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March 1, 2022
“HR doesn’t work for you,” my mom said, “They work for the company. They aren’t paid to make sure that there aren’t any problems for you; they are paid to make sure there aren’t any problems for the CEO. When you complain, you become a problem.”
“She went to HR,” my boss explained. “I know things were bad for her on her team, but she could have found another way. It’s over for her now. She’s never going to get a promotion; she’s never going to get another special project. She might as well quit. She’s on the shit list.”
The why is largely an accepted fact: including people of diverse and underestimated backgrounds in the workplace is both the right and profitable thing to do. What isn’t largely understood or accepted is the how. If we believe in inclusion morally, ethically, and as a way to drive profitability and productivity, then why are we so terrible at it?
No country has achieved complete gender equality in the workplace—not in terms of political representation, corporate leadership, pay equity, or equal opportunities to advance in the workforce.
Strategies must be intersectional; to be effective, they must prioritize the advancement of women of color, who carry the two largest and most visible marginalized identities in the workplace.
Without an intersectional approach, changes to support women’s advancement are incomplete at best, and at worst, inadvertently create cultures where women of color are deeply discriminated against—often while white women ascend.
The contemporary interpretation of “diversity” has largely meant aiming for gender balance—which has led to the progress of white and other dominant-group women—rather than addressing the historical oppression of communities of color in Western workplaces.
White supremacy is pervasive.
Anti-Blackness is pervasive.
The intersection between gender and race/ethnicity uniquely impacts women.
Racial differences are used to justify the superiority or inferiority of one race over another, through racist beliefs, actions, or systems.
“Diversity” refers to seeking the equal or greater representation of underrepresented, historically marginalized people, especially women of color.
“Equity,” which must be central to all diversity and inclusion efforts, refers to identifying and dismantling systemic barriers to the representation and inclusion of women, people of color, and people from other historically marginalized communities.
“Inclusion” refers to the actions taken to represent, welcome, and value people from historically underestimated, marginalized communities such as women of color.
Inclusive workplaces encourage women of color to bring their whole, authentic selves to work without fear of being excluded or discriminated against.
“Diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance,” Vernā Myers, vice president of of inclusion strategy at Netflix, is frequently quoted saying. I like to add...
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First, women of color (nonwhite women) are the largest majority of women around the world. Second, their representation is rapidly growing in Western workplaces; women of color will be the majority of working women in the United States by 2050.9
When only white women ascend to the highest corporate leadership positions, we must identify the barriers that prevent all women from rising up the ranks.
And that intersectionality of race and gender must remain at the fore when we are working on habits and behaviors to be more inclusive.
How can we make meaningful progress to undo systems of harm? The answer is active, deliberate action—inclusion on purpose.
If we define leadership as the ability to influence and inspire others to action, we’ll notice that for far too long, we have lauded white male leaders for grooming, inspiring, and propelling the next generation of leaders like them. We need to change this paradigm urgently so that everyone with ambition, skill, and potential can succeed.
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. —Audre Lorde
took a simplistic view of the world: if you work hard and are smart enough, you could overcome the chips that were stacked against you on a societal level.
Experiencing bias and discrimination on a daily basis, not seeing role models like me, and being excluded from work meetings and social gatherings all took a toll on me. I began second-guessing myself and my right to be in my job, despite having ample qualifications to be there.
The impact of systemic racism, classism, xenophobia, and other biases was categorically absent when the concept of imposter syndrome was developed … [which] puts the blame on individuals, without accounting for the historical and cultural contexts that are foundational to how it manifests in both women of color and white women. Imposter syndrome directs our view toward fixing women at work instead of fixing the places where women work.
No matter your background, the time you grew up in, or your own personal experience, you can learn to identify bias and work to undo it, whether you have experienced it or not.
There are few phrases that would get someone more angry than if you called their behavior racist or misogynist. Many people will retort with some version of, “But I don’t see color” or “I didn’t say that because you’re a woman.”
If you have never had to “see” color, then you’re most certainly in the racial majority. There’s no person of color I know who does not have to consider how their skin color or racial identity will impact the way they’re perceived. If you have never had to worry about your safety when walking home late at night or how you will be perceived in the workplace because of your gender identity, you are most certainly a white man.
“Asking you to acknowledge your privilege does not minimize your personal hardship and suffering. It does not make your pain any less legitimate if you acknowledge someone else’s pain, which, by chance or birth, you find yourself free of. When it comes to white privilege, having it does not make your life easy, but understanding it can make you realize why some people’s lives are harder than they should be,” as organizational psychologist John Amaechi explains in the Financial Times.2
Research shows all women, especially women of color, are expected to constantly reestablish their presence and authority at work. This is known as prove-it-again bias.3 One study by the Society of Women Engineers found “that 61 percent of women reported having to prove themselves repeatedly to get the same levels of respect and recognition as their colleagues” compared to 35 percent of white men reporting the same.
Over the years, constantly facing prove-it-again bias becomes soul crushing for women of color. Like being asked to reestablish their credentials in meetings, or having ideas ignored in meetings until they’re repeated by white men or women, or being denied promotion or tenure despite being overqualified for the opportunity.
“The problem isn’t men, it’s patriarchy. The problem isn’t white people, it’s white supremacy. The problem isn’t straight people, it’s homophobia. Recognize systems of oppression before letting individual defensiveness stop you from dismantling them.”
Here’s the hardest sentence I’ve had to write in this book: I’m racist and benefit from upholding racist systems.
But as much as Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan embody racism, we also co-opt and normalize racist behavior when we don’t question our current systems, in which, say, the average white college dropout is still wealthier than a Black person with a college degree in the United States.
The opposite of being racist is not not-racist, he emphasizes; it’s being antiracist. “Many people are very, in many ways, closed-minded or even defensive, especially when they’re charged with being racist. In many ways, we’re taught to close up and to feel as if we’re being attacked and to sort of not confess and not admit when we’re being racist,” he says in an interview with NPR.7
Making connections with a diverse social group is central to inclusion in purpose.
A lack of diversity in the average white person’s social network has far-reaching consequences on inclusion in the workplace.
A 2013 Public Religion Research Institute study found that 21 percent of people in the United States reported “never or seldom” interacting with someone of a different race or ethnicity. And even among those who did frequently interact with someone of a different racial or ethnic background, three-quarters said that those interactions happened at the workplace. Less than half said that these cross-racial interactions happened in friendship circles.8
One significant barrier to creating an inclusive workplace is that many in the majority lack the cultural intelligence to work with peers of different backgrounds.
McKinsey data show that white men fill 64 percent more of the C-suite roles in US corporations than do women of color.10 This unequal representation deeply impacts company culture and poses a challenge to inclusive leadership.
Leaders must consider the experience of a variety of employees, not just men. And not just white women either.
Does that mean that companies should do away with events at bars? Not necessarily. But being inclusive on purpose would ensure alcohol-fueled events aren’t the de facto option for networking with colleagues.
A study by McKinsey and LeanIn.org shows that women of color have the highest drop-off between entry-level jobs and the C-suite compared with white men, white women, and men of color in US corporations.
Many women of color whom I interviewed contend with constantly feeling hypervisible and invisible at the same time in their workplaces.
It is impossible as a leader to correct what you can’t identify. To make meaningful progress, we must specifically seek out what exclusion looks like, and the experiences of women of color are key to guiding this inquiry.
This incident is illustrative of how the same work environment can be inclusive to some women, but not to all. Union’s experience directly related to her being a Black woman, so of course Klum was not impacted by the same bias. This is a clear case of why it’s necessary for leaders who are inclusive on purpose to specifically seek out the experience of women of color to gauge how inclusive an environment really is.
The “color-blind” approach (everyone is equal here; we don’t see race!) is harmful because it does not allow us to truly create inclusion and equity in the workplace. If we cannot name the problem, how can we tackle it?
In an article for the Establishment, Oluo writes about how white people can use their white privilege to advocate for people of color: Your actions against racism carry less risk. You can ask your office why there are no managers of color and while you might get a dirty look and a little resentment, you probably won’t get fired.… You can share articles and books written by people of color with your friends who normally only accept education from people who look like them. You can help ensure that the comfortable all-white enclaves that white people can retreat to when they need a break from
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Use your privilege to identify and expose bias, safe in knowing that you have less to lose than a woman of color who speaks up. Then use your privilege to create an environment where women of color aren’t penalized for speaking up.
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