Demanding change, it’s up to each of us
“I feel like I have to represent the entire race. I need to come across as more than proficient, more than competent, more than capable. I have to be ‘on’ all the time. Because in the back of someone’s mind, they could be judging the entire race based on me. And I don’t want anybody else’s opportunity to be ruined because I messed it up. I know that seems really heavy, but that is often how I feel. I am pretty sure that when most white people make a mistake, they don’t feel like they’re representing all Italians or all Irish. But a lot of Black Americans do feel like that.”
https://www.pinkpetro.com/diversity-in-the-workplace-without-accountability-its-just-lip-service/
For the past 2 weeks, the world has been focused on the incomprehensible death of George Floyd. It has been amazing to see — the grassroots mobilization of global citizens to rise and take a stand against systemic racism in America.
On the surface it’s not even an argument… only a small small percentage would self-identify that one race is superior to the other, but in reality the prejudices and attitudes, the social morays of America, would indicate that there is actually a sizable population who in varying degrees, do have wide ranging prejudices. I am one of those people, I’d argue we all are — we must educate ourselves to understand how there are significant barriers for Black Americans in this country. A great resource that is eye opening informative, and accessible is the film 13th, on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741
We started Giraffe with a central focus towards removing bias from the hiring process, because we KNOW that Black candidates are routinely discriminated against when applying for work.
“Since 1990 white applicants received, on average, 36% more callbacks than Black applicants and 24% more callbacks than Latino applicants with identical résumés.”
https://hbr.org/2017/10/hiring-discrimination-against-black-americans-hasnt-declined-in-25-years
“Replacing a stereotypically Black-sounding name with a stereotypically white-sounding name resulted in 50 percent more callbacks — the equivalent of adding eight years of work experience.”
2018 Women in the Workplace Study — McKinsey/LeanIn
There is a lot of work to be had on this front alone, not to mention the bevy of other issues including mass incarceration, police brutality, mortgage lending discrimination, the list goes on.
Let’s make a difference.
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We are looking for amazing resources to help continue our own education — please send any recommendations you have.
