that is in place, tends to focus on legal liability – to protect the company, not prevention – which protects and educates the employees. “We charge most line managers with handling these issues, and they are even less equipped to deal with the situation.”
And yet, front line leaders, trained, supported and empowered to have difficult and meaningful conversations are an important way to maintain a respectful and productive workplace, says the report. “However, even effective training cannot occur in a vacuum – it must be part of a holistic culture of non-harassment that starts at the top.”
Read the full report here.
On Point
| Average black voters respond to Donald Trump’s outreach |
| As it turns out, many are offended by some of candidate Trump’s assertions that black neighborhoods are “war zones” filled with food stamp cheats, failing schools, broken families and other dysfunctions. While anyone can find a counter-example to anything, this story does an important service by elevating the views of people whose opinions are often overlooked because they don’t embody an extreme stereotype of black over or under-achievement. |
| New York Times |
| White radio producer assumes black identity and fakes calls to radio show |
| For months, “Dwyane From Swedesboro” had been dialing into a popular Philadelphia morning radio show. Dwayne was a lively black man, who was often “horny for white women,” and had problems with paternity tests, and so forth. Turns out, he was actually a white radio producer named Pat Egan. Dwayne even had a deeply insulting Twitter account, complete with a pilfered image of an actual, now angry, black man, Nosike Onyemaobim. The true story of the fake caller goes downhill from there. |
| Crossing Broad |
| Michelle Obama talks about using pop culture to promote her causes |
| Whether you love or loathe her - there seems to be few people in the middle - Michelle Obama has been a fixture in pop culture since she became First Lady. In a rare interview, she talks about how she’s used goofiness, light-hearted fun and humor to package and sell some very serious initiatives, like promoting access to education for underserved girls. |
| Variety |
| How to use Instagram to better plan your travel |
| Technology and culture writer Jenna Wortham offers an interesting twist on travel planning by using geolocated posts on Instagram to help suss out a location or itinerary that you’re interested in and experience what it's really like in the moment. “[F]eeds give a feel for a place that you can use to decide if a place feels fun and seems safe — whatever that means to you,” she writes. She gives detailed examples of how this kind of “research” is specifically useful for people of color and the LGBT community, who can face specific dangers and disappointments while traveling. |
| New York Times |
| Why subtle biases may be a bigger problem than overt ones |
| “Asian men are not assertive enough,” is a pretty clear case of bias. But what if you hear, “I just don’t think you’re ready for this assignment?” Subtler forms of feedback and barriers may be based on performance, or may be based on hidden bias. Not knowing is a cognitive and emotional drain on employees of color, argues two researchers, impacting stress levels, productivity, turnover and career success. |
| HBR |
The Woke Leader
| Black cryptologists played a key role in World War II |
| For much of American history, African Americans in the workplace, particularly in technical or scientific roles, have been largely forgotten or erased. That’s what makes this post about the role that black cryptologers and decoders played in the agency predecessor to the NSA, which operated during World War II, so poignant and fascinating. Fun fact: It was a quota attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt that integrated the security ranks in the first place. |
| Medium |
| The first black novelist to win the Hugo Award on race and fantasy |
| N.K. Jemisin recently won the Hugo Award for her novel The Fifth Season, one of the top prizes for science fiction and fantasy writing. Turns out, she’s the first black writer and first woman of color to win the award in the novelist category. In this fascinating Q&A, she takes on race, racism and how she nearly abandoned the novel. The premise, which is about a society of ‘disaster-preppers’ who can start and stop earthquakes, came to her in a dream. |
| New York Times |
| Pretending to be outgoing actually works if you have a plan |
| Stephanie Vozza, a self-identified “shy person,” attempted to be outgoing for a week to charming results. Specifically, she broke down the dreaded ‘cold conversation’ – i.e., talking to actual strangers - into specific steps that would help her connect with people in her network and have a better experience at work functions. Though not specifically about race, she outlines a terrific strategy for anyone who feels on the outside looking in. |
| Fast Company |
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| —N.K. Jemisin |
