Former CEO of McGraw-Hill, Independent
Everyday Struggle: Switching Codes for Survival | Harold Wallace III | TEDxPittsburgStateUniversity
Speech Title: The Everyday Struggle – Switching Codes for Survival Harold Wallace III is a Los Angeles, CA, native who received a Bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies from Wichita State University and a Master’s of Science in College Student Personnel from Arkansas Tech University. He currently serves as the Assistant Director of Student Diversity Programs at Pittsburg State University. He is also the advisor for the Black Student Association, Native American Student Association, and Hispanics of Today and is passionate about helping students of color matriculate college. Harold was a first-gen...
About Harold Iii
Harold Wallace III, who uses the name Harold Wallace III in his public appearances, delivered a TEDx talk in 2018 in which he discussed the concept of "code switching," which he defined as changing one's language, dialect, and demeanor to fit a given social environment. He described code switching as a survival skill for minorities and said he uses it because he has "a family to feed and bills to pay." Wallace also addressed microaggressions, giving examples such as asking a Hispanic student where they are from or telling an Asian-American student they speak English well. He stated that if the majority put "at least 10% of the effort" that minorities put into understanding others, "America could be a utopia," but added that "that would mean abandoning the idea of America as we know it." Harold "Terry" McGraw III, former CEO and chairman of The McGraw-Hill Companies, has spoken in various forums about trade and economic policy. In a 2015 interview as chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce, he identified trade, financing for growth, human capital and education, and investment in infrastructure as key priorities. He expressed support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and for a WTO agreement on trade facilitation, stating that these measures would lead to "higher levels of growth" and "more job creation." In a 2008 keynote address, McGraw argued that business media should pursue new strategies for the new media environment while maintaining their "comparative advantage" of delivering "reliable, trustworthy, and insightful information."
Transcript (15 segments)
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Harold Wallace III0:18
Howdy. Now that doesn't even sound right coming out of my mouth. These are some of the things that you may not have to think about, but me? I wake up every morning and I look in the mirror and I try to figure out how can I present myself to this world without being seen as a threat. Actually, how can I present myself to this world without being seen as a threat and also remaining myself at the same time? That's tough, tougher than you think. Let me tell you why that is. My name is Harold Wallace the Third.
I lived in Compton, lived in Hawthorne, and many other cities in Los Angeles County. But Inglewood has this really cool tagline on all the billboards and signs: 'City of Champions.' Which is true. That's where the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Kings played in their glory years in the 90s, right there in the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California. So let me tell you a little bit about my upbringing and why I have some of the struggles I have today.
I'm not sure if you guys are somewhat... which means that there are generation on top of generations of gang bangers, with over 45,000 members currently active right now outside of the prison system. So imagine this: walking out of your house, looking both ways to cross the street, and as you cross the street somebody walks up to you and says, 'Hey, where are you from?' I'll let you know now that those three words are the most intimidating and threatening words that you can hear as an African-American male in Los Angeles, especially from someone that you have... peace.
But also want to apologize to my mother, my beautiful mother, because some of the information that I'm about to share with you all today is new news to you and new news to her as well. Now, don't get me wrong, some of the things that I'm about to say now may be a little bit rough. But can you imagine seeing a man shot with a 12-gauge at the age of seven and not being able to tell anybody? There's a certain amount of traumatic flashbacks and numbness and anxiety that comes with that. What about being robbed at gunpoint at the age of... normal to people who come from where I come from.
Now I had to mind my business in the classroom, not took care of business. And actually around this time I was almost labeled with a behavior disorder because I like to talk during work time. It took me to get to third grade before the teacher finally noticed that I wasn't simply talking, I just wasn't being challenged. My work was done faster and my work was correct, and I was just wondering why everybody else wasn't done yet. So because of the way I had to carry myself in school, my parents didn't really bother me much. They didn't care... how to carry myself on the streets, and I learned how to carry myself in school. And this is where the foundation is built for code-switching.
Code-switching is basically the changing of one's language, dialect, and demeanor to fit the atmosphere that you're currently in. One of the best to do it on one of the biggest stages was our very own past President Obama. You see him here shaking the hand of the assistant coach of the U.S. basketball team, and then right next to him shaking the hand and embracing Kevin Durant, just a little bit different than the one before. So he definitely was a professional at it.
I am a black man. I am a bearded black man. I'm a big, pretty black man, actually. I'm a big, bald, bearded black man. So I see things a little bit different when I'm walking down the street. I notice things when I'm holding the door for someone. I notice things when I'm getting onto the elevator. I notice things. Even working in higher education, I noticed things. Basically, I have to put forth an effort to do above and beyond to make sure that people feel comfortable within my presence. So when I am walking down the street, I put on a smile the closer I get to you to make... lastly, when I'm holding that door, I put on the biggest smile possible because I want to make sure that that person understands that they are entering or exiting that building with the friendliest of black men.
I was blessed to make it through my undergrad and my master's program with very little parental financial help, and I'm very proud to say that. But definitely ran into some obstacles and some walls that probably were there because I didn't have as much guidance as I probably needed, which is why I'm in higher education today. I basically want to be the person that I needed in college for our college students of today.
That's my background and my upbringing. And you know who can really relate to the smart kid from the inner-city hood? Then after working in higher education for a few years, I quickly learned that one of the major reasons why there are not many people that look like me and are from where I'm from working in higher education is because of the pay. We all know that educators don't get paid what they deserve, especially for playing a major role in molding our future leaders of tomorrow. But maybe another reason just might be that people who look like me understand the atmosphere in which I work in.
So this is the hard part. I need everybody to get their mixing thing going... almost like mixing up oil and water. So I have my predominantly white institution that I work at now, Pittsburg State University. I'm the assistant director in the Office of Student Diversity. But I just happen to want to work at the predominant institution in the predominately white corner of the predominately white state. As you guys can see here, state of Kansas is 2.9 million with 86% of that being white. But luckily here at Pittsburg State we don't deal with so many issues with blatant racism, which is great. But I cannot help but to think about the students that are from a marginalized group.
So for instance, asking a Hispanic student, 'Hey, where are you from?' and they say, 'Oh, I'm from Wichita,' and you say, 'No, but where are you from from?' That's a microaggression. Or telling an Asian-American student, 'Hey, you speak English really well.' That's a microaggression. Or maybe even telling the African-American girl that, 'Hey, you're really cute for a black girl,' as if there are levels of cuteness based on race, I guess. But those are major microaggressions. Then they become overwhelming, and more and more there are becoming more ways of showing... over everything. But while you show your allegiance, do you think about the discomfort that you may be causing to our minority population due to our current climate, our current political climate?
So we really have an opportunity here. The majority can really get rid of code-switching. You guys have the power. All you got to do is L.I.E. Just lie. I lie sometimes. I'm sure everybody in here, you've lied before. Don't lie. L.I.E.: Learn, Implement, and Embrace. By learn, I mean learn a little bit about yourself, learn about your background, learn about your history.
The next step: implement. Use that education to put it into effect. Deal with that relationship with somebody that looks different. Have those conversations, ask those questions. I guarantee when a person knows the question is from a genuine place, no matter how you word it, you will get a response. Actually, I have a story about when I was a ninth grader and I was in world history class. I was learning about all of these awesome religions, of course the major four that really came up often were Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, and Islam. Three weeks later, I found myself at the kiosk in the mall trying to get some new earrings, you know, trying to stay fly. And I saw the man had a Koran... and when I said that, he turned around with such amazement that a 14-year-old black boy knew about the two major branches of Islam. After that, we had a 20-minute conversation about his thoughts and my thoughts and my assumptions and his assumptions. And it was an awesome relation. And at the end of it, I ended up getting an awesome discount as well.
Embrace. Embrace is to basically support a belief, a change, a theory willingly and enthusiastically. And that's the tough part right there: willingly and enthusiastically. We do all three of those things and we L.I.E. a little bit, and... all of us just in there together, just enjoying life, and it's just harmonious and great. She shut that down by basically saying, 'We don't want a melting pot, we want a salad bowl.' A salad bowl with different vegetables, basically saying I want lettuce to be lettuce, cucumbers to be cucumbers, onions to be onions, and tomatoes to be tomatoes, and all be in the same place and coexist and be great. And salads are good. I had one yesterday. But envision this: a world where code-switching no longer exists, it's simply a concept that's taught in psychology and history class.
Minorities put forth so much effort. But if the majority put at least 10% of that same effort into learning, embracing, understanding, and engaging the minority population, then the states could be a utopia for us all. But that just wouldn't be America, would it? So until then, we code-switch away, because I have a family to feed and bills to pay. Thank you very much.