www.ssoar.info Uncovering the white place: whitewashing at work Reitman, Meredith Preprint / Preprint Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Reitman, M. (2006). Uncovering the white place: whitewashing at work. Social & Cultural Geography, 7(2), 267-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360600600692 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Diese Version ist zitierbar unter / This version is citable under: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-379226 Social& CulturalGeography, Vol. 7, No. 2,April2006 Uncovering the white place: whitewashing at work Meredith Reitman Department of Geography,University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, PO Box 413, Milwaukee, WI53201, USA, [email protected] Recent work exploring the racialization of place tends to focus on the racialization of marginalized group space. This paper shifts attention toward the racialization of dominantgroupspace,namely,thecreationandmaintenanceofwhiteplaces.Usingthe case study of the software workplace, I argue that white places are formed through a process of whitewashing, which simultaneously denies race and superimposes white culture. Whitewashing wields language and invisibility to deny race and promote a particular kind of multiculturalism, while cloaking the workplace in a culture of informalityandbusinesspolitics.Thewhitewashedworkplace,likeawhitewashedwall, isseenascolorlessratherthanwhiteaswhiteculturebecomesuniversalizedashigh-tech culture. I draw my findings from in-depth interviews on workplace satisfaction, relationships,cultureanddiversitywithblack,AsianandwhiteemployeesinSeattle-area softwarefirms. Keywords: race,whiteness,workplace,high-tech. Introduction material and psychological hardship, though it also turns attention away from the detailed Recent contributions to the critical study of agency of privileged groups in creating and racerevealathrivinginterestinthewayplaces reproducing dominant places. Since groups at various scales take on racial meaning and maintain privilege precisely through the significance (Anderson 1991; Ford 1992; characterization of their actions as ‘normal’ Gilbert 1998; Gilmore 2002; Housel 2002). and therefore unbefitting critical analysis, With some important exceptions (Delaney uncovering their role in actively racializing 2002; Dwyer and Jones 2000; Hoelscher space could upset embedded systems of 2003; Kobayashi and Peake 2000), this work dominance and oppression. For this reason, primarilyinvestigatesexperiencesofoppressed I focus on the opposite side of the power groups within marginalized space, such as dichotomy (privilege versus oppression, dom- essentializedChinatownsandsegregatedblack inance versus marginalization) and seek to neighborhoods. A focus on oppressed places ‘identify and interrogate spaces of silence’ gives needed voice to those facing daily (KobayashiandPeake2000:400). ISSN1464-9365print/ISSN1470-1197online/06/020267-16q2006Taylor&Francis DOI:10.1080/14649360600600692 268 Meredith Reitman I investigate privileged space by examining to‘wash’awallistocoverthemarkingswith whiteplacesandhowtheybecomewhite.The white paint; the method chosen to ‘wash’ the ability to create and maintain public and workplace is to deny that racial politics exist private white space has been one of the most and to cover them with white culture. As an powerful expressions of white privilege over endresult,justasthewhitewashedwallisseen the past century in the United States (see, for as clean even though it is covered in white examples, Delaney 2002; Lapansky 1991; paint, the whitewashed workplace is seen as Pulido 2000; White 1996; Williams 1991).1 colorless even though it is fully immersed in Despite this significant role, white space white culture. In fact, no true washing occurs remains understudied. In this paper, I choose atall,onlypervasivecamouflagethatservesto tointerrogatetheworkplaceasasiterichwith naturalizeracial dynamics inthe workplace. meaningful relationships and power politics The structure of the paper follows the thatdirectlyaffectsthematerialexperiencesof structure of the whitewashing metaphor. its participants through hiring, firing and My review of literature on whiteness studies promotion (Wilson 1996). I specifically andantiracistandfeministgeographycharac- explore the software industry, often referred terizes whiteness as purposefully structuring to by the more general term ‘high-tech’, spaceby‘washingaway’racialpolitics.Ifollow because despite its overrepresentation of thisreviewbydiscussingthemethodsbywhich whites across all occupations, it has avoided this ‘washing away’ occurs in the software significant racialized critique, even at times workplace. First, whitewashing denies racial adopting a mask of moral superiority over politics through choices about racialized other industries (EEOC 2001; Jacoby 1999). language and invisibility and the promotion Asonejournalistnotes,‘It’sbeensaidsomuch of a repressive type of multiculturalism. that it’s practically a cliche´: unlike other Second, whitewashing ‘paints’ the workplace businesses, the forward-thinking high-tech whitebyimposingadominantwhitecultureof industry is built on a colorblind meritocracy’ informalityandbusinesspolitics.Ithendiscuss (Yamamoto 2001: 1). In addition, the dis- the result of these methods, namely, the course ofthe ‘high-tech’ workplace as a more normalization of white culture as ‘high-tech’ progressive alternative to the traditional culture. My concluding discussion offers corporate model often acts as a siren call in acautionarycontextforthesefindingsaswell uncertaineconomictimes(Darrah2000).The as suggestions for future antiracist work and software workplace is silent terrain; it is best organization. to know where we step before boldly venturingforward. Method I argue the process of creating and main- tainingawhiteplaceisoneof‘whitewashing’. Iusedprimarilyqualitativemethodstoexplore I use this metaphor very explicitly to describe the experiences of employees in the software the purpose, method and result of racializing workplace.During2002and2003,Iconducted theworkplaceaswhite.Justasthepurposeof in-depth open-ended interviews on work- whitewashing a wall is to ‘wash away’ place satisfaction, relationships, culture and undesired markings, the purpose of white- diversitywiththirtymaleemployeesinSeattle’s washing the workplace is to ‘wash away’ softwareindustry.2Theseparticipants,listedby undesired racial politics. The method chosen their pseudonyms in Table 1, self-identify as Uncovering the white place 269 Table1 Listofin-depthinterviewparticipants Name Race Occupation Age Arthur White Webdeveloper 34 Barry White Webdeveloper Late20s Ben Black Productmarketingmanager 30s Bill White Softwareengineer Early30s Charles Black Technicallead 40s Chris White Productmarketingmanager 32 David White Productmanager 30s Duong Asian(Vietnamese) Softwareengineer 25 Dylan Asian(Korean) Technicalaccountmanager 31 Edward White Softwaretester 30s Gary Black Softwaretester 24 Geoff Asian(Chinese) Projectmanager 25 George White Programmer/writer 27 Jeremy Black Softwareengineer 28 John Asian(Indian) Softwareengineer 28 Justin Black Softwaredevelopmentlead 29 Karl White Webdeveloper Early30s Mark Asian(Chinese) Programmanager Mid20s Martin White Formsdeveloper 30s Michael Asian(Vietnamese) Qualityassuranceengineer 26 Neil Black Programmanager 35 Philippe Black Webdeveloper 30s Rich Black Gamedesigner 20s Ravi Asian(Indian) Technicalconsultant 33 Rob Asian(Vietnamese) Softwareengineer 27 Sam White Programmanager 28 Samir Asian(Indian) Softwareengineer 20s Simon Asian(Chinese) Corporatedevelopmentmanager 25 Skip Black Softwarebuildmanager 30s Soon-Jung Black/Korean Softwareengineer 29 African-American, white and Asian, the three non-technical positions in the industry. groups with the highest industry participation Icontactedparticipantsthroughbothpersonal ratesnationally.3 networks and formal organizations, engaging I asked participants to racially self-identify in snowball sampling to reach the desired ratherthanassigningthemracialidentifiersto quotas. I used grounded-theory narrative aid in determining various modes of racial coding (Cresswell 1998) to uncover repeated expression. I interviewed only men to both themes in the interview data. I also drew controlforgenderdiscrimination,deservingof findings from additional interviews with civil aseparatestudy,andtofurtherfeministwork rightsofficialsandanalysesofcourtdocuments ontheconstructionofmasculinityinthehigh- concerning a class action discrimination suit tech workplace (Massey 1997). The range of againstamajorsoftwarecompany. participants’ occupations allowed me to Before turning to my analysis, I want to control for class, as they all fall within place myself in this research as a white, white collar middle-class professions, while middle-class woman occupying simultaneous attending to the diversity of technical and positions along multiple axes of power 270 Meredith Reitman (race, class and gender) (Katz 1994; Kobaya- thecommoneverydayinteractionsthatattach shi 1994). In interviewing African-American, whiteness to place, or the racialization of Asian and white men, I differ from my white places. participants on at least one and often two of This paper draws upon critical white theseaxes(genderandrace).Iaddressvarying studies, a branch of critical race theory that power relationships, including the ‘inherently highlights the historical and contemporary hierarchical’ (England 1994) relationship means by which whiteness maintains a between researcher and participant, through position of supremacy within a racialized theuseofreflexivitytounmaskmyroleinthe society (Delgado and Stefancic 1997). One research process. Following Frankenburg major component of this supremacy, or (1993), I told stories of myself to each privilege, is the casting of whiteness as the participantduringtheinterviewsandincluded ‘normal’ race against which all other groups my contributions in the analysis in order to deviate. By virtue of its normalcy, whiteness highlight our shared contribution to the often becomes invisible to whites themselves, research. The fact that I am white gives leading to an understanding among whites added necessity to these reflexive acts in that thatraceisunimportanttosocietaldynamics. whitenessitselfderivesoppressivepowerfrom Inresponse,whitenesstheoristsworktoreveal its constructed transparency and naturali- the significance of whiteness in everyday zation (Haney-Lopez 1996). Any attempt relationships (Haney-Lopez 1996; McIntosh I made to reveal my whiteness as opaque and 1997; Twine 1996) and the distribution of constructedoftenprovedbeneficialnotonlyto material goods (Lipsitz 1998; Oliver and opening dialogue with white participants Shapiro 1995). Dyer (1997: 3) argues, ‘the often uncomfortable in addressing race, but point of seeing the racing of whites is to also to disrupting traditional power imbal- dislodge them/us from the position of power, anceswithpotentiallymarginalizedAsianand with all the inequities, oppression, privileges black participants. and sufferings in its train, dislodging them/us by undercutting the authority with which they/we speak and act in and on the world’. Whitening the workplace: critical white The act of making whiteness ‘strange’ takes studies and antiracist and feminist away its ability to speak for the truth of all geography people,revealingitasaparticularperspective empowered witha universal likeness. Toexaminewhiteplaces,Ibuildontheefforts The discourse of colorblindness interacts of Kobayashi and Peake (2000) to bring with the invisibility of whiteness in complex together critical white studies and antiracist ways. The desire for a colorblind society is and feminist geography. As largely agreed historically rooted in the 1960s Civil Rights uponbyrecentcriticalstudies,raceissocially movementandisoftenassociatedwithMartin constructed and embedded in everyday, Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’ ordinary life (Delgado and Stefancic 2001; speech. However, the contemporary usage of Guillamin 1995; Omi and Winant 1994). theterm‘colorblindness’ismuchmorevaried Racialization describes the process of attach- in its perspectives on racial justice. O’Brien ingthissocialconstructiontopeopleorplaces (2001) argues some types of colorblindness (Miles1989).Myanalysisthereforeexamines lead to a ‘nonracist’ perspective in which Uncovering the white place 271 whites, by claiming to not notice unequal whites. As I argue elsewhere, these dynamics relations of power, evade responsibility for of simultaneous inclusion and exclusion, them. Other types allow for antiracist action acceptance and rejection result in a quite byacknowledgingcertainkindsofracism.The complex positioning of Asians and Asian- desire for a colorblind society is one support- Americans within the software workplace ing narrative behind the ‘new abolitionism’ (Reitman 2004). As presented in this paper, movement (Ignatiev and Garvey 1996). Asian and Asian-American employees some- Far from encouraging power evasiveness, this times aligned themselves with the tenets of movement directly confronts whiteness as whiteness, for example, by promoting ‘global a harmful fiction that needs to be destroyed. village’ multiculturalism, and sometimes they For the purposes of this paper, I employ the did not, as when they were excluded from term colorblindness to refer to ‘nonracists’, white officepolitics.Iattempt throughoutthe those who seek to expel race consciousness paper to retain this sense of fluidity in Asian without addressing racial inequities. A non- identity and belonging. racist perspective is antithetical to antiracist Work in antiracist and feminist geography work since ‘to banish race-words redoubles has been instrumental in exploring how the the hegemony of race by targeting efforts to processofracializationoccurs inplace.These combat racism while leaving race and its theorists see places as integral to the effectsunchallengedandembeddedinsociety, negotiation of power between groups. Places seemingly natural rather than the product of take onparticularidentities(racialand other) socialchoices’(Haney-Lopez:1996:177).The that reflect and reproduce the dynamics of suppression of race consciousness normalizes their participants. Anderson’s (1991) early the predominant system of white privilege work in antiracist geography suggests the ratherthan engaging inits dismantlement. historical segregation and institutional dis- Critical white studies also investigate what empowerment of Chinese residents in Van- it means to be Asian within American racial couver creates a separate space of dynamics.Wu(2002)arguesAsian-Americans Chinatown, and thereby a separate charac- must combat simultaneous racialized identi- terization of Chinese residents. Ruddick’s ties of ‘perpetual foreigner’ and ‘model (1996) analysis of public space explores its minority’. The perpetual foreigner is never role in recreating racialized myths of ‘black truly American, while the model minority beast/white goddess’ and ‘good immigrant/ upholds the American dream. Kim (1999) bad immigrant’. Dwyer andJones(2000) and argues this contradictory un-American-and- Kobayashi and Peake (2000) bring in critical too-American positioning results in a unique white studies to explore the ability of triangulation of Asian-Americans within US whiteness to create segmented space that racial dynamics. Asians as the ‘model min- dictates groups’ mobility and belonging. This ority’ are acceptable to whites as proof of work, together with analyses of racialized individual responsibility who do not threaten labor markets (England and Stiell 1997; white dominance byremaining‘foreign’.This Jackson 1992), highlights the role of raciali- positioninghelpsobscurewhiteoppressionby zation in defining racial groups’ position designating power struggles as competition within public and private space. betweenAsiansandAfrican-Americansrather By focusing on the body, feminist geogra- than between these groups and dominant phershavebeenabletoexplorethenegotiation 272 Meredith Reitman of power and identity in the workplace. race as a vital part of the working environ- Valentine (1993) argues the workplace is a ment. To this effect, people in these white site of oppressive heteronormativity, in which places make everyday choices to depoliticize thepowerdynamicbetweenheterosexualand raciallanguageandcloakthemselvesorothers homosexual employees is acted out in water in racial invisibility. These methods also cooler chats and public displays of relation- include promoting a particular kind of multi- ships. Dyck (1999) also explores workplace culturalism that claims racial harmony while marginalization, but focuses on everyday suppressing racial dissent. bodilyinscriptionofphysicaldisability.Inher study of London’s financial services industry, McDowell(1997)arguesrigidconstructionsof Depoliticizing racial language masculinity and femininity are enforced through everyday discourse of sexual com- Employees choose to use particular language ments and jokes, giving further evidence to to avoid acknowledging racial dynamics in the importance of workplace practices in the software workplace. The dominant use of negotiatingpowerbetweengroups. the word ‘Caucasian’ instead of ‘white’ Inmyproject,Ibringtogethercriticalwhite effectively hides color behind a wall of studies, antiracist geography and feminist pseudo-science. Despite a history of scientific geographytoexaminehoweverydaypractices falsification, ‘Caucasian’ was adopted into inthesoftwareworkplacecreateandmaintain American vernacular in the mid-twentieth itsconstructionasawhiteplace.Criticalwhite century as a means of reconsolidating white- studies shed light on the construction of ness as a biologically distinct category of whiteness which, like masculinity and hetero- people (Jacobson 1998). Regardless of its sexuality, draws power from a normative highlypoliticized roleindividingwhitesfrom characterization. Antiracist geography pos- people of color, some software employees itions this racialization in place, connecting seemedtobelieveintheterm’sscientificroots, its hierarchical power relationships to recur- leading them to embrace it as a neutral, rent spatial interactions. Feminist geography objective alternative to the more political investigatesthesemechanicsintheworkplace. ‘white’.George,awhiteprogrammer,usedthe Taken together, the racialization of the work- term to connote a more ‘accurate’ represen- place as white implies the workplace adopts tation of difference than that given by the the tenets of whiteness, namely, the denial of ‘myth’ of ‘white’. In reasoning why he used racial politics as integral to workplace the term, Martin, a white developer, argued, relationships.Ithereforelabelwhiteracializa- ‘IamwhatIamsowhyamIgoingtositthere tion ‘whitewashing’ to signify its intention to and make a political issue about it’. George ‘wash away’ racial politicsin place. and Martin consciously chose ‘Caucasian’ in order to distance themselves from dialogue laden with mythology and politics toward Methods, part 1: denying race in the what they felt was a more scientific, objective workplace narrative. Thechoicetouse‘Caucasian’crossedracial Contemporary white workplaces seek to boundaries. However, black and Asian ‘wash away’ racial politics by first denying employees, rather than adopting the term Uncovering the white place 273 for its scientific likeness, chose ‘Caucasian’ in included those who described themselves ordertoavoidoffendingtheirwhitecolleagues. and other white coworkers as ‘mutts’. Chris, Dylan, a Korean American technical account awhiteproductmarketingmanager,preferred manager, claimed ‘white’sounded ‘like “dirty to ‘usually leave [my race] out ... I think I’m whitesomething”...italmostsoundsderoga- aboutasmuttasyoucanget’.Theword‘mutt’ torytoacertainextent.SoCaucasian,whileit’s implies an inoffensive, even self-deprecatory akindoffunnywordinitself,justdoesn’tseem racial identification, implying a depoliticized as derogatory’. John, an Indian software senseofwhiteness.Inchoosingtoself-identify engineer,andJustin,ablacksoftwaredevelop- in these ways, white participants used mentlead,alsofelt‘white’mightbeunderstood language to whitewash racial dynamics from as ‘antagonistic’, as negatively charged as the workplace. ‘colored’, and therefore chose the more ‘technical’ term ‘Caucasian’. These partici- pants feared their use of ‘white’ will be taken Masking racial visibility negatively,asproofofracialanimosity.Intruth, the act of using ‘white’ only reveals to whites White employees also desired racial invisi- their own privilege, the historical politics of bility, to see and be seen without racial whiteness. In a white place, however, this markers, in order to reinforce a depoliticized choice threatens an intentional denial of workplace. I interpreted this desire as stem- racialdynamics. ming from a nonracist model of colorblind- White employees’ language choices also ness, in which racial harmony arises from deny race by focusing on multiple heritages blindnesstoracialdifference.Whites’desireto instead of explicit racial identifiers. Mary become invisible was often expressed in Waters(1990)labelsthistypeofwhiteidentity distaste for visible whites. This ‘race for ‘symbolic ethnicity’. She argues that contrary innocence’ (Pierce 2003) distanced white to other racial identities, white ethnicity is participantsfromthosewhomoreegregiously voluntary, costless and allows whites to crossed the boundaries of racial propriety. express both individuality and community This strategy resembled the propensity of membership. I argue this symbolic ethnicity urban liberal whites to disparage rural whites alsoallowswhitestodenytheirracialidentity as racist ‘rednecks’ in order to define and privilege. When asked how they racially themselves in opposition (Jarosz and Lawson self-identified, many white participants chose 2002). Chris, for example, spoke dismissively a long list of heritage descriptors, only of ‘guys [who] were just so hillbilly about reluctantly switching to racial identifiers some stuff ... they weren’t comfortable with when pressed. George, the white program- things outside of their realm’. By contrasting mer introduced above, described himself as himselfwiththesecoworkers,Chrisportrayed ‘German, English, Dutch, Irish, Scottish’. himself as racially indifferent, taking his own He chose this identification because white color and privilege out of view. In a manner was too ‘vague’, though his neglect in similar to the use of multiple heritage elaborating on any strong ties with these descriptors to evade racial identification, ethnicities in the rest of the interview white employees also used white subcultures suggestedtheywerenoless‘vague’butserved to mask the visibility of white dominance in some other purpose. This evasive pattern the workplace. Karl, a white web developer, 274 Meredith Reitman describeddiversityinhisworkplaceasranging positionswhitesasmanagersofnationalspace from ‘Goth’ to ‘punk’ to ‘college student’. who decide both whether or not to tolerate Thesesubcultureswereallwhite,buthisfocus difference and how to value its potentially on diversity within the racial group masked ‘enriching’qualities.Inthesoftwareworkplace, thepredominanceofwhitebodiesthroughout this multicultural enrichment celebrates differ- the workplace. ent nationalities coming together to work The nonracist model of colorblindness harmoniouslytowardasinglegoal.Employees encouraged employees to ignore the racial take pride in this diversity, claiming it as identities of their colleagues as well as their something unique and desirable about the own. Chris used a childhood experience of high-tech industry. Significantly, however, this not noticing the race of the black doctor in type of multiculturalism does not engage town as a good model for how he wanted to underrepresentedminorities, who disappearat raise his children. George also took pride in themarginsofthedominantwhiteworkplace. his refusal to see race, arguing he sees his I argue promoting high-tech ‘global village’ coworkers ‘as employees of [Company] first multiculturalism whitewashes highly proble- and then race, gender second’. The rigidity of maticracialdynamics. this stance led Barry, a white web program- Software employees often described high- mer, to struggle in an internal ‘twisting act’. tech diversity as including ‘people from all He described a situation in which he gave overtheworld’,definingdemographicvariety a friendly greeting to a coworker because he by nation of origin. Employees repeatedly was black, and then worried this represented described workplaces comprised of people ‘a conflict between noticing and messaging originating from multiple Asian and Euro- that I’m not noticing that I feel is very false’. pean countries as truly harmonious ‘global Barry wanted to use colorblindness to assure villages’. This portrayal, in which ‘everyone his coworker he considers him an equal, but sticks out, we are all different’, denies the in order to do this, Barry had to first notice marginalization of any one group. Employees thathiscoworkerisblack.Hethereforefound recounted the excitement of seeing national himself caught between the nonracist model dress when walking the hallways or hearing of colorblindness, which tells him to ignore snippetsofaforeignlanguageinthecafeteria. race, and a desire to address inequalities, For many employees, the gathering of which drives him to acknowledge race. Barry nationalities was something exhilarating, felt he was alone in this struggle, highlighting enriching and somewhat unique to the high- thepowerofthenonracistmodeltodominate tech industry. the white workplace. However,thistypeofmulticulturalismisbuilt uponaveryspecificformulation.Justin,ablack softwaredevelopmentlead,pointsoutthatthe Promoting ‘global village’ multiculturalism industry’s claim to diversity relies on the importantcaveat‘ifyoutakeoutblackpeople The software workplace also promotes a from the equation’. This caveat is key to the particular kind of ‘liberal pluralist’ (Jay 1997) industry’suseofmulticulturalism,asitsclaims multiculturalismthatde-emphasizesracialpoli- of diversity rest on a conflation between the ticswhilekeepingwhitesfirmlyinpower.Hage minority or nonwhite population and under- (2000) argues this type of multiculturalism represented minorities or African-Americans. Uncovering the white place 275 This confusion of terms both defends against underrepresented groups (Shiver 2000) chargesofdiscriminatorypracticesandallows (Figure 1). forcontinuedoverseasrecruiting.Indefending This debate also represents a system of charges of discrimination in the workplace, racial triangulation, in which the competition one major company asserts, ‘over the past for software jobs is staged between African- three years, [our] minority work force has Americans and Asians, while the white grown nearly twice as fast as the company’s dominance of technical and non-technical domestic workforce overall’ (Rosenberg occupations is less apparent.4 The type of 2001). In fact, that group of ‘minorities’ multiculturalism espoused by the software includes Asian employees, who are in fact workplace thereby ‘washes away’ the overrepresented in the software industry dynamics of racial inequality and white (EEOC2001).Theuseoftheword‘minority’ privilege in favor of a harmonious global toincludeanoverrepresentedgroupmakesno village. rational sense except to disguise the small numbers of truly underrepresented groups: African-Americans and Latinos. In addition, Methods, part 2: painting the workplace this confusion allows companies to recruit white Asian immigrants through the H1-B program while claiming that they are supporting The metaphor of whitewashing pairs a denial multiculturalism. This practice has caused of race dynamics with an imposition of white several civil rights groups to accuse high-tech culture.Irefertoracializedworkplacecultures companiesofdiscriminatingagainstnationally as specific ideologies and normative ways of Figure1 Thisposterargues,‘ForyearsAfrican-Americanshavelaidtheirlifeonthelinefortheir country. And many have built successful careers as military leaders. ... They are given an opportunity to live up to their full human potential. Too bad America’s technology industry doesn’t feel the same way. ... Last year alone over 400,000 black workers lost their jobs while CongressfilledtensofthousandsoftechjobswithH1-BVisaforeignworkers’.Source:Coalition forFair Employment inSilicon Valley2002.