I’m the Only One part 4

As I was thinking about this “I’m the Only One” white supremacy characteristic, I started to think about the subtlety of how this characteristic can be over used and do a lot of harm in organizations and communities. When leadership and employees are caught up in a culture of desires to be first without the acknowledgement of others being of equal value, you can create an environment that does not put people first. It can build an environment where people are objects. I learned through Arbinger Institute, that you can basically sum of seeing some one as an object in three ways:

1. A vehicle or tool to use for your own success
2. An obstacle that is in the way and needs to be removed from your path
3. Irrelevant to you and your pursuits and can be ignored

When it’s an entire organization or community that thinks and operates with a view that people are objects you will see a lack of love and support and an abundance of mistrust and animosity. Can there be success with that environment? Yes, but for how long and for whom? In my experience it is short-term success and only for a few.

These thoughts led me to think about a few MLK sermon and speeches. The first that came to mind was the Drum Major Instinct. For roughly a decade, I have listened to this on MLK day and reflect on how I’ve been keeping this sermon and thought process in check. Low and behold, MLK identified this white supremacy characteristic and related it to an instinct that we all have, but some of us pervert (see above quote). In the quote below, he describes the instinct.

And so before we condemn them, let us see that we all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. Alfred Adler, the great psychoanalyst, contends that this is the dominant impulse. Sigmund Freud used to contend that sex was the dominant impulse, and Adler came with a new argument saying that this quest for recognition, this desire for attention, this desire for distinction is the basic impulse, the basic drive of human life, this drum major instinct. — MLK, Drum Major Instinct

Of course, he didn’t leave up with just describing the issue. He gave us a way to move forward. He gave us the antidotes of love, moral excellence and generosity. I often wonder where we would be if these were actually more present in our daily life. I rarely feel like these attributes are held in high regard in organizations and community. It more often feels that the love and chase of money drives decisions along with the fear of lawsuits paralyzing decisions to take accountability and consequences for harm done. Instead of accountability and consequences, we have culture wars that discourage history and exaggerates requests for accountability as “cancel culture”.

The other MLK speech that came to mind was “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution”. In this speech he suggested that in order to remain awake through social revolution you must focus on three things:

1. Developing global perspective and a global brotherhood.
2. Work passionately and unrelentingly to get rid of all the dimensions of racial injustice.
3. Get rid of violence, hatred, and war.

This is a summary of what he said, but there is a lot more to it. I’d highly recommend reading or listening to both of these speeches. They provide a great roadmap for harnessing the Drum Major Instinct and moving away from the “I’m the Only One” white supremacy characteristic.