Diversity Is Here To Stay, All Over Again

During the civil rights movement, the country used legislation, the courts, the police and military to change American society, to push through the barriers to equality for women and people of color.  It was a tough, bloody fight and almost everyone came out of it battered and bruised.

    Then, during the 1980’s as the composition of our workforce began to shift noticeably, corporate America began to take on board diversity from a moral and “right-thing-to-do” angle.  The changes that resulted were less riotous, more subtle, and took a very long time, but the focus on breaking down barriers remained the same.  Of course, some people resisted and denigrated the effort, but most said either “finally,” or “OK, whatever: as long as I don’t lose my job.”

    And finally during the late 90’s and into our current time, organizations of every stripe started to wake up to the fact that there’s a lot of bottom line benefit from valuing and leveraging diversity.  And so, once again, our leading organizations are breaking down barriers to equality; trying to create inclusive, respectful workplaces where everyone can be themselves, help capture diverse and elusive customers, and still have a shot at the brass ring.

    Of course, not every company is on board with these ideas – in fact, from what I can see, the smaller the company, the less likely they are to value and leverage diversity (unless they’re minority-owned firms going after government set-aside contracts; cynicism intended).  Still, if we look closely enough, we can all see the clear business case for diversity –breaking down barriers has a measureable financial upside.

And here we are: about to swear in our first black President.

  Holy Cow.  The last redoubt of straight, white, male dominance – the US Presidency - has been surmounted and won by the ongoing march of diversity!  And, almost everyone agrees that on the face of it this is a good thing.  And the only naysayers to the idea of a black President are racists or extremist nut-jobs.

    So, everything’s fixed, right?  All the barriers are down, right? We can all pat ourselves on the back and say “look what we did!,” right?  Hmmmm.  Don’t think so.

    If I’ve realized just one thing over the 15 years I’ve been working in diversity, it’s that this learning and changing and growing ourselves on diversity are ongoing efforts – it never ends. Sorry.  We can’t just assume that just because we won a big battle, or even a number of really big battles, that we have won the proverbial war.  No, this diversity thing is a big, amorphous, living, breathing ball of complexity rolling right through the 21st century, and it’s still rigged to explode if conditions are right (or wrong as the case may be).

    But sure. This is, like…dude… a totally good time to celebrate: let’s pop some champagne, dance at the inaugural ball, hug and kiss and congratulate one another for a great American achievement.  But, then let’s get back to work, and refocus our efforts once again on the barriers to equality that still remain - for there are many yet to be torn down.