Corporate culture, women, and minorities

What I'm going to share in this blog is my opinion.  I can't state that enough.  It is based on several years of experience working among high-end corporate types, and is based on first hand observations.  I have signed confidentiality agreements, and cannot name names, or give specific examples, or reveal the positions of anyone involved.

This is the kind of information that you won't find in a textbook, or in the Miller College of Business.  This opinion is also is not reflective of corporate actions in media, because the corporations that I worked for were not media-based.  I can only assume that they function the same way, but cannot validate such statements.

As a white man, I feel the need to share why I think women and minorities are not as common in executive roles, or higher positions of power.  The issue is one of race and gender, but I want to be clear that it has little to do with sexism or racism.  There is a distinction.

Some white male executives generally subscribe to a practice that would most aptly be characterized as sadism, or degradation.  This means that executives and those they place in positions of power regularly engage in behavior that would be intolerable to about 95% of the population.  I am attaching two videos that somewhat resemble the kinds of practices I speak of.  Their style of management allows for humiliation and degradation of employees as a mechanism to get the maximum effort out of those that they work with.  While it is inhumane, disrespectful, and wrong on so many levels, it is a culture that has been cultivated for a very long time.  You don't hear much about this because obviously, they don't want you to know what really goes on.  Whether it is a share-holder's meeting, an executive board meeting, or a personal work meeting taking place behind closed doors, it is normal practice for someone to be scolded and humiliated like children.  I believe this is largely because of the power trip that accompanies these styles of management.  Why are women and minorities excluded from positions of power?  I believe it is because white executives are afraid to lay into a woman or minority and degrade them the way it is decidedly acceptable to do to their own race/gender.

Some powerful white men just LOVE to dominate other white men.  There is something about cruel and unusual punishment that seems to be less ethically corrupt, IF it is done to someone of the same gender and race.  The powers that be seem to shy away from these practices when women and/or minorities are involved because of the fear of retaliation that might accompany a lawsuit claiming that they were discriminated based on gender or race.  This is why women and minorities are trusted less.  A white man cannot sue another white man based on discrimination, which opens the door and allows for a bevy of intolerably cruel acts to take place.  It is founded upon an "Old boys club" mentality, that seeks to "get their rocks off" on the pain of others.  It has little to do with sexism or racism, as it is more about the question, "What can I get away with, without facing any repercussion?"

It also has to do with a belief that this treatment is the best way to "get things done."  If they were to hire a woman, or a minority, they would be unable to put the same pressure on them to perform, creating a sense that they are less productive, and thereby less valuable to a corporation.  It is my understanding of this mentality that led to my exit.  I had taken all the punishment that I could stand, which is why I never returned.

These videos are not clear representations of corporations, but they point to the kind of attitude that white executives live by.  Notice that there are no women or minorities present in the videos.