Profiles From Diverse Voices
This assignment focuses on the profiles from Diverse Voices in connection with the other readings assigned for this course. You are required to submit six write-ups (each worth 25 points) on six different class periods in an open Discussion Forum on Blackboard with the following format: on each write-up, you will 1) summarize the main points from a profile of your choice from Diverse Voices, 2) connect that profile to one of the topics/ themes/ concepts/ theories from the other readings assigned on the day of your submission, and 3) pose one question related to the readings for that day. These entries will be graded based on your ability to address these three elements. You should write between 250-350 words.
links: https://www(dot)tandfonline(dot)com/doi/abs/10.1080/1062726X.2011.605976
example from another student:
Reflection: The profile that I read for this week's topic discussion is Pallavi Kumar, Communication Professor at American University. This week’s readings build upon the definition of race as power structure. The article, “Understanding Race in PR,” talks about Western PR continuing to reinforce racial stereotypes, although less overt, on a global scale. Pallavi’s family is from the Global South, immigrating to America when she was only one year old. Comparing the book and Pallavi’s profile, you can begin to observe the assimilation forced upon people of other nationalities both externally and internally. Pallavi was often employed at companies with a handful of minorities and was ridiculed for cultural traditions, like having henna on her hands after an Indian wedding. Now, as a professor in her field, Pallavi likes to help disadvantaged students with reaching their goals by being vulnerable with her experiences and offering up her social capital to help them with jobs. Thinking of the visible - invisible dialect from the reading, Pallavi’s race is visible in the white dominated PR industry, but in a negative manner. When working with students of color at her college, her race is visible in a more positive way. I am sure those students see her as a place of comfort, or an inspiration. In both circumstances her race is visible, but her voice isn’t repressed in the latter. Then I begin to think, racialization is always there and in relation to whiteness, as we talked about in class last week. Whiteness and the other. People of color are continually racialized and it’s why there are people saying that they're “over-indexing on black.” Why is it never a question of over-indexing on white?
Question: As stated in my reflection, Pallavi was a professor at American University and helped her students with problems of adversity. My question is, do you think that POC in leadership roles have insurmountable pressure to ‘fix’ racism in the workplace? Is that their duty? Thinking of the “curb cut effect,” I also ask if DEI officers are a way for the dominant coalition to benefit without really caring about diversity?
Profile Assignment Paper
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Profile Assignment Paper
Pallavi Kumar is a full-time professor at the American University’s School of Communications and the Public Communication division director. Although she was born and raised in Pittsburgh, she still feels that her community is not properly integrated into United States (U.S.) society. She notes that working in the public relations (PR) field has always been challenging, especially in organizations where no one looks like her. When she started working with a New York agency, she realized the organization had only two other employees of South Asian origin. Strangely, the agency put the three of them in a single group during lunch conferences. The customer showed them a video clip of an individual of Indian descent. After watching the video, the client started making fun of the content creator regarding his ethnicity (Kumar, 2019). The three employees were puzzled as everyone made fun of the incident and tolerated such toxicity at the workplace.
The dialectical approach to evaluating “race” best explains this scenario. Race can be conceptualized as a multifaceted social construct that is not constraine...