‘Ownership’ is not in the BAME vocabulary in the legal arena
Moreover, collective ‘ownership’ in regard to a sense of pride of belonging and/or a feeling of being part of an establishment does not translate to BAME members. Once an individual is part of an organisation when liaising they will reference to themselves as ‘we’ as they take on some ownership of the non-BAME corporate space.
Questions
The deprivation of ‘ownership,’ to BAME members in particular Black professionals is second nature as their primary concerns is for survival is equated with obedience to/ dependence upon non-BAME people from slavery, therefore disempowering the Black employees as to whether they ‘belonged’ in senior and/or management roles of leadership.
Reflections
Language and it relationship to identities not only reflects a person’s culture but it also provides a belonging to a cultural group. “Language determines how people see themselves and how they are seen by others. Language can both create identity and well as constrain it.” – Andy Kirkpatrick, Chair Professor of Linguistics, Griffith University, Australia. (Evans, David, 2014).
‘The Journal of Language and Social Psychology, the researchers found…Individuals with lower status overwhelmingly tended to use first-person singular pronouns (“I”) compared to individuals with higher status. Likewise, higher status individuals used significantly more first-person plural (“we”)…Results underscore the importance of an others-focus for those seeking to rise in their organizations.’ (Harvard Business Review, 2015).
However even though BAME members may take on this terminology it is in their mind as mere ‘professional language’, rather than a career advancement in that the raw reality of BAME members in non-BAME spaces stands on no foundation of any type of status/and or authority that equates to their non-BAME members in non-BAME legal corporate spaces counterparts, due to underlying ‘subtle’ structural racism and unconscious biases towards that are a untrue acceptance, self-profile and ownership.
Diverse Relations’ Questions and Reflections
Food for Thought
