Season 2 Episode 4: Codeswitching 101 with Dr. Courtney McCluney

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV

Season 2 Episode 4

Episode Title: Codeswitching 101

Guest: Dr. Courtney McCluney

 

Diversity Matters with Oscar Holmes IV is a podcast that explores all things diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) related. In each episode, Oscar and his guests have lively discussions around DEI topics, explore the latest research on the topic, and discuss the implications so that listeners will be more knowledgeable about the topics and be able to apply the insights to their lives.

 

Show Summary: Human beings crave belongingness. It is part of our basic needs. But due to differences in race, gender, beliefs, and characteristics, discrimination exists. To protect oneself from becoming a victim of hurt, some prefer to hide behind code-switching.

 

Code-switching is when people shift their behavior, appearance, speech, and how they present themselves in various social contexts. Dr. Courtney McCluney, an assistant professor of organizational behavior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, does research to understand people's motivation in these shifting behaviors. She mentioned that one of the triggers is being a member of a marginalized, oppressed group.

 

Learn more about the different types of code-switching and understand if it’s the right thing to do when you feel discriminated against. Listen until the end as Dr. Courtney shares her personal stories that can help you get out of the pressure and help you do things at your maximum potential amidst social differences.

 

Dr. Courtney McCluney

The Cost of Codeswitching Harvard Business School

 

3 Exceptional Highlights:

 

 

• Code-switching is a mechanism that allows people to emulate the norms and behaviors of a group that they are trying to achieve an outcome from it.

 

• We have a million different definitions of what it means to be professional.
• Having everyone "Speak The Same", it limits ourselves as humans.

Show Highlights: 

 

Who is Dr. Courtney McCluney beyond the professional bio?

 

3:27 Dr. Courtney

 

• I would pretend that I was a teacher. In front of my stuffed animals, I had a little chalkboard in my room. And I would be teaching them random subjects or topics. I'm sure it had something to do with a children's book I was reading at the time.

 

What is code switching?

 

7:59 Dr. Courtney

 

• The term itself comes from linguistics studies, and it meant switching between languages. But over time, as social scientists started to explore many of the behaviors that anthropologists noticed amongst people in different groups worldwide, they saw that it was more than just language switching; it was demeanor, social interactions.

 

Dr. Courtney McCluney’s memorable code stories

 

25:22 Dr. Courtney

 

• Some of the ones that I remember, we had a lot of people in healthcare take our survey. Whenever I'm going into a patient's room, this is coming from most physicians and nurses; the patient identifies as white. "I feel that I, as a physician, have to adjust my normal way of speaking and demeanor even though I have authority in that room." There's this immediate power difference there.

What is blackccent?

34:08 Dr. Courtney

 

• That came to my mind, like when I see a black person, and I presume I have to change my speech to relate to them better.

 

What is Dr. Courtney working on now?

 

42:33 Dr. Courtney

 

• One of my current large ongoing projects in Detroit, Michigan, is understanding how organizations operate with the knowledge that they exist in a predominantly black space?

 

Call to Action:

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Episode Sponsor Links: 

 

The PHD Project

 

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WH Consulting Firm

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