Many of the contributors relate first hand experience of oppression by organizations which, as social systems, work to the advantage of those who hold power in subtle and even unconscious ways. She suggests we confront fear by owning it as a part of ourselves. I'm trying to understand this destructive force and, in some way, to take it into myself. . . . If it's out there, it will always be your enemy and it will always be following you around. Many of the essays in The Promise of Diversity work from the point of view that power plus prejudice equal oppression.
Oppression can take the form of excluding entire categories of people.
It can also take the form of asking people to exclude part of themselves by conforming to the culture and mores of the organizations in which they work. Leaders wield power. Leaders influence organizations. Therefore, another connective element between The Promise of Diversity and servant-leadership is the nature of organizations and the mutual influence of individual actions on organizational systems and vice versa. Perhaps, servant-leadership was offered as an antidote to the type of leadership he experienced there.