Overcoming Cultural Clashes through an Intersectional Lens

Culture clashes often arise from differences in language and communication styles. While a shared language can facilitate understanding and interaction, language barriers can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunication, and conflict. Language is a significant factor in defining and understanding cultural norms and values. Unspoken cultural norms can create the sense that colleagues come from a different planet. The hypervisibility that comes with being “the only one” can lead to White employees constantly interrogating the instincts and motivations of Black people, especially Black women. This questioning attitude can lead to Black communities suffering in silence and can exert a negative impact on their well-being (Showunmi, 2013). The communication style of Black communities is often stereotyped as blunt, which is consistent with a Eurocentric view of masculine communication as direct and controlling (Olasunkanmi-Alimi et al., 2022).