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Black and White, young and old, male and female, mono-lingual and bi-lingual, able-bodied and disabled, are a few of the bi-polar labels that we as Americans in general and as business-people in particular have used to define ourselves as CEO’s, small business owners, employees, consumers…Americans.

Throughout our history, the definition of each of these labels has changed and new ones have been created based on the social, economic and political needs of America since our founding fathers declared that we were “one nation under God”.

Some background: The first U.S. Census was conducted in 1790 in 13 states and several other territories as per Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution that required a complete count of the number of householders and the people who lived in each home every 10 years. This information was used for two primary purposes: 1. Allocate the number of representatives to congress and 2. Establish taxes.

This census was an important development in our Nation’s history as it was the first attempt to quantify and qualify what it meant to be an American. For example, in 1790, an African American slave was counted as “three-fifths” of a person. Now, Barack Obama is not-only counted as a “whole person”, he may be our next President and yet his parents are White and African so what is he according to the U.S. Census and in his own heart and mind?

Here we are, over 230 years later and we are STILL trying to define what it means to be an American and this is what this blog is all about: Re-defining America. However, the social, political and economic changes that will occur are too massive and complex to include in one blog so I am going to concentrate on the effect that our rapidly changing demographic composition will have on business and what corporate America needs to do to be ahead of the curve.

Black and White, young and old, male and female, mono-lingual and bi-lingual, able-bodied and disabled. These and other labels just don’t work any more. We’re more complex and nuanced than at any time during our history and the pace of change is staggering. It’s time for a complete re-thinking of how we define ourselves and one another.

This is the goal of my current book project entitled “Juxtapositioning: How Corporate America Can Get Multicultural Right”.

Let’s chat about your thoughts, concerns, experiences about multiculturalism and American business. I look forward to the discussion…

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