The Subtle Art of Not Talking About Race: Understanding Leaders’ Use of Racism Elusive Language

Despite the fundamental nature of race to organizational functioning, its psychological and structural effects often remain obscured. In this talk, I explore how race and racism shape employees' experiences and how organizational leaders communicate about these realities. I will begin by reviewing my prior work on mega-threat events-highly publicized identity related events that reverberate into the workplace-and their consequences for racial minority employees (Leigh & Melwani, 2019; 2022). The core of the talk will focus on my newer research examining how leaders talk about race in the wake of such events. Across four mixed-methods studies, we introduce the construct of racism-elusive language-communication that acknowledges but avoids explicitly naming race or racism. In Study 1, inductive analyses of university leaders' statements following the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ban on race-conscious admissions revealed systematic variation in this language. Using natural language processing, we found that institutions with larger White student populations issued statements higher in racism-elusive language. We theorized that this elusiveness reflects miscalibrated expectations: leaders anticipate backlash to explicit racial discussion, while audiences actually respond more positively to this more explicit language. Studies 2 and 3 confirmed these effects, showing that explicit racial language reduces negative audience reactions, enhances perceived allyship and increases overall leader evaluations. Finally, Study 4 demonstrates that a brief intervention highlighting the benefits of direct racial communication reduces reliance on racism-elusive language. Together, this work advances theory on racial and intergroup communication and offers practical guidance for leaders striving to address race with clarity and authenticity.