CJ Gross - Whats Your Zip Code Story?: Understanding and Overcoming Class Bias in the Workplace

Christopher CJ Gross is a TEDx speaker, international organizational development consultant, and founder of Ascension Worldwide, a full-service minority-owned consulting firm committed to helping clients achieve workplace inclusion, and employee and client diversity. He has eighteen years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, local and national nonprofits, and government agencies. He also serves as a business management, adjunct faculty for the Community College of Baltimore County and a diversity, equity, and inclusion master faculty for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Center for Innovation. CJ is a former mechanical designer with General Electric, avid traveler, and adventure junkie living in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Kerryann. Together they have three children who are attending college.

Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright 2022 by CJ Gross

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gross, C. J., 1974-author. | Ross, Howard J., writer of foreword.

Title: Whats your zip code story? : understanding and overcoming class dynamics at work / CJ Gross ; foreword by Howard J. Ross.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: Shedding light on class division, this book reveals implications and solutions to class bias in the workplace by analyzing real experiences, social norms, education, wealth, and more Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021047729 (print) | LCCN 2021047730 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538160589 (cloth) | ISBN 9781538160596 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Discrimination in employmentUnited States. | ClassismUnited States. | Personnel managementUnited States. | Diversity in the workplaceUnited States. | Social classesUnited States.

Classification: LCC HD4903.5.U58 G76 2022 (print) | LCC HD4903.5.U58 (ebook) | DDC 331.13/30973dc23/eng/20211230

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021047729

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021047730

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

This is a book that has needed to be written for a long time.

Cultures are almost always built around some element of mythology. The stories that we are told, both real and through allegory, are the foundation of what we come to believe about our culture and, correspondingly, our lives. From its earliest days, American culture has rested on the myth of social movement. Long before Horatio Alger wrote about Ragged Dick just after the end of the Civil War, the mystique of America has been the notion of equality: the sense that anybody can make it if they work hard enough. The up-from-the-bootstraps story is the core of the American legend. Immigrants have come for years, dreaming about the streets lined with gold.

America, the land of opportunity.

Yet, as we sit here, still in the early days of the twenty- first century, economic movement in the United States has largely slowed, even among white people. The average person born in the United States will likely move less than one level of the five quintiles of economic class (lower/lower middle/middle/upper middle/ upper) from where he was born, and, according to a recent Brookings Institution study, Blacks are more likely to stay in the bottom and fall from the middle. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened into a chasm. And our fractured political discourse has the markings of a class struggle.

As someone who has spent the past fifty years working on issues of equity and equality, I have often been shocked by how invisible class has been, in most cases, in so many of these conversations. Thats why I am so gratified that CJ Gross does an exceptional job of casting light on this extraordinarily important but largely whispered- about topic. His remarkably open and honest sharing about his personal journey helps us not only understand, but also get a genuine sense of what it is like to experience class migration. By letting us into his family and his personal journey, and including those of others as well, Gross gives us a narrative that colorizes the data, but also allows us to feel, even if just a bit, what it was like for him and othersand what it is like today for so many in our country.

The powerful gift of this book, however, doesnt stop there. Gross is also able to help us understand the system that we live in. Drawing from sound research and statistical studies, Gross builds a compelling picture of the reality of class in our society. He does an excellent job of looking at the intersectionality of social and seeing how race, gender, and other distinctions of identity influence how the system plays out. By weaving all of this together, he gives us a clear window to see ourselves and how this system has impacted each of us, if we are willing to look.

His narrative helps us understand this system at so many levels: the personal, in our communities, in the workplace, and beyond. The beautiful thing about this book is that it not only helps us understand the underpinnings of the system we live in but also gives us an immensely practical look at how it impacts us in organizations today and what we can do about it.

Read this book. Share this book. And start talking about how class impacts you, your organization, and your community.

Howard J. Ross, a lifelong social justice advocate and founding partner of the nationally recognized diversity consulting firm Cook Ross, Inc., is the author of Reinventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose, and Performance (2011), Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Bias in Our Everyday Lives , and Our Search for Belonging: How Our Need to Connect Is Tearing Us Apart (2018). His work has been published by the Harvard Business Review , the Washington Post , the New York Times , and Forbes , and he has worked with Fortune 500 companies across a variety of industries. He resides in Washington, D.C.

We are the authors of our life stories, but much like the anecdotes in this book, the stories of others shape us and can help us write new stories. As with any success in life, writing a book is not a solo performance; it takes a devoted village, a close- knit network, and a trusted support system. For me, that includes my family, friends, mentors, partners, and colleagues, to whom I am deeply grateful.

First, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to my mom, Ella J. Gross. She gave birth to me, nurtured me, gave me the fortitude to dream, and taught me to never settle for second best. Thank you for always believing and instilling the sense that anything is possible. Without your encouragement and relentless inquiry as to when I would complete this book, I would still be writing it instead of sharing it. This book is about uplifting people, something I learned a lot about from you and your lifetime of giving back to others. You have been an unwavering source of love, solace, and support. Thank you, Mom.