I Have a Black Friend

I’ve worked in many jobs and been in many organizations that internally and publicly tout diversity ted as a major value.

“We love diversity,” they all say.

So many companies are quick to promote some award or recognition they’ve received for being one of the top 100 best companies for hiring and promoting people of different backgrounds.

Even more than that. Juneteenth. Black History Month. MLK Day. You name the Black celebration or remembrance, and most places are all too happy to promote their unwavering public support for these important days.

Company Proudly Celebrates Black History Month

You know the refrain.

All right things to do, of course.

But when we dive deeper, many companies and organizations fall far short of real change. They pay lip service to prioritizing minorities but aren’t doing what’s necessary to ensure that the candidate pool, hiring, their promotion in leadership positions and retention of Black and Brown employees are as robust as they could be. Little is done to actually achieve real equity and inclusion.

In some instances, companies intentionally throw one or two Black candidates into the mix and make some public pronouncements about supporting diversity to avoid criticism. I’ve seen companies intentionally hire one person of color every year or so to show off their faux values and then complain there just aren’t enough candidates. I’ve sadly overheard comments directly contrary to the spirit of diversity.

That’s what we call raw tokenism. The act of doing something like hiring a person to give the appearance that the organization is treating people fairly.

More well-intended companies, though, really are trying to do the right thing when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion and just get it wildly wrong, usually because they focus on only one part of DEI. Diversity. But they forget the E and I — equity and inclusion.

Diversity of course means having employees of a variety of different ethnic, racial, gender, socioeconomic, religious, and national backgrounds. As surprising as this sounds, that’s the easy part.

Inclusivity goes deeper. It means that each person in the organization is made to feel welcomed and valued. That the value of diversity is extended to every individual. And more importantly, that racial, ethnic and other group members know they don’t have to leave their identities at home. They are free to be who they are.

You can’t exactly attract and retain great diverse talent if the inclusivity part is missing.

On top of inclusivity is equity, which means that each employee or organization member is treated fairly. Fairly paid. Fairly given project opportunities. Fairly promoted to leadership positions. That their voices are heard like everyone else’s.

The path to achieving true workplace DEI isn’t an easy one, but it’s doable with increased focus on the E and I.

We have examples of companies started to do the work. Capital One implemented a career advancement program that pairs diverse employees with top executives for mentorship. Where senior executives advocate for employees.

LinkedIn started paying leaders to move the ball on inclusivity. Compensating inclusivity champions.

Merck enrolls its leaders in unconscious bias training and provides modeling for inclusive behavior. They even host an inclusivity summit to celebrate employee differences across 140 countries.

American Express measures its inclusivity efforts by convening focus groups to help the company understand if their ideas are working.

Sadly, though, most companies aren’t Amex. Most are stuck in the diversity part of DEI.

The good news is we don’t need to wait until our employer does the right thing to move society forward. Ending tokenism can start outside our 9-to-5 spaces.

Here’s what I mean.

It’s not enough say “Hi” to your one or two Black “friends” when you’re out on the town. Or to grab lunch with the one Black guy at work. It’s not enough to have a great conversation and share a few laughs at the gym with someone different from you. Or to snap some pictures posing with Black people you share on Facebook to show how integrated you are.

Our after-5 o’clock spaces must change.

We must take the initiative to engage with people on a more meaningful level. Our dinner tables, family events and the more personal parts of our lives can’t continue to remain homogenous while we pretend we’re doing our part to move society in a more inclusive direction.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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