ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that race and privilege need to be considered by cross-cultural management (CCM) theory and practice. We exemplify this argument with the cross-cultural life story of a female German citizen, born to Cameroonian parents in Germany, who has lived in Germany, Cameroon and Romania. Across all three contexts, she is categorized in terms of race, and her narrative enables us to see how racial categories are socially constructed across and within cultural contexts. In her story, race intersects with privilege, and even though the specifics vary, the pattern remains. This informs us about the hierarchies of race in today’s world order, with ‘Whiteness’ being the most privileged and exclusive category. A critical CCM thus needs to question perceptions of a person’s social status, competency or qualification for their underlying constructions of ‘Whiteness’ or ‘non-Whiteness’. This is of particular importance in cultural contexts wherein race is silenced and related categorizations are not thought of as involving race.
