Churn : the tension that divides us and how to overcome it / Claude M. Steele.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Nearly two decades after the publication of Whistling Vivaldi, a landmark work that analyzed stereotype threats and how we can mitigate their corrosive effects, the legendary social psychologist Claude M. Steele returns with an equally ambitious work that examines "churn"--the mental agitation and physical stress we can experience in diverse settings in everyday life--and the surprising role that trust-building can achieve in reducing churn across identity divides.



Opening with a striking vignette of a parent-teacher conference between a well-meaning white teacher and the concerned Black parents of a seventh grader, the book demonstrates how churn threatens the high level of trust that is essential to mentoring and teaching the young. Drawing from decades of psychological research, Churn is rich with examples, such as a young woman entering a boardroom as one of only a few women; a white male feeling conspicuous during an intense diversity training session; a Chinese grandmother shopping in a public market where anti-Asian violence has occurred; and the lessons gleaned from remarkable student improvement and graduation rates at Georgia State University.



Too often, we deal with the commonplace tensions of diversity and difference by pretending they don't exist, by avoiding talking and relating to one another across what can seem like wide chasms of identity difference. Steele highlights a different path forward, a path rooted in trying to see full humanity and potential in human difference. He spells out practices--as he puts it, "a game played on the ground"--for how to build trust across all kinds of human divides: between individuals, or in larger settings, like classrooms, board rooms, even in whole institutions, corporations, and organizations. It is a game we can all play, he believes. Churn doesn't dwell on age-old tensions that continue to fester. It provides tangible ways to make a better world in the fractured society we inhabit.



Carefully intertwining state-of-the-art research with poignant anecdotes drawn from Steele's own biracial background, Churn is essential reading for anyone dedicated to fostering a community rooted in love and commitment. "Wise to its core" (Lee C. Bollinger, president emeritus, Columbia University) and filled with a deep well of hope, Steele's summa work brilliantly succeeds in teaching us how to work through the churn that continues to suffuse our lives.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Steele, a social psychologist and bestselling author of Whistling Vivaldi, delivers a captivating follow-up to that volume's groundbreaking scholarship on the psychology of stereotypes. Beginning with what he sees as the core problem of social life, the inevitable "tension... between races, ethnicities, genders, social classes" that arises "as we live and work together" and can lead to vicious cycles of increasing factionalism--a phenomenon he calls "churn"--the author offers a guide to overcoming such divisions through the conscientious practice of "trust-building." Noting that many institutions in America have taken it upon themselves to promote diversity and reduce stratification but have sometimes failed to achieve results, Steele suggests that early on there was an over-emphasis on self and "identity," and instead posits that true diversity requires allowing "others to tell me how they'd like to be seen" and openness to learning more about one another. Drawing on his own and others' scholarship and a host of case studies, he makes a powerful argument for "trust" as the fundamental missing element both to diversity efforts and in American society at large. The methods he recommends are built around instructive questioning and listening to others, and tend to propose offering practical, concrete assistance to others as a show of "good faith"--or, as he pithily admonishes: "Render real help." It adds up to an elegant, concise, and moving suggestion that a little kindness would go a very long way. (Mar.)

Kirkus Book Review

How building trust can alleviate social problems. Social psychologist Steele (Whistling Vivaldi, 2010) draws on a wide range of experiments he and other scientists have conducted--as well as his own experience growing up in Chicago in the '40s and '50s in a biracial family--to analyze with care and compassion the pressures of living in a diverse society and to propose solutions that both individuals and institutions can implement. Living with others of different "racial, ethnic, gender and sexual orientation identities" can, Steele writes, create a condition he labels "churn": an "anxious, ruminative" state that is the result of "the threat of being judged and treated badly based on negative feelings or stereotypes about our identities." It's a state of mind that has been proven to make students function less successfully and adults push back against engaging with those with different identities. Broadly, he suggests that even the smallest gestures toward increasing trust pay off in reducing churn, and offers evidence that this trust is most effective when it starts from the individual with the most power. It's easier to build trust, he says, "than it is to rid people of lifelong prejudices." More specifically, he suggests a strategy of three goals: seeing, welcoming, and supporting. Many of the examples Steele gives come from the world of education, but he also includes some from industry, including the success of 3M in building diversity. From a practical point of view, Steele's recommendations show the benefits of lending a helping hand to all students who need one, not just those who fall into certain categories, since "targeting programs at certain groups could stigmatize those groups and alienate other students." A pragmatically hopeful remedy for interpersonal tensions. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.