Special from Atlanta–SHRM Annual Conference and Exhibition
Condoleezza Rice’s thought-provoking comment about the immigration situation in the United States came at SHRM’s Annual Conference and Exposition, held recently in Atlanta Georgia.
Three Big Developments
HR managers need to be aware of the effect of three incidents that are shaping our world today, Rice says.
- 9/11. Our concept of physical security is forever changed when the firth poorest country in the world can mount such an attack at a cost of about $300,000.
- Global economic financial shock. Our concept of economic security has likewise changed.
- Arab Spring. The activities of Arab Spring lay bare the theory that authoritarian regimes can be ongoing.
Immigration Must Be Solved
We must solve immigration, says Rice. “I don’t know when immigrants became the enemy,” she says. In the United States, we are united by a creed—not by nationality or race or religion.
In the past, the United States was about how efficient we could be, but now it’s about human potential. We have to invent and reinvent day in and day out. We’ve been the best, but we’re now in danger of losing that position.
We have to gear up to do the impossible, Rice says. It’s not as hard as it sounds; “what seemed impossible seems inevitable in retrospect.”
Who’d have thought a few years back, that we’d be having the NATO conference in Latvia?
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Rice is optimistic about the United States, she says, offering her personal proof of doing the impossible: A little girl born in the Deep South, who couldn’t buy a burger in a white restaurant and who wouldn’t have a white classmate until her family moved to Denver … became Secretary of State.
Apparently, some things aren’t possible, however. Rice intended to be a musician—she read music at 3 and intended to study it in college. But then she went to the Aspen Music Festival. There she discovered others in attendance who could sightread pieces that she had spent years learning. “I didn’t want to put in all that work to end up playing the piano at Nordstroms,” she says.
Dramatic Shift in the Paradigm
Malcolm Gladwell, author of business best-sellers Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, addressed the SHRM crowd with comments about changing sensibilities of generations of workers. He contrasted the protests of the 60s of Martin Luther King with the recent occupy protests.
King, Gladwell says, organized an exquisitely planned series of marches in 1963. He chose Birmingham, the most racially divided city in the country, and he intended to goad Bull Conner, who was in charge of Birmingham’s police and fire departments. His first goal was—through non-violent protest—to fill the jails of Birmingham. That reduces the options of the enemy, King had learned from Ghandi.
Then King involved children. Bull began to panic and ordered high pressure hoses on the children and called out the dogs. The press was present in great numbers and outrage grew. One year later, the Civil rights Act of 1964 was passed.
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Occupy Wall Street
Contrast King’s highly organized protests with the protests of today, Gladwell says. King was a strong leader with a centralized, disciplined organization. The occupy Wall Street movement has little organization to it, and no apparent leaders. It’s a completely different approach, Gladwell notes.
Some other evidence of this change that he sees:
- Chess. It used to be that if you wanted to learn chess, you went to an expert and took lessons. Nowadays, you learn by playing on line.
- Dating. It used to be a private act; now it’s a group activity.
- Trusted source. For answers to questions, you used to consult an expert—the encyclopedia. Now we have Wikipedia
In so many ways, it’s a completely different look at authority and expertise. When you add this all together, Gladwell says, you see that there is a different sensibility, a profoundly different notion of how organized groups should behave.
The old hierarchy was closed, disciplined and centralized. The new one isn’t any of those things. We’ve gone from hierarchy to network.
What’s particularly interesting to Gladwell is that many successes these days result from the combination of the old way and the new way. For example, in Egypt, during the recent protests, the government shut off the Internet. The people went to the mosque—the hierarchy. And then, the people initially wanted to elect a revolutionary, but the revolutionaries all fell by the wayside because they had no infrastructure, no organization.
Gladwell’s take: networks can start things, but without organization, they fall apart.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, comments from Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, and an introduction to “The 50/50”—50 employment laws in 50 states.
‘Our concept of physical security is forever changed when the firth poorest country in the world can mount such an attack at a cost of about $300,000.’ That is truly mind-boggling when you consider how much we’ve spent in response in the last 11 years.
“Thought-provoking comment…”? It’s shocking that any American, particularly a well-educated American in a position such as Ms.Rice’s, would make such an ignorant statement.
Immigrants have always been the enemy in America, which to me has always been a great irony, since the people that occupied this country were relegated to the hinterlands and everything was taken over by people from foreign lands.
Is it just Ms.Rice or has the rest of America been so focused on the color race of the last 50 years that we forgot all the controversy before that?
Anyone the least bit familiar with American immigration history will know that various groups have been the target over the centuries, changing with the times, but there has always been some goat.
My ancestry includes a lot of Irish immigration, and there was a time when signs in business windows advertising help wanted would specifically state “Irish need not apply”.
Catholics were reviled and feared in the earliest stages of their arrival in the United States, evoking fears of a large, strict and powerful church such as the one Americans fought a revolution to escape.
Jews have been the target at various times. Watch the 50’s movie “Gentlemen’s Agreement” sometime, to see how polite gentile society tried to keep their neighborhoods from “going bad”.
In World War II of course, one of the most embarrassing and shameful events in U.S. history occurred when we imprisoned thousands of American citizens of Japenese descent in “camps” out of an irrational fear that was simply bigotry.
Folks decry “Mexicans” are taking all of “our” jobs. People have attitudes toward Muslims, making some ignorant presumptive leap between an American’s religion and a foreign political initiative. Some complain about the use of Sanish language or need to be bilingual.
It is the American way to welcome those from outside our borders regardless of their heritage or beliefs or origins.
Anyone that doesn’t understand this should make a pilgramage to New York Harbor, within sight of Ellis Island, and read the inscription on that big statue of the lady with the torch.
It’s the torch of liberty.
Scott R. O’Connor
Euro-American of Irish, English, and Dutch protestant heritage married to a Catholic of Swedish and Irish descent with a son-in-law of German descent and a grandson with some Native American blood.
I wonder when immigrant became enemies – was quite amusing. Immigrants are not the enemy – “immigrants that came to this country and ASSIMILATED are a totally different group then what we have now. When “illegal” was morphed with “illegal immigrants” is part of the problem here. As a friend pointed out to me: “Illegal is illegal” – really that simple. A big part of my personal issue is allowing of access to taxpayers monies under the guise of “benefits” whereas a taxpayer does not “qualify” for the programs they are in essence forced to fund. I believe if you wish to to have your monies spent this way – you should be allowed – but to be forced to fund the “illegal-living” of these people is not only unfair but it really does fuel the fires of hatred – as I imagine it is suppose to. I have been called a “hater” because I would like to access some of the programs I am forced to pay for…education, grants, housing supplements, car insurance and repairs and cellphones…I pay for all of these things for myself – why should any American be forced to to pay this for those who are under the Administrative guise of “let them share with you”? We cannot ask their status, but every year the IRS asks for mine, if they are stopped they cannot be asked for proof of identity – yet I am an American TAXPAYING CITIZEN and I must provide proof of residency, proof of insurance for my car, proof of proof of proof – all with the assumption that if I don’t – there will be ramifications detrimental to my living (we have all heard the horrors the IRS are allowed to perpetrate – except to “illegals”)! This is amazing to me – and somehow myself and those that feel as I do are the “haters”. When I listen to the arguments why I should fund this illegal activity – I am listening to those who can “hide” the bulk of their monies – I cannot afford such luxury. This is not about being intolerant or even “hating” – this is about trying very hard to understand why I can pay and pay and pay – all whilst making a whole 50k a year for those who do not pay ANYTHING – and when I hear how “poor” they are – I want to scream – I grew up dirt poor and I fought and worked my entire life – instead of rewarding “bad life decisions” how about rewarding those who take the cards they are dealt and become more? I can understand the guilt that those who have feel, but if they feel that bad THEY should be the ones who stop hiding their monies and calling the rest of us haters, they should have a special box on their tax forms that strip them of their monies as they are doing to the rest of us. When you have a country where TAXPAYING CITIZEN is the new minority – you have a country destined to be destroyed from within. I listen to people speak and am amazed that we have basically taught whole generations of people that OTHER PEOPLE’S HARDEARNED MONEY is THEIR ” benefit”, their “entitlement” and basically because THEY MADE bad life choices, because they do not want responsibility for their OWN LIVES – it should be up to those – like myself that make well under the infamous 250K to fund them! Add to that an Administration that perpetuates that – amazing – absolutely amazing.
The problem is as easily solved as it was when our ancestors crossed the pond. Set up an “Ellis Island” on the boder of Mexico, and give them all SS cards. They can be legally employed and pay taxes like the rest of us.
I’ve watched the “illegals” come across during picking season, just to return with a paper sack of american dollars.
Fine the employers who employ them illegally; but better yet let them all come over and work. Let the employers who choose to employ them, write a check and pay taxes.
Race, lol, who cares we’re all truely broke. You think you have money? It’s all electrons that can be wiped out, stolen or garnished.
I say the more the merrier, how much worse can it get?