(i found this in my Intercultural Communication Skills Workbook. by Tema Okun, based on the work of Daniel Buford with People's Institute for Survival and Beyond. So interesting to read, and definitely worth sharing.)
This is a list of characteristics of white supremacy that show up in our organizations. Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking. Because we all live in a white supremacy culture, these characteristics show up in the attitude and behaviors of all of us--people of color and white people. Therefore, these attitudes and behaviors of all show up in any group or organization, whether it is white-led or predominantly white or people of color-led or predominantly people of color.
Perfectionism
1. Little appreciation expressed among people for the work that others are doing; appreciation that is expressed usually directed to those who get most of the credit anyway.
2. More common to point out how the person or work is inadequate.
3. Talk to others about the inadequacies of a person or their work without ever talking directly to them.
4. Mistakes are seen as personal i.e., they reflect badly on the person making them as opposed to being seen for what they are--mistakes.
5. Making a mistake is confused with being a mistake, doing wrong with being wrong.
6. Little time, energy or money put into reflection or identifying lessons learned that can improve practice, in other words little or no learning from mistakes.
7. Tendency to identify what's wrong; little ability to identify, name, and appreciate what's right.
8. Fails to appreciate her own good work, more often pointing out his faults or 'failures', focusing on inadequacies and mistakes rather than learning from them; the person works with a harsh and constant inner critic.
Sense of Urgency
1. Continued sense of urgency that makes it difficult to take time to be inclusive, encourage depressive culture.
Quantity over Quality
1. All resources of organization are directed toward producing measurable goals.
2. Things that can be measured are more highly valued than things that cannot, for example number of people attending a meeting, newsletter circulation, money spent are valued more than quality of relationships, democratic decision-making, ability to constructively deal with conflict.
3. Little or no value attached to process; if it can't be measured, it has no value.
4. Discomfort with emotion and feelings.
5. No understanding when there is a conflict between content (the agenda of the meeting) and process (people's need to be heard or engaged), process will prevail (for example, you may get though the agenda, but if you haven't paid attention to people's need to be heard, the decisions made at the meeting are undermined and/or disregarded).
Worship of the Written Word
1. If it's not in a memo, it doesn't exist.
2. The organization does not take into account or value other ways in which information is shared.
3. Those with strong documentation and writing skills are more highly valued, even in organizations where ability to relate to others is key to the mission.
Only One Right Way
1. The belief there is one right way to do things and once people are introduced to the right way, they will see the light and adopt it.
2. When they do not adapt or change, then something is wrong with them (the other, those not changing), not with us (those who 'know' the right way).
3. Similar to the missionary who does not see value in the culture of other communities, sees only value in their beliefs about what is good.
Paternalism
1. Decision-making is clear to those with power and unclear to those without it.
2. Those with power think they are capable of making decisions for and in the interests of those without power.
3. Those with power often don't think it is important or necessary to understand the viewpoint or experience of those for whom they are making decisions.
4. Those without power understand they do not have it and understand who does.
5. Those without power do not really know how decisions get made and who makes what decisions, and yet they are completely familiar with the impact of those decisions on them.
Either/Or Thinking
1. Requiring people to think in a linear (logical) fashion and ignoring or invalidating those who think in other ways.
2. Impatience with any thinking that does not appear 'logical'.
Right to Comfort
1. The belief that those with power have a right to emotional and psychological comfort (another aspect of valuing 'logic' over emotion).
2. Scapegoating those who cause discomfort.
3. Equating individual acts of unfairness against white people with systemic racism which daily targets people of color.
I found these characteristics to be pervasive both within myself and in the White dominant culture that I have grown up in. Damage is done when one culture assumes its way of thinking is "right" and other ways are wrong, and when it does not give space to listen to and receive other voices. It is helpful to have these things named and identified, because we cannot modify the damaging ways in which we live and relate to others until we become aware of the oppressive and exclusive attitudes that are within us. It is through awareness that we can begin to make a choice to live differently if we so choose.
