Minority public relations practitioner perceptions

Public Relations Review, 24(4): 535-555 ISSN: 0363-8111

Maria E. Len-Rios

Copyright © 1998 by JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

Minority Public Relations Practitioner Perceptions ABSTRACT: This is one of the first studies to examine experiences of practitioners of color through in-depth interviews and written responses to interview questions. Through the experience of 13 practitioners, this study explores the status of practitioners of color, identifies areas of concern for both scholars and professionals, and suggests areas for further investigation. Results indicate practitioners feel there has been progress toward including minorities in upper-level management positions in the field, yet their experiences reveal that barriers still exist. The findings categories were similar to constraints found by Richard Shafer's 1993 study of minority journalists and newsroom equality. Marfa E. Len-R~os is an instructor of public relations in the Department of Communication Arts at Georgia Southern University.

Both scholars and academics over the years have documented the diff, culties practitioners of color have encountered in the public relations profession. O f the studies completed, all indicate disparities between the treatment of practitioners of color and non-minority practitioners. Differences include monetary gain, job advancement opportunities, job functions and perceived roles. For example, Marilyn Kern-Foxworth I found that minority middlelevel public relations managers were making roughly $15,983 less annually than their white counterparts. Zerbinos & Clanton 2 found that while practitioners of color were satisfied with their jobs, a substantial number felt their careers were Winter 1998

535

Public Relations Remew

hindered because of their race. Layton 3 suggests that public relations agencies are uneasy about matching people of color with white clients and that the public relations profession has a long way to go to lose its nickname as "the last of the lilywhite professions." Most scholarship on people of color in public relations is based on surveys of minority professionals. This study is one of the first to use in-depth interviews to examine the current status of practitioners of color, their jobs and their roles in the organizations where they work. This study is intended to identify areas of concern for scholars and practitioners by exploring the status of practitioners of color and by identifying areas for future investigation. This examination provides insight into why discrimination is perceived by practitioners as annoying in its least threatening form or downright restricting and detrimental to their careers in the most extreme cases. Based on the practitioner's point of view, we can determine how to remove these barriers and better train public relations managers to be aware of the complex dynamics involved in public relations management decisions.

BACKGROUND People of Color in Public Relations Few studies have been conducted specifically on ethnic minorities and the public relations profession. Included here is a brief cross~section of literature across communication disciplines providing information supporting the need for research in this area. Enumerated data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 1990 census indicates that by Oct. 1, 1997, people of color made up 27.4 percent of the U.S. population. 4 The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the U.S. labor force will be 27.3 percent ethnic minority by the year 2006. s Labor statistics from 1987 reveal that minorities comprise 7.3 percent of the public relations work force while 21 percent of the U.S. work force is part of a minority group. 6 In public relations, African Americans and Hispanics hold about 6 percent and 2 percent of public relations jobs, respectively. Federal staffstics show these percentages have remained constant since 1984. 7 Yet, employment projections estimate that between 1996 and the year 2006, management and public relations job opporttmities will increase by 60 percent. 8 Kern-Foxworth9 has found that many minority practitioners are hired only to deal with same minority publics or are perceived to be just filling a quota requirement. In another study, Kem-Foxworth 10 surveyed 196 minority public relations professionals and found support for the premise that larger organizations did not allow minorities the opportunity to advance in their careers and that they were paid lower salaries than their non-minority colleagues. In addition, a survey of 140 public relations practitioners by Zerbinos and Clanton ll indicated that over half of their respondents felt they were 536

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority Public Relations Practitioner Perceptions

denied promotion during their careers because of their race. Forty-four percent stated that they were denied access to a client because of their race. A more recent study conducted by Kern-Foxworth, Gandy, Hines and Miller 12 on managerial roles of black female public relations practitioners in Washington, D C indicates a rosier picture. Results from 54 questionnaires showed that black w o m e n at managerial levels in public relations identified themselves as occupying "meaningful roles within the profession and interface quite frequently with management." Examining other communication professions where people of color have been traditionally underrepresented, a 1993 study conducted by the R T N D A Communicatorl3 fotmd journalists of color headed 9 percent of television and 7 percent of radio news operations. This was the same as 1992. It also revealed that 37 percent of African American and 14 percent of Hispanic news personnel reported that race had hurt their careers. Conversely, the study also reported that whites said race had hurt their careers due to reverse racism. 14 Shafer 15 interviewed 44 African American members of the National Association of Black Journalists and 28 members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and formed the following categories based on their responses: Pigeonholing, tokenism, performance to a higher standard, and cultural alienation and isolation. Pigeonholing meant being relegated to cover those stories that primar~y dealt with minority issues, and in the case of some Hispanic reporters, playing the role of translator. Tokenism meant filling racial or ethnic slots, and performance to a higher standard was related to having to prove oneself as a professional equal within the newsroom. Hispanics reported more cultural alienation and isolation. This was defined as being left out of the social scene at the office.

Modern or Symbolic Racism and Stereotyping Possible explanations for these findings may be symbolic racism and/or stereotyping the roles of practitioners of color. McConahay 16 has laid out five principle tenets of modern racism: 1. Discrimination is a thing of the past because blacks n o w have the freedom to compete in the marketplace and enjoy those things they can afford. 2. Blacks are pushing too hard, too fast and into places where they are not wanted. 3. These tactics and demands are not fair. 4. Therefore, the recent gains are undeserved and the prestige granting institutions of society are giving blacks more attention and concomitant status than they deserve. 5. Racism is bad and the other beliefs do not constitute racism because these beliefs are empirical facts. Winter 1998

537

Public Relations Review

In contrast to old-fashioned racism, modern racism is not rooted in personal experience or competition with blacks (or those from other minority groups), but is "rooted in the abstract principles of justice and negative feelings acquired in early political and racial socialization.''17 As well as facing symbolic racism, practitioners also may encounter stereotyping. Devine 18 suggests that stereotypes are automatically activated--inescapable and often unintentional 'hvhen in the presence of a member (or symbolic equivalent)" of a stereotyped group. When a person does not consciously hamper stereotype activation, both high- and low-prejudice people produce prejudiced responses. This "automatic response" may account for why minority public relations practitioners are sometimes not chosen to work on certain "mainstream" accounts. Management may be concerned with the automatic response of the client which is not necessarily a voluntary response.

METHOD The method used for this research was 13 in-depth interviews conducted in person, via telephone and via fax. Only minority practitioners were interviewed in an effort to examine the experiences and perspectives of groups that have habitually been ignored in the public relations field. 19 In-person interviews were limited to the city of Atlanta due to cost constraints and a desire to conduct interviews in person. Telephone interviews were conducted with practitioners of color in the San Francisco, CA; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Washington, DC; and Jefferson City, MO. Two practitioners (Minneapolis, MN, and Cleveland, OH) were unable to schedule telephone interviews and were faxed the interview questions and returned written responses to the questions. The names of the interviewees have been changed to protect their privacy. This study is an expansion of part of a larger study on public relations campaigns that targeted minority audiences. Interviewees were told the nature of the study in the initial contact to improve the quality of the data. 2° The researcher identified herself as a minority to reduce interviewee anxiety. 21 The average interview length was between an hour and an hour and a half. The sample was a purposive sample allowing for selection of practitioners from varied professional and demographic backgrounds. Nine African-American, two Asian-American and two Hispanic practitioners were interviewed. Three males and 10 females were interviewed, reflective of the greater number of females in the profession. The interview questions focused on: (1) participants' backgrounds and demographic questions, (2) their experiences as minority practitioners, and (3) their opinions on building relationships with minority communities and targeting minority publics. The questions were constructed to allow the respondents to tell their own stories in their own terms. 22 538

Vol. 24, No. 4

MinorityPublicRelationsPractitionerPerceptions The Practitioners

1. Susan23: An African American female senior public relations practitioner who worked in corporate public relations for many years and worked at a nonprofit organization. She is in her early 50's. 2. R0b/n24: An African American female in her early 30's who left the public relations field. She worked five years in public relations, first with a nonprofit health care organization and then with a government agency. 3. j02s: An African American, also in her early 30's, she worked for a utility, company in public affairs and has over 10 years of experience.

4. Margaret26: An Asian American female in her mid-20's. She worked at a nonprofit organization in an entry level position. 5. John27: A senior African American public relations professional in his late 50's, he has 28 years of experience in journalism, television, advertising and public relations. He has worked in corporate public relations environments and freelanced. 6. Steve28: An African American public relations director. He spent 10 years in his current position in corporate public relations and has worked in the profession for 20 years. He is in his late 40's. 7. Dorothy29: An African American public relations consultant in her late 30's who has performed public relations for over 18 years in corporate and agency environments. 8. Patricia3°: Patricia began her career in broadcasting and moved into public relations 18 years ago. She has worked in corporate public relations at the senior management level. She owns a consulting firm. She is in her mid-40's and is Asian American. 9. David31: At 50 years old, David, an African American, is a senior public relations practitioner for a government agency. 10. Cybil32: A Hispanic American senior level public relations professional for an international financial institution, she has worked for more than 10 years in public relations. She is in her mid-30's. 11. Brenda33: A Hispanic American public relations director for a nonprofit organization, Brenda has completed 12 years of professional communications experience in nonprofit and corporate communications. She is in her early 40's. 12. Rose34: An African American public relations manager, she worked in higher education. She's in her mid-50's, and has been in the industry for over 15 years. 13. Tara3"~: An African American in public affairs for a government agency, she has eight years public relations experience. She is in her late 30's and has worked in government and corporate public relations as well as on a consultant basis. Winter 1998

539

Public Relations Review

ANALYSIS OF DATA The qualitative interview examines the categories and assumptions the participants hold. 36 Categories are then generated through a review of the literature. In this case, special emphasis was given to the categories from Schafer's study on newsroom equality. It is then the investigator's experiences that serve as the "basis for the understanding and explication of qualitative data."37 The data from the interviews were categorized as follows: answers involving being "characterized" on the basis of skin color or ethnicity were placed under the heading of stereotypes; responses describing h o w minority practitioners were expected to identify with other members of their same race publics were classified as pigeonholing; and the category of discrimination or opportunity? was created for minority practitioners who were offered opportunities or denied a job, access to a client, or promotion due to skin color or ethnicity. This category also discusses tokenism, or situations in which practitioners felt they were just hired to fill a quota rather than for their qualifications. The category identifying with people of color was created for responses describing how to reach audiences of color, and those responses that described what people of color bring to the public relations profession. These categories fit well with those definitions found in the literature review.

THE RESULTS The interviews yielded four distinct areas--stereotyping, pigeonholing, discrimination or opportunity, and identifying with people of color.

Stereotyping Some practitioners felt they were viewed stereotypicaUy more often than others and some had better recall of particular instances when they had been stereotyped. Very few practitioners repotted being overtly stereotyped by associates or other professionals with w h o m they had contact. For instance, the younger female, Jo, remembered an example of being identified as a practitioner of color, but she did not seem to know whether it was a positive or a negative. Similarly, Robin did not feel that she was viewed as a minority practitioner, explaining that it might be because she did not target minority audiences and because she knew most of the people with w h o m she worked, who were professional or personal friends. Hence, she reported not suffering any barriers. Dorothy, president of a local membership organization, reported that she spoke often to different groups and sometimes felt reactions to her were stereotyped: 540

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority Public Relations Practitioner Perceptions

... it was always interesting that after I spoke, people would come up to me fike, "You're so articulate.' What the hell does that mean? You know. Would you come up to someone--a white male and say, 'Gosh, you are so articulate!' You know. No ... and if I would say to you, 'Gosh, you are a racist,' they'd go, 'Oh my God! I'm not! Some of my best friends are black. What do you mean? What are you saying?' Well, what I'm saying is, you have this stereotype that African Americans cannot articulate a clear message, are not good communicators, and, therefore, when you meet one that is, you think it is something unique and different, and it is not. D o r o t h y perceived others as judging her performance as a violation o f their expectations for s o m e o n e o f her race. T h e responses, she felt, were based o n stereot~¢s. T h e m e n were m o r e able to c o m e u p with specific instances in which others d r e w automatic assumptions a b o u t them. F o r example, Steve m e n t i o n e d things that have h a p p e n e d to him in his m a n y dealings with clients: It is just an automatic reaction. You are a minority practitioner and people automatically assume that you are representing a minority interest like segment marketing, as opposed to asking whether you are the director of PR. It happens sometimes, people will define you or just put you in that perspective. A lot of times I'll meet people and they'll know I'm in PR and they may not know much about my company, so they will ask if it is minority owned and operated. They assume if you are the top PR person, it must be a minority company. The other side of the coin is when people assume the other obvio u s - t h a t I'm not a minority. People will call up on the phone or I'll be talking to people out of their presence and you can tell by the way the conversation is going there is an automatic assumption. I've had business dealings with somebody on the phone where we've communicated for weeks and months, and then at some point we'll have the face-to-face meeting. It will catch them off guard because they just didn't logically assume there was any possibility that I was black. They just assumed they were talking to somebody like them. As Steve talked a b o u t h o w he is often misidentified, he never m e n t i o n e d that this m i g h t be a subtle f o r m o f prejudice, but instead likened it to w h a t Devine 38 refers to as an automatic response w h e n a m e m b e r o f the stereotyped g r o u p is present. H e also depicts it as a f o r m o f expectancy violation. O t h e r people d o n o t expect him to be the director o f public relations because he is black, and if he is black, they presume the c o m p a n y m i g h t be black-owned or operated. A l t h o u g h Steve attributes this to being an ingrained part o f o u r society, it also reflects the availability and persistence o f stereotypic attitudes in today's corporate culture. D o r o t h y provided a similar example: I was a pretty high level officer and had a pretty huge office with a conference table and a secretary that sat right outside of the suite. I had my name on the Winter 1998

541

Public Relations Review

door, and people would come in and ask me if I knew where the PR director was because, 'Obviously, you are not her. You're only sitting at the desk, but you couldn't be [the pubic relations director] because you are black.' D o r o t h y describes the situation as one where she was stereotyped because o f her race. She, as Steve, violated the expectations o f the other person's stereotyped roles for people o f color.

Pigeonholing Pigeonholing is another obstacle that Shafer 39 found minority print journalists faced. This was characterized as being relegated to cover stories principally on minority issues in print journalism. The journalists o f color Shafer 4° interviewed expressed frustration over being assigned to such stories again and again. In these interviews, the practitioners o f color tended to expect to be the designated ones to primarily interact with minority c o m m u n i t y members. Rather than view this as a form o f subtle discrimination and an impediment to job advancement, as m a n y o f the journalists did, minority public relations professionals in this study viewed this aspect as a typical part o f their job and g o o d business practice. This was seen as a normal extension to building and sustaining relationships between their organizations and all publics. The practitioners fek that if they were the best ones suited to identify with a minority public, then that responsibility would "naturally" sit with them. Susan described it this way: The other person I work with is a Caucasian, and the way she puts it, we share responsibility for public information even though I report to her. I'm typically looked to, to kind of know or have some sense of what the community is feeling and what is the best way to approach certain things, more so than she is expected to, because I am At?lean American and a majority of our target audience is African American. Steve described it in a similar manner w h e n asked if he is expected to be able to identify with target audiences o f his same race: Yes, that's sort of automatic--which is good. [There] are situations in the workday when it is logical for me to take a certain call or deal with someone who is calling, a community event, and I do some of that and that occurs sometimes in the course of the work routine. Say an organization calls like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or even like the United Negro College Fund or somebody who is looking for support for an ad, "Can you help with our organization?" Ifa call comes in to the human resources department and it's a minori W issue, theCll send that to me. Un*brmnately some organizations use pressure tactics. They imply that you should take out an ad in their publication or else you're just giving the impression you're not a concerned equal opportunity employer. So when people get those kind of pressure calls and don't know how to deal with them, they send 542

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority Public Relations Practitioner Perceptions

them to me. But it's just not those, I get a lot of those just as a result of my public relations function ... ... Another example is commtmity meetings. If there is any reason you have to go in a zoning meeting or a situation where the interaction will be primarily with a minority audience, it is an automatic assumption that I would be asked to [go]. The rapport or comfort-level I could bring as a staff person who could relate to that audience would be much greater. So I've gone into some zoning meetings in black communities from the standpoint that it would help my organization from a relationship basis. Steve, unlike the journalists in Shafer's 41 study w h o perceived being relegated to cover minority issues a hindrance to their career advancement, views his function as that o f a facilitator and a link through which his organization can identify with local c o m m u n i t y minority leaders. Jo also accepts this assumption as characteristic. She says that she feels she's been expected to be able to identify with minority groups o f her same race: I've had responsibilities that would bring that about. A company would need to communicate or use its position in the community and although it was not said, it was sort of implied that most of the people in this particular community are of the same [ancestry] as me. It's not like, 'Go out there because there are African Americans out there.' Unlike journalists, practitioners are accepting o f performing the role o f liaison between their organization and groups o f their ethnicity. It is possible that the differences found between journalists and public relations practitioners are that journalists felt they were only assigned to stories concerning minority issues, whereas public relations practitioners are expected to perform the duties o f being the c o m p a n y liaison between the organization and minority communities as well as handling m a n y other job responsibilities. Minority members may already have ties to minority communities, and the public relations function requires that the c o m p a n y build relationships with the minority communities to survive in an evercompetitive market. The c o m p a n y or organization w o u l d look to their practitioner o f color in these situations as the best one for the job. In a similar vein, R o b i n fotmd herself in a position where she was not only expected to identify with other African Americans, but recruit them as well. She was sent out to various job fairs, including m a n y at black colleges: They would send me as a [minority] female and would send another guy as a [minority] male, letting them know that there were opportunities for you out there if this is what you want to do. R o b i n said they took exhibits along with them to the fairs that w o u l d s h o w w o m e n and minorities in nontraditional jobs to encourage people to think about those career choices. Win~r1998

543

Public Relations Review

As a consultant, Dorothy was an exception in that she had started out in public relations working with African American communities and then slowly shifted away from them: I was being pigeonholed as a practitioner that only did black stuff, and quite honestly that's how I got my business started, doing things in the black community ... [I received an] opportunity to do things in the Hispanic community and...Jewish [community], and after getting [those] pieces of business ... I was able to pull myself out of that assumption. But you will still [have] people [say], 'You're really good, we should get together and have lunch, but you know--we really don't do things in the black community.' And it's like, 'So, what does that have to do with me?' That's the assumption, if you are African American, then obviously you are doing public relations in the African American community,

In Dorothy's case, she used her abilities to work with publics of color to get her consultant business off the ground, and after proving her ability as a communications professional, expanded her client base. Margaret brought up a crucial point in reference to pigeonholing. When discussing her professional organization affiliations, she mentioned that when she first joined a local professional society, it was suggested to her that she might be more valuable on its minority committee to recruit more minorities into the organization. She declined. She explains: My ties to my background are not very strong. I don't belong to the minority community or whatever. I don't participate in different activities for the specific [Asian American] minority I belong to, so I didn't feel that was appropriate. So I joined different committees besides that one.

This example shows that assumptions are often made according to how one physicaUy appears. It was inferred that Margaret had ethnic or racial cultural ties, although she, herself, did not define herself that way. In a similar example, Tara described a situation where she was expected to be able to identify with other African Americans: One way to reach potential audiences was through the church. [Once] my boss had to give a speech to a church group, and it was an assumption on her part that I understood the church, how it was organized, etc. I don't go to black churches, so it was a challenge for me [to write the speech[. She came back [after the speech] and said it was like preaching to a choir, or like giving a sermon.

Cybil explains that often people expect her to identify with other Hispanics: Sometimes I can and sometimes I can't. I can identit~ better with Hispanics who are well-educated and born and raised abroad, than with Hispanics who are Americans. 544

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority Public Relations Practitioner Perceptions

Although practitioners o f color m a y be able to identify with publics o f their same race, there are other important factors such as educational level, cultural background, and socioeconomic status that can affect the practitioner's ability to identify with a particular audience. Although pigeonholing was accepted by several practitioners as g o o d business, other practitioners demonstrated that sometimes it was n o t appropriate to their backgrounds, but t h r o u g h t h o r o u g h research, audiences can be effectively reached. Discrimination or Opportunity? The practitioners were able to identify a few situations where they or someone they knew experienced overt discrimination, but only a few. This m a y have something to do with a lessening o f racism or w h a t M c C o n a h a y 42 has traced to a shift to a more subtle form o f symbolic racism. The female practitioners were more likely to say that they noticed they were viewed as practitioners o f color, but felt it did n o t hinder them w h e n they applied for jobs or in their everyday dealings with associates. Rose, in particular, m e n t i o n e d that she fek her age and gender were larger factors than race. Overall, the m e n tended to remember more instances o f overt racism. Referring to a friend o f his, Steve recounts a situation where a black w o m a n was denied a job opportunity at a public relations agency just because she was black: Several years ago she said she interviewed with a PR firm and they gave her the bottom line. She asked, 'Why don't I have an opportunity here?' And the agency people just came back and told her, 'If I go down my client list and I send a minority over there representing a business, one example is an exclusive resort area, basically they don't have a lot of black visitors, so they would be uncomfortable. So I could go down my client list and I'm going to be forced to put people on the account who would raise their comfort level or a person they would feel is a fair representation of their business, goods or services.' John experienced these same types o f barriers as a black public relations manager: I will never forget my experience at a communications company based in Atlanta. A friend of mine was at a level lower than I was across the system and he was quitting his job. I thought, raffler than be unemployed, I'd be willing to take that job. I thought, with my skills it wouldn't take me long to move up. After all, I'd been in a higher position. I called his boss and I chatted with him on the phone. I sent my resume and then he told me he was leaving his position and that I should talk to his boss and tell him we had talked. My resume doesn't have anything typically black on it. I went to a school in the Midwest. Well, he gave my resume to his boss, and his boss and I seemed to hit it offon the phone. And the guy didn't invite me for an interview; he invited me to have lunch. That's like, 'All I have to do is meet you and shake hands and it's a Winter 1998

545

Public Relatwns Review

done deal even though we just met.' Until he saw me. Then he proceeded to tell me that they really were still searching internally, but he just wanted to meet me. So that was just blatant. Then I couldn't communicate with him after that. I didn't even hear back from personnel. Eventually I filed discrimination charges and they just didn't fill the position until the charges expired. This kind o f outright discrimination described in the t w o examples above, according to Steve, represent one o f the barriers often encountered in the public relations business. H e explains it this way: Just like I gave the example of maybe being encouraged to go to a meeting where there is some sense of rapport or natural relationship, on the other side of the coin, in some instances, there is the day-to-day representation of a corporation and it is just strictly business--not segment marketing, it's not an ethnic product or not back to a target audience. The problem that you find being offered up in corporate America is that this person [a minority person] would not be as well received. The comfort level wouldn't be there--which is a phrase you often hear as to why a lot of people [of color] are not hired or given opportunities. One issue is that they don't bring a comfort level with them and people don't want to interact with them or in close to the vest discussions with top management, they would have a lack of comfort just sitting down and having those discussions or getting that interactive with somebody from an ethnic minority as they would with someone else who is similar to themselves. Those are the usual kinds of things you hate to hear when you are out representing the corporation. The usual feedback you get is that you may not be able to do that as effectively as someone else because people are just not going to respond to you as readily as they would someone else of like ethnic makeup. David feels that opportunities m a y be closed to people o f color because employers are afraid to hire the " u n k n o w n " : You know, I have felt that because minorities have not been given the opportunities in certain businesses, people don't often know that they can do a very good job. And so we haven't had a lot of minorities in certain areas of public relations, and they're hesitant to take a chance on you because they've never had anyone there before. But until they hire someone, they can't tell what a minority can do. There probably have been situations where my race has barred me from getting a job simply because a person of color hadn't been there before. Susan brings up an interesting point w h e n she says that discrimination can even take place w h e n she is least likely to be aware o f it: I would only say it's a racial thing when I see how people react to me. Often times, people will weed you out and not call you for an interview if they can 546

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority PublicRelationsPractitionerPerceptions

somehow look at your resume and say, 'Ah-hah! She went to Howard University, umm ..., she's probably a black person.' People do that, but that's not happened to me very often in situations that I've really wanted to pursue. John, on the other hand, believes that if a c o m p a n y does n o t reflect the populations that it represents, there m u s t be some discrimination going on. To illustrate this point, John said that w h e n he moved to Atlanta to work for a communications company, people in his office building would greet him by n a m e - people he never had met before. As he describes it, w o r d had gotten around that a n e w black manager was coming to town. At that time, the c o m p a n y only employed a handful o f black people and there was only one black manager above him in the whole southeastern headquarters (Georgia and five other states). John said, "That just seemed absolutely absurd to me ... I don't understand a company that doesn't kind o f look like the population unless they are discriminating or at least n o t trying." Brenda also stressed that it was important for an organization to be representative o f the population: It amazes me that companies can function in today's diverse world without having people of color or women in their midst. We have a couple of new glassed-in conference rooms in the building and I walked by, and there is one conference room that fits 36 people at a long, long table, and they were having a meeting and I thought, 'when was the last time I've seen anything like this?' It was all white men 40 and older. M a n y respondents did m e n t i o n that business and organizations were making efforts to hire people o f color, and that they sometimes benefitted from the effort. R o b i n felt that she was given an opportunity because o f her race w h e n asked if she was hired under an affirmative action program. W h e n she applied to work at a government agency, she said they were looking for minorities: ... when I was hired, they were in the process of trying to increase their numbers of women and minorities in general, and not specifically in my particular area. But they really didn't say it was "affirmative action." They said they were trying to increase the diversity among the employees. Later on she added: They wanted more blacks; they wanted more women. They made a concerted effort to put women not only in traditional fields, but also in the nontraditional fields as well. The fast track for me was up. All I had to do was figure out if that was what I wanted to do, and at the time, it wasn't. Brenda defmitely felt that her racial background was seen as an asset to several o f her employers: Winter 1998

547

Public Relations Review

Well, in two of the three cases, I ibllowed white women. In south Texas it was seen absolutely as an asset. The executive director at the time was a Hispanic man. H e was very visible in the community and I was the next most visible person in the community. It was seen as a huge plus. In [another organization], I followed a white w o m a n too, and in fact, when I was hired, I was the second person of color on the senior corps management team. This was seen as a plus from m y sister o f color and from the other management team members. That was something that was important to them in the management team hiring process, and they were very clear about that. T a r a h a d a similar experience, b u t she d i d n ' t receive as m u c h s u p p o r t after she started the position: I've been told I filled a couple squares. I had one employer where they asked me if I was certain I didn't have a Hispanic surname to check off another box ... ... [My employer] was looking for someone who was like t h e m - - I was a dark-skinned female, and after that was done [hiring a minority], it was like, ' N o w we want you to be like us.' That's harder to do. H e r e , T a r a hits o n the issue o f t o k e n i s m . She w a s o f f e r e d a j o b because o f her race, a n d n o t because o f her abilities. This can cause certain t e n s i o n in the w o r k p l a c e a n d she relates it b a c k to Steve's m e n t i o n o f " c o m f o r t level": Race [as well as has my gender] has limited my movement. The race thing is subtle and hard to pinpoint, you just get [a certain] sense. My feeling is that there is resentment and jealousy when minorities get [promoted] in organizations. You don't see too many Hispanics, you see Asian Americans but they are somewhat limited in a different way, or African Americans who have risen to certain positions. You see some white females. But many think you're there only because o f your color or gender. That if you really had to compete, you wouldn't be there and that's partly true. People hire people they are comfortable with. People like to see people that are like themselves when they look over their desk. I once had a boss (and I wasn't offended because that was his personality) who told me, 'You know doll, they don't know what to do with you. You're not like their daughter, you're not like their wife and you're not like their mother.' I don't fit in the boxes. There's a subtle way of keeping you from rising. It's natural, but it sabotages individuals. I n her discussion, B r e n d a m e n t i o n e d t h a t it w a s a b o n u s to have p e o p l e o f c o l o r a n d w o m e n r e p r e s e n t e d o n a c o r p o r a t i o n ' s staff, b u t it w a s i m p o r t a n t n o t t o s u b d u e y o u r culture: [It's important to have minorities represented] particularly if they're secure with their color and not trying to kind of fade in and become part of the rest of the furniture. I think it really works for them. I don't think it's a must, but I happen to think it's a plus. 548

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minm4ty PublicRelationsPractitionerPerceptions

Steve and John felt that the first positions they were offered were efforts to employ ethnic minorities in their organizations. So along with discrimination, there are also opportunities. While some opportunities m a y come in the form o f tokenism, m a n y others do not.

Being Representeda n d People o f C o l o r

Identifying with

All practitioners agreed that having a minority viewpoint represented on a public relations staff can strongly influence the way an organization practices public relations. John says those differences can be simple ones, such as including minority publications on the organization's mailing list, or having the demographic population portrayed accurately in public service announcements and ads. R o b i n notes that individuals o f a minority group have an advantage over others because they have experiences o f being part o f that group and have learned to be sensitive to others. She gives the following example: Individuals [who] say [that] culture, ethnicity and gender don't matter are sadly mistaken, because they do matter. You just add another set of experiences to the table, and I think those experiences are different. I was working on a video project and the way the project was structured, it was structured as a recruiting video. But what they did was show individuals-women and blacks--in the same old positions. There were not, in other words, women who were wildlife biologists that happened to be black. That's nontraditional. They didn't show that. They showed women who were in personnel, were clerk typists, they did not show women to a large extent who were wildlife biologists or forest supervisors or something like that. I told them, 'If you want to attract women or other minorities, you must show those individuals in other fields, different from the traditional fields,' and they said, 'Yeah, you've got a point there.' But they didn't change it, ... well, at least not to my knowledge. Susan gave an example o f h o w cultural sensitivity is difficult to defme. Even if a message is well-intentioned, it might miss the mark if one does n o t really k n o w h o w to approach a project. This is what happened to her w h e n working with a graphic designer to create a poster to solicit volunteers: We were trying to develop a poster. The designer shot the subject. They were three blacks and one white against a sort of reddish-orange background, with this screened filter backdrop and it came out looking fiery red. Well the screens behind these people were so bright. When we got the first mock-ups, my response was, 'It looks like these people just came from a riot in Watts or something.' And of course the designer was trying to be creative, but he was also sort of trying to create this image or visual around blacks. He wanted something complementary because we are brown. It backfired. Winter 1998

549

Public Relations Review

John related h o w he made a difference as a practitioner o f color w h e n he w o r k e d at a national communications company: When I was doing advertising I sent a memo to my advertising agency saying my commercial would reflect the population we were dealing with. And the reason I said that was because I hadn't had the feeling that was taking place. Most of the ads portrayed white males, and I think of our population as having a whole lot of women. I thought that was not the [position] our organization wanted to represent. What you want is for people to identify with you, especially if you are doing advertising, so you can say, 'Geez, there's someone who looks like me.' According to Susan, having m i n o r i t y representation is not only i m p o r t a n t for cultural diversity, but is also a smart business move: Fifty years ago all you had to do was your ad for a truck and the world came and bought. Now you have all of these car makers and different products. It takes a greater level of sensitivity now than it ever did, so it makes a lot of sense to have minority practitioners today more so than it did in the '60s and '70s. Now it's a very logical process and a very practical way to approach business. The people who get ahead are going to be those who start making those shifts in being contemporary in their organizational structure as opposed to living in the past where the cultural barriers and issues have just restricted people for many years, Minority representation doesn't m e a n that an organization does not have to do it's research. Brenda f o u n d herself in a situation where she was working with a minority audience o f a different race, and informal research was the way to complete her project: One of the things we worked on was a video in Laotian, which is spoken in the Hmong community. It was a 15 minute video ... explain[ing] about the camping experience. The girls in the Hmong and Viemamese communities do not leave home until they get married, 'So what are you talking about, you're going to take my daughter out over several nights [camping] and she's going to do what?' This is foreign, this is alien--from like another planet--to them. We had to find that out. Somebody had to tell us and we were sensitive to it. Patricia believes that it is i m p o r t a n t to have a multicultural public relations staff because it is m o r e than targeting programs at that c o m m u n i t y , but having s o m e o n e f r o m a diverse c o m m u n i t y o n the staff, and just by their representation o n the staff, the corporation or organization is sending out a message to the communities that the person is involved with. She puts it this way: I think aH companies benefit [from] diversity, and it doesn't have so much to do with, 'They may represent a point of view that we might not have thought 550

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority Public Relations Practitioner Perceptions

of before.' What it does is, it helps the corporate culture accept other people working side by side with white and an array of people. If it represent[s] the work force, the company will benefit by having that representation be [a] part of the company, because then it will be easy for the company to know what the pulse of the community is ... and then the workings [of the company] will be that much truer to what the community is thinking and wanting. Discussion

The life experiences recounted by these practitioners reveal the latent tendencies o f some supervisors and associates to stereotype minorities, resulting in discriminatory practices. Their experiences also demonstrate the advantages for a company o f hiring and retaining minorities. At a time when leading corporate strategists urge U.S. businesses to create a better understanding o f the work force's diverse make-up, it is disheartening to see change come so slowly. But change is occurring. For example, Sun Microsystems, Inc., o f California has been praised for its efforts to create a diverse work force based on race, gender, physical ability and sexual orientation. 43 Levi Strauss is another corporation which has attracted attention for its programs that aid managers to recognize their own prejudices regarding race, age, and sexual preference, and challenge their values. 44 Yet, despite these advances, it is difficult to contest the deeply ingrained prejudices held about minorities by those in positions o f power when it comes down to a discussion of"comfort level." In his article on Sun Microsystems, Inc., Major 45 points out that "comfort level" is important in hiring decisions. It was interesting to fred this term emerge from the data and the literature review. According to Haseley, '~6 it may be difficult to attain this "comfort level" as mistrust and tension have grown over quotas and affirmative action policies. The in-depth interviews reveal that discrimination and stereotyping persist, but that improvements can be made as the work force continues to grow in diversity. Findings also indicate that more subtle forms of discrimination, which are not easily identifiable, compound the issue. For instance, practitioners o f color may not be considered capable o f providing upper-level management with the same "comfort level" as a non-minority practitioner, and once there, may not receive the necessary support to succeed. Another point o f interest is that female practitioners o f color seemed to perceive less stereotyping and discrimination than did the males on the basis o f race. Also, the majority of the females in the study tended to be younger than the males. This is interesting, as Zerbinos and Clanton 47 found that when women and men were compared on the discrimination variables, the proportion of men who perceived discrimination was higher than that o f the women, except on the variable of"being denied a client." Possible explanations for men perceiving greater instances of discrimination may be attributed to managers not perceiving women as being as much of a Winter 1998

551

Public Relations Review

threat in the workplace as men, and may not be as openly discriminatory against them. This could also indicate that w o m e n of color are not perceiving discrimination in situations where men of color do because they are used to accommodating people's behavior and rationalizing it. Another explanation could be that w o m e n of color perceive discrimination more towards their gender than race. Rose, for example, felt that her status and that of her department in the organization tended to be "under-classified" and underpaid because the department was predominantly female. Low numbers of people of color in the communications field may not necessarily be due to lack of education, as is sometimes argued, but rather a lack of support for the mentoring of young minorities. Some of this lack of diversity has been attributed to professional organizations that haven't done enough to foster minorities in the field. 48 Still, Cybil mentioned that despite recruitment efforts at her organization, she was unable to fred qualified people of color to fill positions in her department, and has turned to a recruitment agency to pursue suitable candidates. As Robin indicated, although her organization was openly recruiting people of color, they didn't show people of color in their recruitment videos in nontraditional positions. When 44 percent of people of color surveyed by Zerbinos and Clanton 49 say they were denied access to a client because of their race, and Kern-Foxworth s0 found that many larger organizations do not allow advancement opportunities to minorities, this may be an incentive to fred another career choice. O f those interviewed, one left the communications field and two mentioned they were considering leaving the field. A desire to pursue other interests and dissatisfaction with the field were the reasons given. Steve's story of a black female friend being turned away from a public relations agency because the client would not "relate" to her or would not feel "comfortable" being represented by a minority is blatant discrimination. In this case, however, the employer rationalizes not taking on the minority practitioner, not because the employer would not like to, but because the client would not accept it and, therefore, the employer might lose business. On the other hand, practitioners should not be made to feel as if they are the "minority hire," which tends to label them as unqualified or lacking.Sl When a person of color is hired it must hinge on the person's quafifications and potential. Examples from the interviews and literature from the journalism and broadcast industries show that it's not only important to hire people of color, but to nurture them and support them.

Implications These m-depth interviews have revealed many areas for future study. For example, there may be differences in the way w o m e n of color and men of color perceive discrimination. Other variables to be considered in analyzing data are those of age, ethnicity, physical appearance, geographic region, level in the organization, education, and personality type. The practitioners in 552

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority Public Relations Practitioner Perceptions

this study were mainly from the highest levels within their organizations, averaged approximately 42 years old, and averaged about 13 years of experience in the field. These results reflect the experiences of practitioners who have risen to top management positions and have a depth of experience. Qualitative and quantitative studies using different demographic variables are needed. A second area for research is that of a perceived "comfort level" in different situations. Are managers more comfortable with women of color than men of color in an agency setting? And does comfort level determine with which clients a person of color is allowed to work? Does it affect hiring decisions by upper-level management? It is often assumed that white males in the upper echelons of business may feel uncomfortable having a person of color as one of their team members, and the interview data suggests that certain upscale agency clients would not want to be represented by a person of an ethnic minority group. On the other hand, it also seems to be inferred that a person of color will better relate to another person of color despite possible differences in cultural background. A third consideration is the organization's culture and structure and how it may affect perceived discrimination. Someone at a public relations agency might have a very different perspective from those who where included in this study. Large organizations may be compared to mid-size and smaller organizations. Scholars and practitioners might suggest ways to improve the comfort level among all types of practitioners and clients through professional membership organizations and training. Methods to improve recruitment and retention of students of color in public relations programs should also be considered. This might include making sure information on the major is made available to potential students who attend campus tours and through the minority programs office; by recruiting qualified minority faculty to serve as mentors; and by providing scholarships for students with strong records. Public relations educators and practitioners must take some responsibility for creating change. Educators can include cultural diversity in the classroom by using examples and choosing textbooks that include minorities; by teaching the importance of research in learning about target audiences; by inviting successful minority practitioners to share their experiences within the classroom; and by fostering and mentoring minority public relations students. Practitioners can, as suggested by Strenski, 52 promote diversity through employee communication programs, training of managers, and training of human resources personnel. Organizations should avoid tokenism, and offer oppommities that create a genuinely diverse work force. This study presents a rich background of information from the personal experiences of public relations practitioners. It shows how race, in one way or another, has affected the practitioners' job responsibilities, perceptions of the field, and careers. As the minority work force grows and the number of positions in public relations increases, we should be conscious of how to nurture and support our profession through mutual understanding and creating a comfort level among all peoples. Winter 1998

553

PublicRelationsRemew NOTES

1. Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, "Status and Roles of Minority PR Practitioners," Public Relations Review 15 (1989a), p. 45. 2. Eugenia Zerbinos and Gail Alice Clanton, "Minority Practitioners: Career Influence, Job Satisfaction, and Discrimination," Public Relations Review 19 (1993), p. 83. 3. Mary J. Layton, "Blacks in Public Relations: A Growing Presence," Public Relations Journal 36 (1980), p. 64. 4. U.S. Census Bureau, "The Official Statistics," Online. Internet. URL: http:// www.census.gov/popu lation/estimates/nation/intfile3-1.txt. 19 Dec. 1997. 5. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Civilian Labor Force by Sex, Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin, 1986, 1996, and projected 2006," Online. Internet. URL: http:// stats.bls.gov/eco pro.tablel.htm, in Monthly Labor Review, 19 Dec. 1997. 6. Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, "Minorities 2000: The Shape of Things to Come," Public Relations Journal 45 (1989b), p. 14-22. 7. Leon E. Wynter, "PRSA Faulted for PR's Lack of Diversity," Wall Street Journal, (February 2, 1994), p. B1. 8. James Franklin, Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Table 4a. The 10 industries with the fastest employment growth, 1996-2006," Online. Internet. URL: http://stats.bls. gov/ecopro.table4.htm. 19 Dec. 1997. 9. Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, op. cir., 1989b, p. 17. 10. Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, op. cir., 1989a, p. 44. 11. Eugenia Zerbinos and Gail Alice Clanton, op. cit. 12. Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, Oscar Gandy, Barbara Hines, and Debra A. Miller, "Assessing the Managerial Roles of Black Female Public Relations Practitioners Using Individual and Organizational Discriminants," Journal of Black Studies 24 (1994), pp. 416--434. 13. Vernon A. Stone, "Status Quo," Communicator 48 (1994), p. 16. 14. Ibid. 15. Richard Shafer, "What Minority Journalists Identify as Constraints to Full Newsroom Equality," The Howard Journal of Communication 4 (1993), p. 199. 16. John B. McConahay, "Modern Racism, Ambivalence, and the Modern Racism Scale," in John F. Dovidio and Samuel L. Gaermer (eds.), Prejudice, Discrimination and Racism (Orlando: Academic Press, Inc., 1986), p. 93. 17. John B. McConahay and Jospeh C. Hough, Jr., "Symbolic Racism," Journal 0fSocial Issues 32 (1976), pp. 34-35. 18. Patricia G. Devine, "Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components,"Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 56 (1989), p. 6. 19. Mary L. Anderson, "Studying Across Difference: Race, Class, and Gender," in John H. Stanfield II and Rutledge M. Dennis (eds.), Race and Ethnicity Research Methods (Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1993), p. 40. 20. Sue Jones, "Depth Interviewing," in Robert Walker (ed.), Applied Qualitative Research (Brookfield, VT: Grower Publishing Co., Ltd., 1985), p. 48. 21. Mary L. Anderson, op. cir., p. 41. 22. Grant McCracken, "The Long Interview," (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1988), p. 22. 23. Susan. Personal Interview. 30 March 1995. 24. Robin. Personal Interview. 27 April 1995. 25. Jo. Personal Interview. 31 March 1995. 554

Vol. 24, No. 4

Minority PublicRelationsPractitionerPerceptions

26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52.

Margaret. Personal Interview. 27 April 1995. John. Personal Interview. 29 March 1995. Steve. Personal Interview. 28 March 1995. Dorothy. Telephone Interview. 1 October 1997. Patricia. Telephone Interview. 21 October 1997. David. Telephone Interview. 16 October 1997. Cybil. Written Interview Response. 5 December 1997. Brenda. Telephone Interview. 18 November 1997. Rose. Written Interview Response. 5 December 1997. Tara. Telephone Interview. 15 December 1997. Grant McCracken, op. cit., p. 17. Grant McCracken, op. cit., p. 34. Patricia G. Devine, op. cit., pp. 5-16. Richard Shafer, op. cit., pp. 203-204. Ibid., pp. 203-204. Ibid., p. 204. John B. McConahay and Jospeh C. Hough, Jr., op. cit., pp. 34-35. Michael J. Major, "Sun Sets Pace in Work Force Diversity," Public Relations Journal 49 (1993), pp. 12-13. James B. Strenski, "Stress Diversity in Employee Communications," Public Relations Journal 50 (1993), p. 33. Ibid., p. 33. Kenneth A. Haseley, "Raising Awareness Precedes Changing Attitudes," Public Relations Journal 50 (1993), pp. 36-37. Eugenia Zerbinos and Gall Alice Clanton, op. cir., p. 86. Leon E. Wynter, op. cit., p. B1. Eugenia Zerbinos and Gail Alice Clanton, op. cit., p. 86. Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, op. cir., 1989a., p. 45. Stephen J. Simurda, "Living with Diversity," Columbia Journalism Review 30 (1992), p. 24. James B. Strenski, op. tit., p. 33.

Winter 1998

555