Code Switching, Dagnabbit

Someone once asked me if my path to the executive suite involved code-switching– the kind of linguistic white-washing some non-whites use to fit in at work. You know, sounding more white than you are… but also behaving and acting that way… like you’re an inside player in the dominant culture… clearly not outside and looking in, amused.

Mind you, it was a public forum and the question was being asked of a guy who– at best– stretches the definition of a person of color; a guy who clearly learned his drawly phone voice from Yosemite Sam.

How could I possibly respond?

“Um… I’ve always passed as white… because… um… I technically am white.. because um… white always made an exception for oil producers. At least until that Tuesday. But even that only lasted 9 months or so.”

[I snapped back into the moment.]

I responded with something I still believe today.

“The problem with any kind of ‘fake it ‘til to make it’ is that it’s too effective. If you pretend to be someone else long enough, you become what you were pretending to be.

That’s why it’s so vital that you’re always your authentic self at work.

If I want to change the world– or my company– and I think “do whatever it takes to get to the top”— “be whoever you need to be”— because from *that* seat, I’ll be able to make the needed changes….

Well… by the time I get there, I’ll be like everyone around me and those changes won’t be a priority anymore.

They’ll be a younger person’s ambition.

And dagnabbit, that ain’t worth it.”

—

At least that’s how I remember it. It was a couple of years ago. And memory’s a funny thing. It always makes me sound more diverse than I am.

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