The Air Force's Black Ceiling

The Air Force's Black Ceiling PDF Author: Ivan Thompson
Publisher: Bookbaby
ISBN: 9781483571775
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The "Air Force's Black Ceiling" is a view of diversity in the Air Force from one man's over 28 years in the Air Force. This view begins with his perspectives and insights as an Air Force Academy cadet and continues with his progression through company and field grade ranks. It also includes special insights gained while serving on the Secretary of Defense's Diversity Task Force as the Deputy Director of the Defense Business Practice Implementation Board. The author's view of diversity has been bolstered by face to face interviews with five former African American Air Force four-star generals and numerous current and former African American generals in the Air Force and the Army. The author's views are also influenced by numerous discussions with former graduates of the US Air Force Academy, his work with the Tuskegee Airmen chapters and his own detailed research into the biographies of former Air Force Chiefs of Staff and former Strategic, Tactical and Air Combat Command Commanders. The title might imply that the "Black Ceiling" has been put in place on purpose by senior Air Force leaders... the reader will find out that isn't the case. The reader however will find out that there are very distinct remnants of an intricate system of exclusionary development practices, cultural practices, stereotypes and biases that have served to keep the ceiling in place for African American men throughout the Air Force's existence. The author redefines diversity in an effort to show that certain doors in the US Air Force still remain solidly closed to African Americans in 2016. Previous definitions of diversity allowed the Air Force to appear successful if it had a black four-star general on the roster. The author's definition keys in on diversity in the fighter pilot ranks. This is a critical distinction. It is a pivotal distinction to point out that until 2015 the Air Force has never had so much as a three-star general in charge of fighter or bomber forces in Tactical, Strategic, or Air Combat Command or in US Air Forces Europe. There has never been a four-star commander of any of these commands. A generation of fighting the Cold War in Europe. Nearly a generation of war-fighting in Iraq. With no African American three-star generals leading the fight until 2015. The author will show that the Air Force has a history of picking its Chiefs of Staff, its Commanders of Tactical, Strategic, Air Combat and US Air Forces Europe from general officers who were proven in the fight. The author shows in detail the selective and exclusionary development of non-minority officers from the time of commission, only to point to changes that must be made to change diversity where it is needed most: fighter pilot general officers. The target audience for this book is those who recognize that the Air Force is a great institution that can be made better. Those who might be in a position to influence or even make the changes recommended in this book to make the Air Force better than it has ever been.

The Black Ceiling

The Black Ceiling PDF Author: Kevin Woodson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226829596
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Get Book Here

Book Description
A revelatory assessment of workplace inequality in high-status jobs that focuses on a new explanation for a pernicious problem: racial discomfort. America’s elite law firms, investment banks, and management consulting firms are known for grueling hours, low odds of promotion, and personnel practices that push out any employees who don’t advance. While most people who begin their careers in these institutions leave within several years, work there is especially difficult for Black professionals, who exit more quickly and receive far fewer promotions than their White counterparts, hitting a “Black ceiling.” Sociologist and law professor Kevin Woodson knows firsthand what life at a top law firm feels like as a Black man. Examining the experiences of more than one hundred Black professionals at prestigious firms, Woodson discovers that their biggest obstacle in the workplace isn’t explicit bias but racial discomfort, or the unease Black employees feel in workplaces that are steeped in Whiteness. He identifies two types of racial discomfort: social alienation, the isolation stemming from the cultural exclusion Black professionals experience in White spaces, and stigma anxiety, the trepidation they feel over the risk of discriminatory treatment. While racial discomfort is caused by America’s segregated social structures, it can exist even in the absence of racial discrimination, which highlights the inadequacy of the unconscious bias training now prevalent in corporate workplaces. Firms must do more than prevent discrimination, Woodson explains, outlining the steps that firms and Black professionals can take to ease racial discomfort. Offering a new perspective on a pressing social issue, The Black Ceiling is a vital resource for leaders at preeminent firms, Black professionals and students, managers within mostly White organizations, and anyone committed to cultivating diverse workplaces.

The Air Force's Black Ceiling

The Air Force's Black Ceiling PDF Author: Ivan Thompson
Publisher: Bookbaby
ISBN: 9781483571775
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The "Air Force's Black Ceiling" is a view of diversity in the Air Force from one man's over 28 years in the Air Force. This view begins with his perspectives and insights as an Air Force Academy cadet and continues with his progression through company and field grade ranks. It also includes special insights gained while serving on the Secretary of Defense's Diversity Task Force as the Deputy Director of the Defense Business Practice Implementation Board. The author's view of diversity has been bolstered by face to face interviews with five former African American Air Force four-star generals and numerous current and former African American generals in the Air Force and the Army. The author's views are also influenced by numerous discussions with former graduates of the US Air Force Academy, his work with the Tuskegee Airmen chapters and his own detailed research into the biographies of former Air Force Chiefs of Staff and former Strategic, Tactical and Air Combat Command Commanders. The title might imply that the "Black Ceiling" has been put in place on purpose by senior Air Force leaders... the reader will find out that isn't the case. The reader however will find out that there are very distinct remnants of an intricate system of exclusionary development practices, cultural practices, stereotypes and biases that have served to keep the ceiling in place for African American men throughout the Air Force's existence. The author redefines diversity in an effort to show that certain doors in the US Air Force still remain solidly closed to African Americans in 2016. Previous definitions of diversity allowed the Air Force to appear successful if it had a black four-star general on the roster. The author's definition keys in on diversity in the fighter pilot ranks. This is a critical distinction. It is a pivotal distinction to point out that until 2015 the Air Force has never had so much as a three-star general in charge of fighter or bomber forces in Tactical, Strategic, or Air Combat Command or in US Air Forces Europe. There has never been a four-star commander of any of these commands. A generation of fighting the Cold War in Europe. Nearly a generation of war-fighting in Iraq. With no African American three-star generals leading the fight until 2015. The author will show that the Air Force has a history of picking its Chiefs of Staff, its Commanders of Tactical, Strategic, Air Combat and US Air Forces Europe from general officers who were proven in the fight. The author shows in detail the selective and exclusionary development of non-minority officers from the time of commission, only to point to changes that must be made to change diversity where it is needed most: fighter pilot general officers. The target audience for this book is those who recognize that the Air Force is a great institution that can be made better. Those who might be in a position to influence or even make the changes recommended in this book to make the Air Force better than it has ever been.

The Racial Glass Ceiling

The Racial Glass Ceiling PDF Author: Roy L. Brooks
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300227612
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Get Book Here

Book Description
A compelling study of a subtle and insidious form of racial inequality in American law and culture. Why does racial equality continue to elude African Americans even after the election of a black president? Liberals blame white racism while conservatives blame black behavior. Both define the race problem in socioeconomic terms, mainly citing jobs, education, and policing. Roy Brooks, a distinguished legal scholar, argues that the reality is more complex. He defines the race problem African Americans face today as a three-headed hydra involving socioeconomic, judicial, and cultural conditions. Focusing on law and culture, Brooks defines the problem largely as racial subordination—“the act of impeding racial progress in pursuit of nonracist interests.” Racial subordination is little understood and underacknowledged, yet it produces devastating and even deadly racial consequences that affect both poor and socioeconomically successful African Americans. Brooks addresses a serious problem, in many ways more dangerous than overt racism, and offers a well-reasoned solution that draws upon the strongest virtues America has exhibited to the world.

The Class Ceiling

The Class Ceiling PDF Author: Friedman, Sam
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447336100
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
Politicians continually tell us that anyone can get ahead. But is that really true? This important, best-selling book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Friedman and Laurison show that a powerful 'class pay gap’ exists in Britain’s elite occupations. Even when those from working-class backgrounds make it into prestigious jobs, they earn, on average, 16% less than colleagues from privileged backgrounds. But why is this the case? Drawing on 175 interviews across four case studies – television, accountancy, architecture, and acting – they explore the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile. This is a rich, ambitious book that demands we take seriously not just the glass but also the class ceiling.

The Glass Ceiling

The Glass Ceiling PDF Author: Ann E. Weiss
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books (CT)
ISBN: 9780761313656
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 132

Get Book Here

Book Description
Considers women in the workforce throughout history and the development of a glass ceiling that keeps them from rising to high levels in many corporations.

The Black Elite

The Black Elite PDF Author: Lois Benjamin
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742541856
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book Here

Book Description
Using in-depth interviews of high achieving African Americans who came of age prior to or before the Civil Rights movement and those who grew up in the post-Civil Rights era, this book documents that race still matters in the twenty-first century. The work details the lived experiences of African Americans and how they grapple daily with what W. E. Du Bois called the double consciousness, living within and between two worlds. A new chapter details how the post-Civil Rights generation interprets and navigates the racial terrain differently than the Civil Rights generation, which has implication for group identity and group mobility.

To be Hung from the Ceiling by Strings of Varying Length

To be Hung from the Ceiling by Strings of Varying Length PDF Author: Rick Reid
Publisher: Akashic Books
ISBN: 1933354763
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 97

Get Book Here

Book Description
Young poet Rick Reid enters the pantheon of Chris Abani's Black Goat poetry series.

The Cash Ceiling

The Cash Ceiling PDF Author: Nicholas Carnes
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691203733
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why are Americans governed by the rich? Millionaires make up only three percent of the public but control all three branches of the federal government. How did this happen? What stops lower-income and working-class Americans from becoming politicians? The first book to answer these urgent questions, The Cash Ceiling provides a compelling and comprehensive account of why so few working-class people hold office--and what reformers can do about it. Using extensive data on candidates, politicians, party leaders, and voters, Nicholas Carnes debunks popular misconceptions (like the idea that workers are unelectable or unqualified to govern), identifies the factors that keep lower-class Americans off the ballot and out of political institutions, and evaluates a variety of reform proposals. In the United States, Carnes shows, elections have a built-in "cash ceiling," a series of structural barriers that make it almost impossible for the working-class to run for public office. Elections take a serious toll on candidates, many working-class Americans simply can't shoulder the practical burdens, and civic and political leaders often pass them over in favor of white-collar candidates. But these obstacles aren't inevitable. Pilot programs to recruit, train, and support working-class candidates have the potential to increase the economic diversity of our governing institutions and ultimately amplify the voices of ordinary citizens.

Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling

Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling PDF Author: Jane Hyun
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060731192
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book Here

Book Description
You're educated and ambitious. Sure, the hours are long and corporate politics are a bane, but you focus on getting the job done, confident that you will be rewarded in the long run. Yet, somehow, your hard work isn't paying off, and you watch from the sidelines as your colleagues get promoted. Those who make it to management positions in this intensely competitive corporate environment seem to understand an unwritten code for marketing and aligning themselves politically. Furthermore, your strong work ethic and raw intelligence were sufficient when you started at the firm, but now they're expecting you to be a rainmaker who can "bring in clients" and "exert influence" on others. The top of the career ladder seems beyond your reach. Perhaps you've hit the bamboo ceiling. For the last decade, Asian Americans have been the fastest growing population in the United States. Asians comprise the largest college graduate population in America, and are often referred to as the "Model Minority" – but they continue to lag in the American workplace. If qualified Asians are entering the workforce with the right credentials, why aren't they making it to the corner offices and corporate boardrooms? Career coach Jane Hyun explains that Asians have not been able to break the "bamboo ceiling" because many are unable to effectively manage the cultural influences shaping their individual characteristics and workplace behavior—factors that are often at odds with the competencies needed to succeed at work. Traditional Asian cultural values can conflict with dominant corporate culture on many levels, resulting in a costly gap that individuals and companies need to bridge. The subtle, unconscious behavioral differences exhibited by Asian employees are often misinterpreted by their non-Asian counterparts, resulting in lost career opportunities and untapped talent. Never before has this dichotomy been so thoroughly explored, and in this insightful book, Hyun uses case studies, interviews and anecdotes to identify the issues and provide strategies for Asian Americans to succeed in corporate America. Managers will learn how to support the Asian members of their teams to realize their full potential and to maintain their competitive edge in today's multicultural workplace.

Dents in the Ceiling

Dents in the Ceiling PDF Author: Angel G. Henry
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781735721927
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
Dents in the Ceiling is a first-hand account from more than 30 African American women in Corporate America about navigating sexism and racism, forging allies, and rebounding resiliently throughout their careers.