My Response to Elon Musk’s Recent Gestures as an Immigrant and Cultural Sensitivity Expert

If you follow the news, the recent gestures of Elon Musk have drawn fierce criticism from many around the world.

In this audio, I shared my perspective as an African immigrant and Cultural Sensitivity Expert.

Watch it and let me know your take...

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Transcript

00:00:09:51 - 00:00:40:32
If you follow the news. The recent gestures of Elon Musk have drawn fierce criticisms. Are these criticisms fair? I don't know your answer. Let me respond to this question by wearing two different hats. As an immigrant who came from Africa, Elon Musk is one of my heroes. I'm proud to see someone who came from the same continent

00:00:40:32 - 00:01:15:06
I came from and succeeding in big ways. There is no other choice for me except to applaud for his success. I also consider him a once in a century genius. By the way, you don't need to agree with all his political point of views to recognize his genius and admire his creations, including Tesla, Twitter, SpaceX, PayPal. Who knows what comes next?

00:01:16:11 - 00:01:49:12
Whenever I find myself in disagreement with anyone, including people who hate me, I try my best to separate the individual from his or her point of views. I want to be tolerant while firmly stating my opposing positions and views. I stay objective and show respect towards the person. My principle is that, after all, this person is a fellow human.

00:01:49:12 - 00:02:27:30
It doesn't matter that we don't agree on everything. We can always disagree on certain things and agree on certain things. Whether we agree with everything or not, we should have this sense of responsibility to a fellow human being. Respect them as a human being, a soul, even if you don't agree with what they're thinking and saying. However, as a cultural sensitivity expert who provides workshops, webinars and someone who coaches leaders,

00:02:27:32 - 00:03:14:15
Elon Musk committed a serious cultural error. We advise our clients to pay attention to the norms and the taboos of the cultures they work and live in and the cultures they visit. At least those important cultural norms and taboos. For example, in some cultures you can show the V sign and it could be a sign of victory and peace, but it could be considered an insult like equivalent to showing a middle finger depending on whether your palm is facing inward or outward.

00:03:14:23 - 00:03:43:41
What does that mean? Which means I cannot just assume that this sign V is always victory and peace everywhere. I should have that cultural awareness. We all are somewhere on the spectrum of cultural intelligence. You and I, we’re somewhere, the difference will be on which end of the spectrum we are in. Here is the most important thing. To advance forward

00:03:44:01 - 00:04:21:54
avoid fatal cultural transgressions, we should keep on working on our cultural intelligence. You may be wondering what is cultural intelligence? You might have heard about IQ, emotional intelligence, and so on. Maybe this is the first time you heard about cultural intelligence. But here's what I'm going to tell you. In the 21st century, where we interact, communicate, and work with diverse people from different cultures, culture intelligence is more important than emotional intelligence.

00:04:23:40 - 00:04:54:03
In the last two decades, emotional intelligence may be at the top of the list for someone to be smart, successful. Now, we have a globalized world. The world is a village. You work and interact with people from different cultural backgrounds and perspectives around the world, thanks to internet, social media, and so on. Which means, as much as you have to work on your emotional intelligence,

00:04:54:27 - 00:05:14:05
you should also work on your cultural intelligence. Let me be clear. Emotional intelligence is very, very important, but it only helps you if you have the social intelligence, which means, you're aware of the norms and the taboos of the culture. And therefore, you may not need a lot of cultural intelligence.

00:05:16:18 - 00:05:57:19
But if you don't have the social intelligence about other cultures, other people, more than your emotional intelligence, your cultural intelligence gona give you the competitive advantage. It gona help you to succeed in the midst of people and circumstances for which you may not have a native advantage. But there are thousands of cultures and subcultures. We cannot always cross-pollinate effectively and get along with diverse people with different cultural backgrounds and perspectives. In possible!

00:05:58:26 - 00:06:36:15
We’re humans, we have limited time, resources and energy. We have also limited mental capacity. There is no way that I can develop cultural intelligence for all cultures in the world. I can't. But I have to make sure that I have the cultural intelligence for a couple of cultures in which I'm working and living, cultures that I visit frequently, or the cultures from which people come to work and interact and communicate with me.

00:06:37:07 - 00:07:19:23
Here is something you may not agree with me. Now, I'm 100% sure. The only person who can correct me on this is Elon Musk. If he confronts me and tells me that I was wrong, he was thinking differently than what I believe what he's thinking, I don't think he was showing those gestures to glorify the mustache man. I don't think a person like Elon Musk, who is committed to freedom of speech, which means he wants people to have the right to speak their mind.

00:07:20:31 - 00:07:55:05
Hitler didn't have that! And Elon Musk is also a person who's dedicated his life to save humanity. Whether you agree or not, whether going to Mars is a priority for you or not, at least, he's working towards giving humanity an alternative planet to save humanity. I don't think somebody who has this great ideals and commitments should be compared with the mustache man.

00:07:55:44 - 00:08:37:58
However, Elon Musk should have immediately cleared the misunderstanding. Yes, of course, he responded. But it was a little bit late. Plus, when I read his response, he was preoccupied in addressing those who are splitting hairs, those who hate him. But he should have known that there are genuine people, people who questioned his wisdom of using that sign publicly and in front of millions of people viewing that broadcast.

00:08:39:31 - 00:09:24:48
There are people who were concerned about what that salute means. These people deserve explanation, deserve proper attention and quick response from Elon Musk. Anyways, Elon Musk is not perfect. I'm not perfect. You are not perfect. Which means, we all cannot always say and do the right things and all the time. I can tell you some of my friends and colleagues may not like my point of views about Elon Musk. Some,

00:09:24:48 - 00:09:53:13
they could say, “You know what, why would you even appreciate anything about Elon Musk?” Some they would say, “Why would you even point out that he made a serious error?” Which means, I cannot say and do things and expect everybody to agree with me. And Elon Musk as a human being. Part of being human means you stumble. You make mistakes.

00:09:53:49 - 00:10:30:00
Nonetheless, as soon as people pointed out your stumbling and expressed that they are offended by you- by what you said and what you did- even if that was not your intention, you should immediately show empathy, clean the mess, take responsibility, learn something, grow and improve your cultural intelligence so that, this is very important, so that, you won't commit the same error again.

00:10:31:13 - 00:10:49:18
If you need coaching or webinar or workshop in the area of cultural sensitivity, if you want to build the cultural intelligence of your team, please reach out. I'm here to help you. Thank you very much for watching!