This article originally appeared in the March '06 issue of DiversityInc magazine. 

Bea Perdue was excited. She and her boss at a Fortune 500 company were driving back to the office after a very successful meeting with a major client. Perdue's boss showered her with compliments about how well she handled the client and the presentation.

Then it came. Perdue's boss, a white man, said the one comment that strikes like a punch in the stomach for black women.

"He commented on how articulate I had been in the presentation," recalls Perdue, now executive director of the Johnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C. Perdue, who is black, was the only woman at the company who managed major accounts. "I asked if he had ever commented to my three peers [all white men] that they were articulate and well-spoken ... He gasped."

Comments that reveal surprise at a black woman's intellect, question a Latina's ability to control her emotions or an Asian-American woman's aggressiveness remain all too frequent in corporate America. Moving up the ladder requires the ability to respond to these offensive stereotypes in a manner that educates the speaker and prevents further comments without appearing hostile or unapproachable.

"We have to choose what moments are teaching moments and be deliberate and strategic when we stop someone and say, 'That comment was uncalled for,'" says Jennifer "Jae" Requiro, a Filipina who is diversity-consulting and inclusion-strategies manager for Toyota Motor Sales.  

Perdue's situation unfortunately remains typical because women of color still are a small minority of executives. Nationally, only 6.3 percent of managers are women of color, according to the most recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data, and of those, 3.1 percent are black, 1.8 percent are Latina and 1.3 percent are Asian American.

Even at the most progressive of companies, The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, the numbers aren't much better. At the top 12 companies (the top 10 on the 2005 list plus all companies on the Top 10 Companies for Recruitment & Retention), 3.4 percent of managers were black women, 1.5 percent were Latina and 1.3 percent were Asian-American women.

That means that women of color continue to encounter people who hold stereotypical views of them because they have not been exposed.

"Stereotypes are perpetrated by television, radio and music," says Berlinda Fontenot-Jamerson, director of diversity, corporate human resources for ABC. Since joining ABC in 2005, Fontenot-Jamerson has focused on recruiting executives of color who could help ABC create and air culturally competent television programs.

"The media perpetuates the 'crazy black woman' from the hood who has one way to communicate, through cursing-never mind that the masses communicate just fine," says Fontenot-Jamerson.

People live near, worship and socialize with others of similar ethnic or racial backgrounds. That is why Dr. dt ogilvie, associate professor of business strategy at the Rutgers Business School at Rutgers University in Newark and New Brunswick, N.J., says executive women of color must prepare to respond to stereotypical comments.

"For people of color, you have to think of it as a game," says ogilvie, a black woman. "You win by different methods-sometimes you need to be bold, sometimes you need to be stealthy and surreptitious. You have to outwit your opponent and foresee the moves they might make and be prepared. It requires a little more thought than it would for a big, tall, blond person who everyone follows."

Ogilvie, who worked for 13 years in the corporate world before her academic career and currently is studying black executive women who were promoted to the executive suite, was hit with the back-handed "articulate" compliment when she received a promotion at Rutgers. It came from the university's dean and was in a comment in which he was announcing her promotion.

"A number of my Rutgers colleagues and Rutgers alums were very upset about his quote, but I realized he didn't mean it in a malicious way since he has been very supportive of me in his position as dean."

"Some battles you fight and some you ignore," says ogilvie, who chose to ignore this fight because the comment was not said directly to her.

Pick Your Battles

Stereotypes can be cancerous to a career. Two of the more detrimental are that black women and Latinas do not take criticism well and cannot control their emotions. Senior leaders who believe those stereotypes will be less likely to mentor a black woman or a Latina. Their managers may refrain from providing constructive criticism if they believe these employees of color will not be receptive.

"Perception-building and [perception]-changing are important when you're the only one like you in the office where you work," says Ana Mollinedo, who recently left her position as vice president, diversity communications and affairs at Starwood Hotels.

In her early years, Mollinedo's excitement about a project was at times interpreted by white managers or coworkers as anger or aggression, the stereotype of being the "hot-blooded" Latina, she says.

"People would say, 'Calm down,' or, 'Don't get upset,' and I would say, 'I'm not upset,'" says Mollinedo, who was born in Cuba but reared in Miami. She took to explaining that what they interpreted as anger was passion for the job at hand.

"You have to have a balance," explains Mollinedo. "I would rather continue to explain myself than lose my passion and dedication for what I'm doing."

While the passion that black women and Latinas show for their work can be construed as anger or frustration, for Asian-American women, the expectation often is that they are docile.

"Decision makers look at you with a lens based on their life experience," says Requiro. "So we as people who are different need to stand up and be emphatic about what we can do and why we can do it."

The women interviewed for this article say they have learned to take a moment and consider the source of the comment, to be brave enough to ask the person further to explain what he or she meant and then teach the person a little about with whom they are speaking. They are vehicles for communication, not hostility.

"Familiarity breeds acceptance," says Fontenot-Jamerson. She learned to ask for feedback from her superiors to counter any apprehension they might have to critique her because she is black. "And I go out of my way to have frank discussions, ask people what they think, and let people know I don't bite. Then you gain a reputation of being fair." 

Turn It Into a Positive

Frank discussions and open dialogue, however, must be accompanied by a positive attitude. "A positive attitude will get you a lot further than a negative attitude. And as a minority, you cannot construe everything white folks do in terms of race," says ogilvie.

If a senior officer gives a backhanded compliment to a female executive of color and she responds in anger or frustration, she will be labeled with another stigma--the chip on the shoulder.

"Black folks have a chip on our shoulders and we're angry" was the stereotype Jo-Ann Butler was told to watch for as a child. Butler retired in October from Hewlett-Packard (HP), where she worked for 18 years as the company's director of multicultural procurement and sales support.

She was reared during the 1950s and 1960s when stereotypes were overt. Her parents, aunts and uncles taught her about the negative perceptions she would have to overcome. So when Butler entered corporate America, she always was early to meetings, did not speak slang in any setting and made sure she was approachable.

"When people say, 'You don't sound black,' I would say, 'You don't either,'" says Butler. "And I would ask, 'What do black people sound like?' I use those opportunities to let folks know I'm not an exception--so don't view me as an exception."

Today's corporate world comes with antidiscrimination training that has taught people to not make overt stereotypical comments. But the thought process that characterizes people of color as poor, uneducated, lazy and undesirable because of those negative stereotypes persists, says Butler.

"I see it in airports when I've been upgraded and pre-board first class," says Butler. "As my husband and I move to board, someone white will say, 'They're trying to board first class.'"

When a comment is questionable, she asks the person to explain.

"That's when I ask, 'Why did you ask that question?'" says Butler. "If you get an answer that does not make sense, then it was probably racist."

Not assuming that a comment is racist allows for discourse and, potentially, a positive learning experience. In ogilvie's study on black women who have reached the highest ranks in corporate America, one common trait is how they frame problems or situations.

"If you automatically characterize [a stereotypical comment] as racist, what do you do to solve the issue?" asks ogilvie. "You can't change people. But if you characterize it as something else, that gives you alternatives on how to deal. Then your actions will influence their actions."

It's All About Relationships

To influence perceptions, Butler made an effort to eat in the cafeteria and sit with white coworkers she did not know well. She went to the mailroom to greet fellow coworkers. And she always participated in HP-sponsored events, such as 20k runs or potlucks.

"I don't sweat in public, so I don't run," says Butler with a laugh. "But that doesn't mean I can't be at the water station when the company is competing in a 20k run."

It is at the company-sponsored events that colleagues often let down their guard, share their personal and public concerns and develop bonds with fellow employees beyond the cubicle. It also allows the opportunity to learn about a colleague's non-work-related and work-related networks.

"As you develop relationships with people, you can talk about politics and race and other hot-button issues," says Perdue.

Perdue recalls that drive with her boss being an uncomfortable period of time. When he realized she was upset, he asked what he had done.

"I said, 'The reason it's not a compliment is because for the majority of people you deal with who are white, being articulate is a given,'" she recalls. "Somehow the point of reference is that if I am African American and articulate, it is by some miracle that I turned out that way. He said he didn't mean it as an insult, and I knew he didn't mean it as an insult."