The Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) February 25, 2002        

The flap last week at Indiana University over a painting depicting a Ku Klux Klan cross-burning showed how differently people still view issues of race.

Some black students said they found the Thomas Hart Benton painting so offensive it should not be allowed on a classroom wall.

Some whites shrugged their shoulders over what all the fuss was about.

None of this was news to Jeff Harlig. In his job as a diversity consultant, he sees plenty of cases in which our  great national melting pot still struggles to blend all the ingredients.

Harlig, a native of Los Angeles who moved to Bloomington in 1985, is the owner of Words@Work, a company that advises businesses, schools, government groups and other institutions about "diversity management, harassment prevention and communication improvement." He also does volunteer projects, such as working with a gay-straight student group at Bloomington High School South.

Harlig, 46, might not fit the image you have of a diversity consultant. He is a white male, heterosexual, with no physical handicaps.

"I am," he says, jokingly, "a perfect majority member in almost all respects."

Does that hurt his credibility as an advocate for diversity?

"There are advantages and disadvantages," Harlig said. "One advantage is that I can go into a place and everyone understands that I don't have an ax to grind, that I am not trying to get something for my group."

Harlig's formal training is in linguistics, in which he earned a doctorate from the University of Chicago. While working in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, Harlig said, he became aware of the nationalistic and ethnic issues dividing people. In Slovakia, for example, the majority is pushing for a "Slovakian only" language policy.

The differences separating people in foreign countries helped crystallize for Harlig issues of diversity that still divide Americans.

While Harlig believes the United States has come a long way in addressing its problems, he doesn't buy the claim that all the issues are behind us.

"The reality is that we haven't gotten past them," Harlig said. "I just read a survey showing that 10 percent of white workers believe that African-Americans are targets of workplace discrimination. But 50 percent of African-Americans think that of themselves. That's a huge discrepancy.

"African-Americans and females still feel they have less chance for promotion, while white males feel, at worst, that they have equal chance."

While working for a consultant at an Indianapolis company, Harlig recalled, a white worker asked what was the difference between himself wearing a Ku Klux Klan shirt and a black employee wearing a Malcolm X shirt. Harlig said "I went through contortions" to explain that some groups in this country have been treated more poorly than others.

"He looked me in the eye and said 'Like who?'" Harlig said.

The worker's question, Harlig said, reflects a growing feeling among white males that "it's time to stop worrying about this stuff. We're not bad. We didn't do anything to hurt anyone. We weren't alive during slavery."

That attitude is misguided for a couple of reasons, Harlig said.

For one, white males are still at the top of most institutions and still, in raw numbers, control most of the money and power.

"Just being white you have certain advantages going into the game," he said. "If you're white, you can stand at a bus station at night and be reasonably assured that people around you aren't thinking you are going to rob them."

The second flaw in thinking discrimination is no longer a major issue is that incidents continue to happen. For example, Harlig said a workplace "fad" is putting a noose, either full size or a model, at the work station of an African-American.

"It's startling how many cases of this have occurred around the country, including at least two in Indiana," he said.

Harlig said women workers continue to be groped, propositioned or have pornography displayed to them by male workers. Gays face harassment, and because no federal laws and most states do not cover discrimination based on sexual orientation, they often have limited or no legal recourse.

When it comes to diversity, many questions, such as the painting at IU depicting the Klan, do not lend themselves to easy answers. The mural was commissioned by the Legislature in 1932 and is meant to show parts of Indiana history. During the 1920s, the Klan was perhaps the most powerful political force in the state.

Harlig said he opposed removing the painting. Spending time in Eastern Europe showed him how attempts to erase or rewrite history often backfire.

On the other hand, Harlig said, because history is usually viewed through the prism of white experience, it is easy for minorities to feel shut out.

So what would he recommend doing with the mural?

Harlig took a sip of coffee and thought for a moment.

"Maybe the answer would be to put a curtain over it," he said, after a minute. "After a while, people would see how ridiculous the curtain seems and remove it."

Just as worker safety was a major issue in the early part of the last century, the emotional safety of workers is becoming a major issue of our time, he said.

The Supreme Court, for example, didn't support a sexual harassment suit until 1986. Since then, workplace discrimination lawsuits have become among the fastest growing kinds of cases to reach the nation's high court.

While no court decision can change the way people think, the courts can establish laws that prevent harassment at work, schools and other institutions.

"We can say, 'You can't do it here,'" Harlig said. "That's the bottom line."

Still, Harlig said, diversity consulting hasn't yet become a booming business.

"It's sort of like selling life insurance," he said. "It's something nobody wants to think about until it becomes a problem. Well, at many workplaces there are problems.

"And despite what some people may want to believe, they are not going away."

Harlig has a radio program, Dateline Diversity, that airs at 11:50 a.m. Fridays on community station WFHB.

Managing Editor David Hackett can be reached at 331-4215 or by e-mail at dhackett@heraldt.com.