EDUCATION
Information is our most powerful resource, whether we receive it via the printed page, a computer screen, or from a dedicated teacher. In this section, we look at the trends and developments that are expanding STEM education.
Book Review APPRENTICE PINKETT ADVANCES STRATEGIES FOR “WHITE PLACES” R
andal Pinkett gained world- wide notoriety in 2005 when, as an African American, he won the fourth season of
Donald Trump’s NBC-TV reality program The Apprentice, going on to spend a year working as an executive with the Trump Entertainment Resorts in Atlantic City, N.J.
Even before Trump, Pinkett already had been a player in the game of ambi- tion and success. An electrical engineer, Pinkett holds five degrees, including an M.B.A. and a doctorate, from Rutgers University, the University of Oxford in England and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His corporate experience includes technical staff positions at Gen- eral Electric, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies. An entrepreneur, speaker, author and community servant, as he refers to him- self, Pinkett today is founder, chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, a Newark, N.J., consultancy that provides program management, information technology and public policy services in industries that include housing and community development, economic development, healthcare, human services and education. He is author of the new book Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness–a roadmap for African Ameri- cans navigating corporate and entrepre- neurial circles.
As Pinkett recounts in the book, The
Apprentice brought tons of good fortune. But coming with it was one of those dicey “black faces in white places” moments. After becoming the first African American to win the show, Trump took the auda- cious step of requesting that Pinkett share the honor with the white woman who finished behind him. Pinkett refused vehe- mently, setting the stage for the impetus to
www.blackengineer.com
do the book. While that was a moment for national television, Pinkett, despite stellar academ- ic and corporate credentials, has been a black face in white places like many other African American professionals. Pursu- ing strategies to get beyond such obstacles, how- ever, is the point of his book, co-authored by Jeffrey Robin- son, a Rutgers professor and business scholar, and with busi- ness journalist Philana Pat- terson.
Pinkett notes that
while so-called “browning” of America is continuing over the coming decades, with people of color gaining traction
economically within society, African Americans still make up a minuscule number of senior positions in Fortune 1000 companies today despite comprising 12 percent of the workforce.
Drawing on his own experiences, as well as those of other prominent African Americans, Pinkett takes his readers on an odyssey that outlines how to establish one’s identity and purpose, develop a “comfort zone” in the face of obstacles, build key relationships and seek competi- tive advantages in white places. Understanding how to navigate the corporate environment is paramount, according to Pinkett. For instance, one
imperative for this is the ability of African Americans to “code switch”–adapting to new and different cultural realities and sensitivities on a global scale. “In Ameri- ca, that has historically meant learning the game and playing the game of the major- ity white culture,” Pinkett writes. But in today’s multi- ethnic, multiracial, global society code switching is rel- evant well beyond U.S. shores, and African Americans must also have the ability to relate to the business world in other places, such as Europe and the Far East, in order to succeed in today’s corporate marketplace.
What Pinkett
contends in the book is that African Americans are facing a much greater challenge
today than in the past when they focused on gaining the education and skills to get their feet in the doors of corporate America. Today, the contest is about what you do once you get in. That means playing the game that moves you ahead, he notes.
Starting in February 2011, Pinkett
plans a Black Faces in White Places National Town Hall Tour, inviting profes- sional and celebrity guest panelists to recount in roundtable discussions how they have been able to navigate corporate workplaces and run entrepreneurial enter- prises. Information on the tour is located at
RedefineTheGame.com.
USBE&IT I WINTER 2011 61 by M.V. Greene
mgreene@ccgmag.com
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