Before I begin, I should tell you a little story. I was born of the Colored/Negro/Afro American/Black/African-American persuasion (although I'm still, 42 years later, trying to figure out exactly what that means!). However, in 1984 while attending a finance seminar at the University of Michigan, I, along with my seminar mates, filled out a "lifestyles survey", designed to tell us the risk of various aspects in our lifestyle, like smoking and drinking, killing us before the age of 50. Being only 32 at the time, I was really interested. When I got the survey results back, I was shocked. I didn't smoke, rarely drank, was an avid runner and tennis player so I was in excellent shape. Nevertheless, it seems I had a _very high_ risk of dying young. The reason: I was black! We've all heard the statistics about young black men having a high risk of violent death at a young age. Well, there you go.

BTW, "male" style was defined as "risk aversion, comfort with hierarchy, following chain of command, communicating with people only in your immediate area". Furthermore, "In the new workplace, the winners are the outsiders: women and members of minority groups, teachers and networkers. The losers are the control freaks, the rigid personalities and the hoarders of information."