This study explores the bicultural life experience of black career-oriented women. Seventy-one women participated in a larger study on the life experiences of black women. Of this sample, 21 (29 per cent) of the women were identified as being career-oriented. Findings reveal that the women perceive themselves as living in two distinct cultural contexts, one black the other one white. The women compartmentalize the various components of their lives in order to manage the bicultural dimensions. In addition, they tend to have highly complex life structures to embrace both cultural contexts. I am indebted to Donald M. Wolfe, Toni Denton, and Jacquie McLemore for their support and guidance as colleagues in this research endeavor.

This article explores the concept of psychological armor among African American women. Armor is a concept found in the psychological literature describing a selfprotection strategy against racism. Using narratives taken from life histories, we examine this process among African American women raised in two kinds of family systems: families of nurturance and support; and families of struggle and stress. Our analysis reveals that armoring is as much a coping mechanism against racism, as it is against sexism, and that a woman’s family class origin is a strong moderating factor.

It is well over a year since the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. His appointment and the aftermath of the hearings remain controversial in the public's eye. The event is credited by feminists for energizing the women's movement. It was a catalyst for significant changes in the 1992 political arena. There has also been a substantial increase in the number of sexual harassment incidents reported. However, Anita Hill `s story represents more than sexual harassment for many Black women. The event serves as a painful reminder of how vulnerable they are especially when it comes to having their stories of sexual abuse heard and taken seriously. This article speaks to that pain and the complexity of understanding racism when entangled with sexism within the Black community.

This paper presents the theoretical basis and the associated perceptions of race relations that characterized a race relations competence workshop which served as the educational component of an overall program to improve race relations among managers within the fictitiously named XYZ Corporation. Workshop activities combined didactic and experiential methods and focused on group and individual levels of learning based on embedded intergroup relations theory. An assessment of the race relations competence workshop was carried out as part of an overall effort to evaluate the race relations improvement program in the company. Employing measures of both global evaluation and perceptions of race relations among managers, the study showed that Blacks evaluated the workshop more favorably than Whites, that reports of having information about the workshop were positively associated with favorable evaluations of the workshop, that workshop participants more than nonparticipants were likely to perceive Whites as hurting Blacks and less likely to perceive Blacks as hurting Whites. Additional analyses showed that, while the workshop generally had favorable effects for participants, the groups most likely to show unfavorable consequences were White male first level managers younger than 41 years and White female first level managers older than 40 years.

This article began as an exploration of Black and White women's efforts to address inequality and make changes in the workplace, but we soon turned the mirror back onto ourselves as Black and White women engaged in change efforts. Our struggles over interpreting the data revealed how Black and White women struggle to make sense of whether the other is a reliable ally. Black women wonder whether White women will raise their voices or be silent yet again. White women wonder whether Black women can trust that silence is sometimes a strategy. Charting a course through defensiveness, questioning, and some distinct "aha" moments led us to understand our phenomenon and ourselves more deeply. We end this article at a way station, not a final destination, with open questions about the prospects for cross-race collaboration.