The State of Diversity in Corporate America

"If we can't all be on the same page, we might as well be reading different newspapers." - Unknown

My candidate made it to the second round of interviews with the COO at one of my clients. The problem was that he was from the islands and she was a white female. At the end of his interview, he asked "what types of initiatives do you have in place for diversity candidates (meaning African-American or from the islands, in his case) and she replied "We don't have any." He immediately asked why and she replied "Because, I am a white woman so we have different diversity initiatives in place."

Needless to say, he was quite turned off by her response. But this is the reality of the diversity conversation that takes place on a daily basis in corporate America.

If you are Spanish, Black, Female, or Neurodivergent, you count as a diversity candidate. If you are a Caucasian, Asian or Indian male then you are not considered diverse.

There are still considerable income and hiring inequities for these systemically oppressed populations that are documented and still exist according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research :

• In 2022, women earned less than men for full-time weekly work in almost all occupations, including in 19 of the largest 20 occupations for women, and in all of the largest 20 occupations for
• Black and Latina women’s median weekly pay for full time work is substantially less than White men’s, just67.4 and 61.4 percent respectively.
• After adjusting for inflation, women’s and men’s real median weekly earnings in 2022 were lower than in 2021, by 2.7 percent for women, and 2.6 percent for men.

So here we have in 2024, two extremely smart people at odds over what is more valuable from a diversity perspective. Granted, this scenario did take place in the South where racial tensions exist very much on a daily basis. But shouldn't one population that is discriminated against support another that is discriminated against?

You would think so.

Clients will often disclose they would like to hire a "Spanish Male" or a "Black Female". Often the hiring manager is diverse themselves. You heard that correct. In order to meet a diversity quota, they are indicating which gender and race they would like to hire.

Unfortunately, diversity hiring premises have come to allow for this type of conversation in Corporate America. Instead of the oppressors versus the oppressed, it is often the oppressed competing against one another for quotas driven by demographic standards. In other words, the discriminated have become the discriminators. Hypothetically speaking, a company can meet a diversity quota by hiring a all white females (or hiring all Spanish males for example).

How do we solve this problem?

First of all, the penalties for discrimination are light. Often, these discussions do not come to light in a court of law very often. It takes a systemic pattern for a company to be outed in the media regarding their hiring practices.

From an objectivity standpoint, the conversation starts in our offices, in our meetings and in our daily conversations. There should be open dialogue and the conversational space to have these types conversations about race, gender and equality on a regular basis within our companies.

Only when we start to consider everyone as equal shall these inequities start to disappear from our offices across America. Only when the motives and agendas disappear from those that are discriminated against themselves shall we have a fair conversation again about equality.