In riots wake, L.A. chapter steps up multicultural efforts.

Reporters around the United States sought reaction to the rioting that had broken out in response to the not-guilty verdicts the day before in the Rodney King beating trial. But many of the calls were from IABC members. They had seen television coverage of rioters breaking into buildings around

In between responding to news media calls, Reutinger contacted IABC/L.A. chapter leaders to tell them that the seminar - designed to examine the mechanics of successful multicultural programs - had to be postponed. "I felt terrible for all our committee people because they had worked so hard," recalled Syndine Imholte, who cochaired the seminar with Reutinger. "To have a riot with cultural diversity implications be the reason that we had to cancel was ironic. But it didn't make, sense to put one person's life in jeopardy. And it made me think that this town needs to become more aware of its cultural diversity and how to manage it."

In late August of last year, Reutinger, Imholte and this writer, at that time, IABC/L.A. president, met in a Pasadena, Calif., '50s-themed cafe. While a jukebox blared Golden Oldies, we three Caucasians began planning for the chapter's first major professional development seminar in several years.. We wanted, to do something that would provide a significant experience for members while at the same time increase the chapter's visibility in Los Angeles. And we wanted a vehicle that would entice new members, especially communicators with minority backgrounds.

L.A.: world's most culturally

diverse community

With a membership that perpetually hovers around 250, the Los Angeles chapter ranks seventh internationally. Even though Los Angeles is the United States' second largest city and a major center for both news media and public relations professionals, expanding the membership role has always been a difficult task. Potential members are chary about driving over jammed freeways to monthly chapter meetings. Rather than fighting traffic twice, they prefer to head directly home from work. And because of skyrocketing housing costs, home may be 30 miles or more from a person's job.

The chapter's membership also doesn't adequately mirror the Los Angeles-area's ethnic makeup - perhaps the most diverse in the world. According to the 1991 Statistical Abstract of the United States, 8.5 percent of the metropolitan areas' inhabitants are African American, 32.9 percent Hispanic, 9.2 percent Asian or from the Pacific Islands, 0.6 percent American Indian, and 48.8 percent Caucasian. But the Los Angeles chapter is predominantly Caucasian. Only a handful of African Americans are members; other minorities are just barely represented. Clearly, the chapter needed to appeal to a more diversified membership. A seminar on multiculturalism was one way to demonstrate its commitment to this goal.

Reutinger and Imholte quickly organized the various committees needed to produce a seminar. The seminar's date eventually was set for May 1. No one knew, of course, that the decision in the Rodney King beating trial would co me two days before.

The seminar was to have had segments on demographic trends in the 1990s, internal communication issues, external opportunities through diversity, and creating internal and external diversity programs. Scheduled speakers and panelists represented several ethnic backgrounds. Their expertise encompassed passed marketing, human resources and industrial/organizational psychology as well as both external and internal communication. The keynoter was to have been Robert L. Davis, a visiting research fellow with The American Institute for Managing Diversity at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga., on leave from Bell Communications Research, Livingston, N.J.

Davis, flight was scheduled to leave early the morning of April 30 from Atlanta. Aware from overnight televised coverage of the Los Angeles crisis, Davis prudently contacted seminar committee member Gwen Fisher of ARCO to confirm that he should come. Fisher said it still looked as if the seminar would proceed. When the decision was made to cancel, Davis and his wife were already in the air. Arriving in Los Angeles, they were put up in an airport hotel instead of the downtown Sheraton Grande, where the conference was to have been held. Davis, an African American, spent the remainder of April 30 and most of May I watching what he calls a rebellion "a rebellion against the verdict" - on his room's television set.

Contacted by phone several weeks later, Davis was asked what he would have discussed in his keynote address prerebellion. Davis replied that many organizations consider their employees part of a family, but the ideal corporate family member is a success-driven White male whose wife stays at home and takes care of their two children. Employees not fitting this profile are not treated as fullfledged members of the corporate family. For example, health benefit packages still favor the so-called nuclear family Benefits designed to assist employees who are single parents or who have spouses who also must work are inadequate or nonexistent.

The problem, explained Davis,is that the percentage of Americans today with the preponderance of the "ideal" qualities sought by companies in the United States is a scant seven percent. To attract new employees, companies must adapt to the needs of women and ethnic minorities. "So many organizations have an assimilation mindset which says that we will welcome anyone in the organization if they will be like us," said Davis. But "people are not willing to change. They are not willing to leave their identities on the doorstep."

Davis noted that a company's potential employee pool reflects its customer pool. Organizations that do not mirror their customer base in their employment practices ultimately hurt their bottom line. As an example, he cited a U.S. company known for door-to-door selling of cosmetics. During the 1980s, when more and more women were entering the work force and not at home to answer the door, the company started losing money. The company's fortunes reversed when it revamped its white male-dominated marketing staff. Now the marketing staff - 70 percent of whom are women or people of color - more adeguately reflects the company's customer base and understands what the needs and habits of those customers are.

Advocates of status quo or force

for change?

Communicators need to be keenly aware of the cultural roots of their organization, said Davis. A corporation's cultural roots are manifested in rituals and rites - such such programs and events as retirement ceremonies, safety weeks, company picnics, benefits announcements and management training - that are covered every day by communicators. Davis said communicators "must ask if those cultural roots are driving business behaviors that meet today's cballenges or are they driving behaviors that worked yesterday." He believes corporate communicators, in the way they approach an organization's rituals and rites, can be "advocates of the status quo, or a force for change.

"The whole principle of managing diversity is a preventative one," added Davis. "We are asking people to make an up-front investment in the way they deal with people in order to be more inclusive and to also reflect the customer base. [But] we are not a nation that deals with prevention. We are a reactive people, and that is very expensive."

A case in point is the Los Angeles rebellion and its aftermath. Because of the rioting, south central Los Angeles has become the focus of innumerable news media features. Presidential candidates walk through it for photo ops. Businesses pledge millions of dollars to clean up an area and to fund long-term job training programs. If he had given his speech to IABC/L.A.'s seminar during the rebellion, Davis said he wouldn't have changed the main thrust of his address, but he would have added some questions

"What if [U.S. television news anchor] Ted Koppel had been invited to south central Los Angeles on the Monday before the rebellion? What if Peter Ueberroth [chairman of Los Angeles' efforts to revitalize the south central community] had set up the Rebuild L.A. project on the Monday prior to the rebellion? What if the presidential candidates had come to south central Los Angeles on the Monday prior to the rebellion? What if the Small Business Association had been asked for loans on the Monday prior to the rebellion?"

His point, of course, is that had such attention been brought to south central Los Angeles before the Rodney King beating trial had ended, the riot/rebellion or civil unrest - the euphemism favored by many commentators - might not have occurred.

Davis may be right. But in fairness, it should be noted that many Los Angeles companies had programs that reached out to the minority community before the rioting in Los Angeles began. My employer, Southern California Gas Co., for example, has a Multicultural Community Issues Panel consisting of 19 ethnic community leaders who last year helped formulate cultural diversity goals that the company plans to achieve by the year 2000 or earlier. One goal is to maintain the company's current U.S. $33 million annual level of support to low-income, minority, youth, women's and elderly nonprofit organizations and programs for the physically challenged. SoCaGas also has made impressive strides in diversifying its work force so that it more closely matches its customer base. The company's long-established Volunteer Incentive Program encourages employees to involve themselves with the community through nonprofit organizations.

In the wake of the riots, nonprofit agencies can use all the help they can get. Victoria Thurlow, IABC/L.A.'s current president and a consultant to several nonprofit organizations, points out that nonprofit agencies have been "swamped" by people affected by the rioting and are being forced to increase their services. This need to raise service levels comes at a time when nonprofit agencies ore strapped for cash because of the recession. "While clearly a tragedy, the rioting had at least one positive effect," said Thurlow. "There is a window of opportunity after such events where people's consciousness is raised. Before, the Problem was not so visible - gang member killed gang member and no one seemed to care. The riots have gotten people's attention." She hopes that nonprofit agencies ultimately will receive increased financial support that will then be passed on to the community through improved social services.

Diversification: L.A. chapter

Still pursuing goal

IABC/L.A. itself has not givers up on its goal to reach out to the minority community. Its seminar has been rescheduled for September 18 (see sidebar for registration information). N4any of the speakers previously announced have been invited back, and there is a good possibility that a key figure involved with Los Angeles' efforts to rebuild will make a major address.

The Los Angeles chapter also is pursuing other ways to improve its diversification record. Last year its board instituted a new category for its chapter awards program that will recognize excellence in multicultural communication. And through Thurlow's efforts, the chapter has set up a diversity committee. At its first meeting - held two days before the decision in the Rodney King beating trial - the committee, set as its goal the establishment of programs that will ensure membership diversity and that will advance multicultural communication.

The committee consists of two African Americans, one Filipino, two Hispanics and three Caucasians. Gwen Young, chairwoman, said the committee is planning to extend invitations to ethnically oriented public relations organizations such as the Hispanic P.R. Association to find out how IABC-/L.A. can work with them. The committee also has written the Los Angeles mayor's office to offer the services of IABC/L.A. members as a communication resource for Rebuild L.A.'s efforts.

Thurlow hopes IABC/L.A.'s efforts will set an example for other professional organizations. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if IABC/L.A. became a role model? Wouldn't it be nice to say that we recognize excellence from whatever culture it comes from? Wouldn't it be nice if we could start a dialogue among businesses along those lines?"

Although she realizes that IABC/L.A. still has a lot to learn about diversity and how it can help promote multicultural awareness, she believes the chapter's efforts along these lines can have a positive impact upon all members of the Los Angeles community. "If we c;an get people to recognize and promote excellence in a color-blind way," said Thurlow, "I think we can begin to erase some of the economic inequalities that exist in our society."

KING

BEATING

TRIAL

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, an African American, was arrested by White Los Angeles police officers after a high-speed chase. Part of the arrested was videotaped by a bystander. The videotape which Los Angeles television stations broadcasted countless times over the next year, showed that the policemen repeatedly beat and kicked King.

Subsequently, four of the policemen were charged with various counts of falsifying records and using excessive force to subdue King. A Los Angeles judge ordered the trial of the policemen moved out of Los Angeles County to ensure selection of an impartial jury.

The trial was held in Simi Valley, a predominantly White suburb that is well within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Of the 12 jurors, 10 were White, one Hispanic and one Asian. Because of the videotape, the majority of Los Angeles residents believed that guilty verdicts were a foregone conclusion. Not-guilty verdicts were unthinkable. But after a lengthy trial, the jurors thought otherwise. On April 29, they returned not-guilty verdicts on all but one of the charges against all four policemen. On one charge against one police officer, the jurors deadlocked.

The jury's decision inflamed Los Angeles. Within hours, rioters, tooters and arsonists vent, anger, primarily in Los Angeles' south central section, a community made up of African and Hispanic Americans. State and Federal troops were called in to quell the disturbance. During the next few days, more than 50 people were killed in riot-related incidents.

REACH OUT TO GET ATTENTION

Ethnic minority persons cannot use programs and services if they do not know about them. If information is only placed in mass media directed to the majority population, it will have limited or little impact on the minority community.

For example:

* If no minorities appear in advertisements about the service, the assumption could be that minorities are not welcomed.

* If a meeting location is only in majority sections of town, the same message is conveyed.

Actively seek to recruit minority persons and begin program development in culturally comfortable or culturally neutral sites. This means:

* Take the time to go into minority communities rather than just inviting minority people to your regular meeting. If possible, go with a minority person. This is essential if a different language is spoken.

* Actively recruit through local minority media, i.e., neighborhood newspapers, newsletters, radio, etc.

* Become aware of the minority communities' natural resource support systems, formal and informal

* After reaching out to a minority person/group, the invitation and welcome will probably need to be repeated often.

* The invitation needs to be genuine and not conveyed in a manner that implies it is just a formality. The individual or group must feel they can contribute to the program as well as have their own needs met.

* When a minority person comes to a meeting and is largely ignored, they will probably not come back.

* The process of comfortably working together will also be a slow process. Progress will only be accomplished when both majority and minority volunteers learn to be persistent and patient with each other.

* When organizing new program services, the potential for minority involvement should be evaluated as part of the routine initial assessment phase.

SEMINAR

REGISTRATION

INFO

IABC/Los Angeles has rescheduled its day.long seminar on Navigating Multicultural Communications for Friday, Sept. 18, at the Sheraton Grande Hotel, Los Angeles. Advanced registration fees are U.S. $165 for IABC members and $195 for nonmembers. Checks payable to IABC/L.A. should be sent to ARCO Products Co., 1055 W. 7th St., Rm. 1067, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Checks must be received prior to Friday, Sept. 4 (Sorry, credit cards cannot be accepted.) Late registration is $225. Anyone who was originally registered for the May seminar and who has not requested reimbursement of registration fees May;attend the rescheduled seminar at no additional cost.

Because of prior commitments of speakers and because of changes to the seminar program to reflect the situation after the Los Angeles riots, not all speakers originally scheduled for the May I seminar will lye present at the rescheduled event. The seminar will cover demographic trends in the 1990s, internal communication issues, external opportunities through diversity, and creating internal and external diversity programs.

For registration forms and additional information, contact Olga Martinez, ARCO Products Co., (213) 486,1067.