Owning Your Whiteness

In this compelling podcast episode, we delve into a thought-provoking discussion with Dr. Alan Mueller, the visionary founder of Adaptive Challenge Consulting. He is also a distinguished speaker at TedExTalk: Doing the Math: How do we measure privilege? Driven by an unwavering commitment to authentic transformation, Dr. Mueller shares profound insights into leveraging privilege to foster empathy.

As a white cisgender male, he takes us on his personal journey of actively disrupting privilege while striving to be the best version of himself. Encouraging listeners to step out of their comfort zones, Dr. Mueller emphasizes the importance of reading and following works by authors of diverse races and backgrounds.

The heart of our conversation revolves around Dr. Mueller's call for fellow white individuals to "get comfortable with the uncomfortable." Advocating for bridging gaps, he suggests examining shared privileges, inviting self-reflection, and embracing discomfort with a sense of humor.

Dr. Mueller's diverse background in finance, sales, and higher education enriches our exploration, offering a unique lens on organizational leadership. We uncover the wisdom he brings to assisting organizations in inclusion efforts and program evaluation, always infused with authenticity and humor.

Join us as we delve into Dr. Alan Mueller's insightful journey, discussing racism, strategies for developing emotional intelligence, and the crucial importance of intercultural competence. This episode promises a seamless blend of wisdom, humor, and a deep commitment to fostering positive change within ourselves, and within our organizations.

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00:00 Introduction and Leveraging Privilege
02:58 Personal Journey and Media Influence
05:40 Joining a Black Student Association Gospel Choir
09:41 Building Emotional Intelligence
16:47 Dual Centering and Honest Conversations
22:09 Educating on History and Realness
26:09 Creating Light Bulb Moments
28:40 Fraternity Experience and Trust Building
34:22 Building Trust and Overcoming Skepticism
35:24 Challenges of Working on an Indian Reservation
36:42 Embracing Native American Culture
37:20 Understanding and Challenging White Culture
38:13 Exploring Cultural Humility
39:40 Recognizing Privilege and Owning Cultural Identity
40:40 Being Mindful of Privilege in Interactions
41:37 Understanding the Impact of Socioeconomic Factors
42:22 Recognizing Native American Sovereignty
43:04 Living as an Uninvited Guest
46:14 Breaking Down Barriers in Interpersonal Relationships
47:13 Understanding and Addressing Offensiveness
52:59 Learning from Different Cultures
56:09 Recognizing Privilege and Sharing Knowledge
57:44 Connecting with Adaptive Challenge Consulting

[BenGreggSweden]

Lol. I use to believe in this crap. I’m a white guy who grew up in France and then New York, where I attended NYU and even marched in Gay Pride parade and volunteered in a soup kitchen. Later, I started working in HR and became a very successful recruiter, fully embracing DEI and really made an effort to support the hiring of minorities and LGBTQ+ people. But then about 10 years ago, I started to see a change. The minorities we had hired had become more empowered, which we of course saw as a good thing. But the it started to snowball, as some of these now empowered people entered leadership roles they not only started hiring more people like themselves, but then turned around and started firing people who were NOT like them, especially white males. Covid really accelerated this. In 2021 I worked at an online learning company that totally cleaned house. Most white males in leadership / decision-making roles were pushed out and replaced with black, Hispanic or LGBTQ team members. It was getting weird, but I tried to embrace as I occasionally sensed a sort of reverse racism, where people would allow themselves to say things that seemed mean and vengeful. Yet I continued to take pride in being an Ally. Until the day came when our team hired a new admin—a jovial black girl with a head full of dreads. As she sat in a separate area from us, I worried that she might feel left out, so I made an effort to say hello, goodbye and just make casual chitchat when I would see her. She seemed receptive to it. I definitely wasn’t hitting on her (I’m much older, married, grown kids etc.). One day she showed up with a new hairdo. Her dreads had been dyed bright red and was in a very elaborate updo. I was genuinely impressed and said so. “Wow! That looks awesome! I love your new hairdo.” She smiled and seemed pleased. Well, imagine my surprise when the next day I was called into a meeting with my new boss and a representative of our HR employee relations team. (Note: my previous boss—a red-headed white Irish guy—had recently been fired and replaced by a very flamboyant gay guy—which was weird because my former boss had been incredibly inclusive, including having also been married to a black woman for 20 years, with whom he had helped raise their two daughters). So we were called into this meeting with Employee Relations and were genuinely surprised when we were told that our admin had lodged a complaint against me, claiming that she felt that my compliments were a form of “micro aggression” and that my interactions were making her feel uncomfortable. I was told to CEASE interacting with her! I was like, “Whar!?! Where is the inclusivity and support of diversity in that!?!” And, no surprises, a few weeks later I was let go! That was the moment I realized that the world had basically gone insane, and that DEI had simply ended up empowering and facilitating a new form of Racism. So long story short, this guy in the video can continue to glorify DEI and do everything he can to support it and entertain the other people that he works with, but I can already relate to the pain and disappointment that he’ll be feeling the day they turn on him. Which I can guarantee WILL happen. Anyway, after that, I decided to move with my family to Sweden, and am grateful to now be living in a country where it’s still okay to be white and simply relax and enjoy white culture without fear of offending anyone. Of course there are growing DEI initiatives here too, but for now it’s more about including women, gays and the few minorities they have here, but hopefully they’ll keep it at that. Not sure what to do about the U.S. though. Sadly, I think white culture will be forced to die off, with the tables turned and white people being the minority “aw shucks” crowd, forever having to apologize for being white and all the “bad” things they supposedly did in the past. DEI was made mainstream because of all the white people who supported it and made it possible, got the sad truth is they’ll never get the credit and appreciation for it that they deserve.

[Wokeresistance]

29 comments all saying these two are idiots.

[nightmarishcompositions]

This is what Twitter, Tumblr, TikTok, etc does to your brains, kids. Don’t let them poison you.

[Armydog-wchd]

IM AN AMERICAN FIRST....not a color....not a a vet... not a AMERICAN FIRST PERIOD.

[notbloodylikely]

This is the kind of bullsh*t that belongs on LinkedIn where everyone can faux woke their asses off to prove to employers and co workers they shouldnt be fired for a racism, NOT Yourube. Unless its a skit. It doesnt feel like a skit.

[DepDawg]

Is this a parody - like an SNL skit?
If so, it needs way more humor.

[channahnoyb]

“The doctors happens to guess right on my gender.”

I feel like we have gone backwards, but I don’t even know how far because even cave men could differentiate between male a a no female.

[jesseparrish]

One of my favorite interview responses ever was from Coleman Hughes, who is, in my opinion, the best young writer in politics today, not merely the best black writer or best writer on race issues.

Following Roland Fryer's work, Coleman has argued that police shootings are not statistically motivated by race - the data - and the dramatic examples of police violence routinely cited are mirrored in white victims - the stories. He additionally advocates for color blind policies, as in a Ted Talk he recently gave whose promotion was curtailed due to complaints from folks like these. (It was only released on the condition he debate someone with an opposing view, something I think unique to his talk.)

That's the background. So in an interview, he's asked about the allegation that white people listen to him in order to assuage their guilt. I can't find the exact response, so this is my less eloquent paraphrase: "If white people listen to me to absolve a sense of guilt, then I'm glad. They shouldn't feel guilty for wrongs they didn't commit. They don't deserve to feel miserable over things they have no control over. There's a long-standing push, coming from elite institutions and being shoved downward, to make white people feel collective guilt. If I can do something to counter that, I consider that to be good."

[GhostofFHBradley]

I'm not convinced this stuff is going to make the world better.

[DaisyJ]

Well, when you introduce yourself and your guest with "cis, " you know the channel is "woke."

[MarkLightGroup]

I'm less than 2 minutes into this video and just total nonsense. I hope you guys aren't making the mistake of taking yourselves seriously. But I don't have much hope for that.

[occamsshavecream]

Perhaps the next consulting business will be deprogramming?

[noreverse]

If it's parody you should consider adding background laughter cause your punch lines are weak

[michaelcicero]

Just imagine your life being so damned easy that you can walk around seriously fretting about if you watched a movie this week with enough 2SLGBTQIAA+ representation. Maybe if "dr." mueller wants to get his feet wet in some real academia worthy of the title, he could read Yascha Mounk's The Identity Trap, assuming someone who was probably a DEI admin at a college can read.

[dalegribble]

God damn it feels good to be white. I just love it so much.
Whoop whoop!

[Because]

Does nobody realize we don’t get to choose our skin color who our parents-ancestors are we don’t get to choose eye color or if we’re born with a handicap etc

[jalend]

My ancestors conquered the world, I’m proud of it. What did yours do? 😂😂😂🤦‍♂️

[timgt]

This was written by a broken chatbot, you people have to be trolling. Different Colors? how about you all read some Thomas Sowell and get back to me.

[Goosebean]

"Owning your whiteness".. as said in the video, its the act of using your own white privilege to increse minority privilege? This is wildly offensive. Just stop.

[chrisjohnson]

I prefer to rent. This is, after all, a temporary situation.