A flawed but insightful exposé of structural racism in corporate culture.
A Black entrepreneur explores corporate racism in this business book.
As a self-made Black businessman and licensed clinical social worker, Williams is deeply familiar with the racism embedded in American corporate culture. In this work,he reveals “the psychological and emotional consequences of being Black in corporate America.” Despite surveys that highlight the many White businessmen who do not see their Black co-workers as “deserving” of their jobs and who maintain stereotypes of African Americans “as lazy and unwilling to work,” Williams convincingly demonstrates “the reality…that Black people need to work harder than their white counterparts to achieve the bare minimum.” Even when succeeding at their jobs, Black workers continue to be ignored, particularly in decision-making circles. At just under 100 pages, this succinct book covers topics that range from ethnocentric ideas of “professional” hairstyles to imposter syndrome and tokenism to microaggressions from White colleagues who “do not see color.” Code-switching is a central topic of the author’s analysis, which argues that racist attitudes in the corporate sector view African American Vernacular English as “an inferior dialect.” In general, United States business culture, according to Williams, seeks “to erase” Blackness by encouraging African American employees to conform to White cultural norms as a prerequisite to climb the corporate ladder. This prioritization of White values implicitly strips “the average Black person of their individuality and humanity.” The volume’s final chapters examine the psychological costs of “Corporate Traumatic Stress Disorder” and call for true diversity in the business sector that celebrates differences rather than encourages a monolithic corporate culture whose default is White comfort. As U.S. corporations have increasingly included social justice messages in their advertising campaigns, Williams’ book is an important reminder of the entrenched systems within corporate America that work against Black employees even when the business publicly states a commitment to “diversity.” But while the volume provides a myriad of anecdotal and statistical evidence to bolster its claims, it lacks adequate citations. In addition, the work’s opening chapter on African American history is perfunctory and distracts from an otherwise important message on corporate racism.
A flawed but insightful exposé of structural racism in corporate culture.Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-23685-8
Page Count: 114
Publisher: CKC Publishing House LLC
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection...
A Dumpster diver–turned-CEO details her rise to success and her business philosophy.
In this memoir/business book, Amoruso, CEO of the Internet clothing store Nasty Gal, offers advice to young women entrepreneurs who seek an alternative path to fame and fortune. Beginning with a lengthy discussion of her suburban childhood and rebellious teen years, the author describes her experiences living hand to mouth, hitchhiking, shoplifting and dropping out of school. Her life turned around when, bored at work one night, she decided to sell a few pieces of vintage clothing on eBay. Fast-forward seven years, and Amoruso was running a $100 million company with 350 employees. While her success is admirable, most of her advice is based on her own limited experiences and includes such hackneyed lines as, “When you accept yourself, it’s surprising how much other people will accept you, too.” At more than 200 pages, the book is overlong, and much of what the author discusses could be summarized in a few tweets. In fact, much of it probably has been: One of the most interesting sections in the book is her description of how she uses social media. Amoruso has a spiritual side, as well, and she describes her belief in “chaos magic” and “sigils,” a kind of wishful-thinking exercise involving abstract words. The book also includes sidebars featuring guest “girlbosses” (bloggers, Internet entrepreneurs) who share equally clichéd suggestions for business success. Some of the guidance Amoruso offers for interviews (don’t dress like you’re going to a nightclub), getting fired (don’t call anyone names) and finding your fashion style (be careful which trends you follow) will be helpful to her readers, including the sage advice, “You’re not special.”
Career and business advice for the hashtag generation. For all its self-absorption, this book doesn’t offer much reflection or insight.Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16927-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Portfolio
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.
A potent series of “notes” paints a multidimensional picture of Blackness in America.
Throughout the book, which mixes memoir, history, literary theory, and art, Sharpe—the chair of Black studies at York University in Toronto and author of the acclaimed book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being—writes about everything from her family history to the everyday trauma of American racism. Although most of the notes feature the author’s original writing, she also includes materials like photographs, copies of letters she received, responses to a Twitter-based crowdsourcing request, and definitions of terms collected from colleagues and friends (“preliminary entries toward a dictionary of untranslatable blackness”). These diverse pieces coalesce into a multifaceted examination of the ways in which the White gaze distorts Blackness and perpetuates racist violence. Sharpe’s critique is not limited to White individuals, however. She includes, for example, a disappointing encounter with a fellow Black female scholar as well as critical analysis of Barack Obama’s choice to sing “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed in a hate crime at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. With distinct lyricism and a firm but tender tone, Sharpe executes every element of this book flawlessly. Most impressive is the collagelike structure, which seamlessly moves among an extraordinary variety of forms and topics. For example, a photograph of the author’s mother in a Halloween costume transitions easily into an introduction to Roland Barthes’ work Camera Lucida, which then connects just as smoothly to a memory of watching a White visitor struggle with the reality presented by the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. “Something about this encounter, something about seeing her struggle…feels appropriate to the weight of this history,” writes the author. It is a testament to Sharpe’s artistry that this incredibly complex text flows so naturally.
An exquisitely original celebration of American Blackness.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780374604486
Page Count: 392
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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