Cultural Norms Dictated by the Monoculture: Journaling Questions

Review the tenets and principles, and draft your own manifesto for wherever you hold influence, at work, on a board, in a volunteer group, etc. — your action plan, andremember, you can always go back to the plan and refine it.

20 tenets

1. Perfectionism
2. Sense of urgency
3. Defensiveness
4. Quantity over quality
5. Worship of the written word
6. Only one right way
7. Paternalism
8. Either/or thinking
9. Power hoarding
10. Fear of open conflict
11. Individualism
12. “I’m the only one”
13. Progress is bigger, more
14. Objectivity
15. Right to comfort
16. Transactional over relational
17. Performative, not authentic
18. White male mediocrity
19. Human dominance
20. Narrow mindset

Six professionalism principles

1. Honesty
2. Respect
3. Accountability
4. Timeliness
5. Initiative
6. Integrity

Thinking about Tema Okun’s framework as “the water we swim in,” where do you notice white supremacy culture norms shaping everyday expectations of professionalism in your workplace or communities?

Recall a time when paternalism or power hoarding showed up as secrecy, gatekeeping, or “need-to-know” decisions. How did that impact trust, especially across lines of race, gender, or role?

Where do you see individualism and “one charismatic leader” culture centering a single person (often a white man) as the only authority, while others’ lived experience is sidelined or erased?

Think of an example of transactional, not relational, behavior in an organization you know: when efficiency, coldness, or “just business” was prioritized over authenticity and real connection. Whose ways of relating were treated as a problem?

How has the “bigger is always better” and unsustainable urgency mindset shown up around growth, fundraising, or productivity in your context? What human costs (health, family, community, integrity) were minimized or ignored?

Where have you witnessed comfort over candor, especially when someone tried to offer caring, corrective feedback about race, gender, or other differences? What happened to that person afterward, and what did the group learn—or not learn?

In your experience, how does the supremacy of the written word show up as a gatekeeping tool (e.g., accents, dialects, storytelling styles, visual or oral traditions being devalued)? Who gets framed as “unprofessional” or “not smart enough” as a result?

Reflect on a moment when perfectionism and rigidity (“we’ve always done it this way,” acronyms, jargon, flawless deliverables) were treated as more important than learning, inclusion, or experimentation. How did that affect people with less positional power?

Where have you seen performative, not authentic, DEI or solidarity work—statements, photo ops, task forces—substitute for real structural change? How did marginalized people respond or adapt to that disconnect?

Think of a situation where defensiveness, either/or thinking, or “right to comfort” recentered those with more power when harm was named. How did this dynamic function as gaslighting or tone policing, and what repair (if any) was attempted?

Looking across these tenets—urgency, perfectionism, paternalism, individualism, unsustainable work norms, human dominance, and narrow mindsets—which two feel most entrenched where you hold influence, and what is one concrete step you could take to disrupt each of them?