Incorporating Bias Interrupters

    In the past decade, unconscious bias has dominated the diversity and inclusion conversation. Research has shown that unconscious bias may be the primary deterrent in increasing diversity and inclusionary behavior in many organizations.

     How does unconscious bias work? Our brains create shortcuts so that we don’t have to constantly think about every decision and action. Through the act of priming, we absorb what we see and hear, and file it away in our brain’s library. Can you believe that priming starts around the age of 3? When we approach situations, our brains go through our library’s filing cabinets to gather all information related to the situation. In most cases, this information leads to a series of actions. Think about it…How many times have you gotten in your car to drive home and before you know it, you’re pulling into your driveway? If you’re anything like me, you don’t remember making any turns, stopping at lights, or changing lanes! Our brains have learned which turns to make, when to stop, and how to navigate the roads! You’ve driven the same route and it has become ingrained in your memory. Your brain pulls from this ingrained knowledge to function without you even knowing it!

     The same thing happens when we approach unfamiliar people. Picture this: You are walking down the street in your neighborhood when you cross paths with someone you’ve never seen before. Your brain immediately goes through your library’s filing cabinet to determine if you should fight or flight, stay or go, be nice or be neutral. Based on your previous experience or exposure, your brain will facilitate your behavior. Let’s say you’ve were once robbed walking down the street. Your brain absorbed that experience and filed it away in the library. In the event that you encounter an experience similar to the one that led to you getting robbed, your brain will tell your legs to run! Fortunately, our brains take over to help us avoid dangerous situations.

     The problem occurs when our brains have been fed inaccurate information during the priming stage! If you’ve never been robbed, but have seen news reports, tv shows, and movies showing black men with hoodies robbing elderly white women, your brain absorbed that information and filed it away for later use. Unless you’ve fed your brain a counter image of black men, either through your personal experience or on television, your brain will tell you that black men are dangerous. We all know that being ‘dangerous’ is not associated with a particular race or gender, but nevertheless, our brains draw that conclusion before we have a chance to think about it logically. In other words, our brains have learned to have a bias against black men because of the information that it has absorbed.

    There’s a lot of unconscious thinking going on in our brains. There are over 120 different biases that all work together to help our brain function without consuming much energy. Biases aren’t to be feared, but to be overcome if they don’t logically align with what we know to be true. Implementing ‘Bias Interrupters’ help us move from unconscious bias to conscious thinking. Bias Interrupters are roadblocks that cause us to pause momentarily and think about our thinking! Think of them as speedbumps or caution signs that make you slow down and be more aware of your surroundings.

Bias Interrupters can be broken down into two main categories: Technology interrupters and people interrupters. 

     Technology is becoming smarter, especially since artificial intelligence like Alexa and Siri are at our fingertips. Many organizations have software to help minimize bias whether it’s an applicant tracking system or a talent management system. An applicant tracking system can ensure that resumes are being compared to a predetermine criteria. Without an applicant tracking system, we review resumes looking for traits that our brains have filed away as being “good” or “acceptable”. In many cases, these traits will be reminiscent of ourselves! An applicant tracking system can also remove identifiers that may sway our decision to move someone along in the hiring process.

     Some talent management systems have a flag notification that appears when a person has been in the same position for more than 18 months. This prompts a conversation to better understand why that employee hasn’t progressed in their career. Leaders are finding that this notification has increased career conversations for women and people of color, considerably. 

     

     A software company, called Textio, allows leaders to upload a job description for analysis. Textio is looking for words or phrases that may be biased based on research. For example, phrases like “work hard, play hard” are 15 times more likely to attract males applicants than female applicants. Uber used the phrase “high performance culture” and found that it attracted male applicants at a rate of 23 times that of female applicants. Textio helps leaders create gender neutral job descriptions.

     Technology is great, but we know that it can’t solve everything! At the end of the day, people also have to be Bias Interrupters. During the Obama administration, the women in office realized that their ideas were being stolen and claimed by men during meetings so they created a plan to interrupt that pattern. They began amplifying each other’s voices, thoughts, and ideas. When a woman articulated an idea, another woman would say, “Demetria, that was a great idea” or “To build on what Demetria said earlier” to ensure that the credit is always given to the originator.

     This same sentiment applies in a variety of situations such as when employees face a parenthood penalty, women approach a glass ceiling, people of color encounter the concrete ceiling, and so on. We have an obligation to speak up and against these things when we see them! Have you ever heard someone ask a woman with kids how she manages work and family? Sure you have! Be a bias interrupter! When you go to a meeting and see all white people or all men, be a bias interrupter! Ask why there is no diversity. Have someone in the room who will be the designated bias interrupter. Their job being to interrupt, question, and build new conscious behaviors to replace the unconscious biases that stall diversity and inclusion.

     We can all be bias interrupters! In what ways does your organization interrupt bias?

Navigating a Diversity and Inclusion Crisis

Almost every organization faces a diversity and inclusion dilemma. Uber recently had their Founder and Chief People Officer step down after a series of harassment claims went unanswered. Facebook and Google constantly face scrutiny for their lack of diversity in their workforce. But no organization has faced a bigger crisis than the one Papa John's is currently facing. John Schnatter has been no stranger to controversy. Schnatter was vehemently against the Affordable Care Act and spoke about decreasing his workers hours to avoid an increase in healthcare costs. He later blamed the NFL's lack of action against the kneeling players for Papa John's decrease in sales. Now, Schnatter admitted to using the 'n-word' during a May 2018 conference call. Since then, Schnatter has been removed from his post as Chairman of the Papa John's board, had his founder's agreement terminated, forced to give up his office at Papa John's corporate headquarters, removed from the board of trustees at the University of Louisville, and had his name and company name removed from various institutions, buildings, and stadiums. In addition, the court of public opinion has issued a verdict of guilty both to Schnatter and Papa John's, resulting in many calling for a boycott. Needless to say, Papa John's is facing a diversity and inclusion crisis. Unfortunately, the story may not end there as Schnatter has hired a lawyer to fight back.

In any event, Papa John's has vowed to turn over a new leaf by bringing on a team of experts to right this wrong. At some point, every organization will face some sort of dilemma that needs immediate attention. Here are some next steps Papa John's needs to take to reclaim their reputation, stakeholders, and customers.

1. Act fast! The longer Papa John's waits to make change, the harder it will be for customers to forgive and forget. Uber's Founder and former CEO, Travis Kalanick, was forced to step down because issues were brought to the leadership team's attention but nothing was done to fix the problem. They then brought in a highly regarded Chief People Officer from Microsoft who stepped down 18 months later because of the same thing. Time is of the essence! Papa John's must keep the public informed on their actions if they want to regain trust. Flood the news channels and social media platforms with a new spokesperson who can talk about the Papa John's values and short term plans. So far, Schnatter has dominated the airwaves and that has to change.

2. Make diversity and inclusion a true priority going forward. Diversity and inclusion starts at the top and it's clear that Schnatter does not truly value diversity and inclusion. Unfortunately, that sentiment trickles down to Papa John's. A department will eventually need to be established to make diversity and inclusion a sustainable and long term strategy, but a team of outside experts can help create some short term initiatives to get the organization back on track. Papa John's needs to start at the beginning by understanding why diversity and inclusion are good for business, good for the workforce, an good for the community. See Decide Diversity's previous blog on identifying the goal of diversity and inclusion.

3. Evaluate policies and norms related to diversity and inclusion and ensure that a rewards and punishment system is in place. In many instances, there may be a policy related to hostile environment harassment, such as using the 'n-word' at a conference call, but what is the punishment for violating the policy? Is the punishment applied equally to everyone regardless of their title? The biggest issue at Starbucks wasn't that the manager who called the police on the two African american men was biased. We all have biases that influence our behavior. The problem was that Starbucks didn't have a clear policy; guideline; or rewards and punishment system in place to deter the manager from acting on that bias. Rules, laws, and policies are pointless without a consistent rewards and punishment system.

4. Increase corporate social responsibility. Papa John's engaged in corporate social responsibility in many ways. They were a sponsor for the NFL, until that contract was cancelled. They were a sponsor at the University of Louisville, specifically for the football stadium and a new business center. The new President of the University of Louisville, Dr. Neeli Bendapudi, took swift action to announce that the partnership has ended. The mayor of Schnatter's hometown also announced that his name would be removed from the city's basketball gym. In other words, there are many organizations that are refusing support from and partnership with Papa John's. This means that they have to double down on their efforts and focus them on the communities that are most impacted by Schnatter's actions and remarks without expecting anything in return. Check out last month's Decide Diversity article to learn more ways to successfully mix corporate social responsibility and diversity and inclusion.

5. Diversify the leadership team. The face and leaders of Papa John's must be representative of the customers and stakeholders they service. While many will see this as a reactionary move, it's also a very necessary one to help ensure that problems like this don't continue to fester and explode. Having a variety of people with different life and career experiences at the table help make the organization more inclusive of people from underrepresented backgrounds. Also, there's tons of research that shows the financial benefits associated with a diverse leadership team!

Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all solution for navigating a storm of this magnitude, but Papa John's needs to be very intentional about their next steps. The entire world is watching what happens next! The onus lies with Papa John's to take responsibility for their current situation and to be very vocal about the remedies. Just like with Starbucks, we will be watching!

Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity and Inclusion

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

June 2018

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     Organizations of all sizes engage in corporate social responsibility not only to improve the company's image, but can you confidently say that your organization's corporate social responsibility strategy furthers the diversity and inclusion strategy? 

Corporate Social Responsibility can best be described as an organization's investment in initiatives that improve the environment, people, and the community. The shoe company, Toms, was a trailblazer in corporate social responsibility by donating a pair of shoes for every pair sold. Since Toms entered the market, companies are leveraging the power of corporate social responsibility to further their mission and potentially reach a new and loyal audience. The best part is that the shoes are donated to an underserved population and perfectly compliment the company's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

McKinsey & Company released a report outlining ways to make the most of corporate social responsibility. Most interesting is the different ways companies spend their time, talent, and treasures in the name of the ‘greater good’. Leaders choose projects that fall into one of three categories: their personal passions, the perceived benefit to the organization, or the mutual benefit of the organization and the community. Most projects focus on ways to reduce the organization’s environmental footprint, increase the safety of their employees and products, and do no harm to the communities in which they operate. In most cases, the goal is to lessen the negative impact.

As the workforce continues to expect more and more from billion-dollar corporations, leaders have a unique opportunity to stand out from the crowd by investing their time, talent, and treasures into underserved communities and populations. It’s no longer acceptable for companies to just ‘do no harm’, the expectation is that companies lift up. Some are better at “lifting up” than others. For example, McDonalds does an awesome job of lifting up Hispanic students with their scholarship program; provides free care, resources, and overnight stays for families of sick children; and celebrates black history and people through 365 Black. Kroger is another company that lifts up the communities they serve. Kroger has a program called ‘Honoring Our Heroes’ where they hire veterans and donate money to the United Service Organization; donate 3 million meals a week to local food banks; and donate through their Giving Hope a Hand campaign to find a cure for breast cancer. AT&T was recently recognized because of their citizenship. One of AT&T’s major goals is to decrease the high school dropout rate through a program called AT&T Aspire that ‘creates connections that drive innovation in education.” They bring mobile learning to the classroom, creating mentoring opportunities, and employ strategies that help students graduate.

These organizations are doing corporate social responsibility right! They are serving underserved communities to uplift. They may not consider it under the umbrella of diversity and inclusion, but these initiatives further the strategic mission that diversity and inclusion reminds us of daily. The bar has been set: do no harm and uplift the community. Ask yourself these questions to determine how intertwined your corporate social responsibility initiatives and diversity and inclusion initiatives are.

 1. Who decides what projects or initiatives your organization undertakes? As with all business strategies, who is at the table is important! Because corporate social responsibility involves the community, representatives from the community need to be at the table. Many leaders enter a community, from which they have no ties, and try to enact change without understanding what the community needs. This results in community resentment. Instead, leaders need to meet with community representatives to understand what they feel is needed to make their community better. This is a great way to build relationships with communities that may need your services or choose your organization for employment.
2. What communities of people does the project or initiative impact? Localized efforts provide a community with a resource that immediately makes a positive impact. Building a playground, cleaning up a stretch of highway, or planting a community garden are examples of projects that are localized to a community and the turnaround is short. Global efforts break down the systemic barriers that prevent people from living a fruitful life. Providing scholarships, supporting research, and donating to causes are examples of initiatives that may take longer, but positively impact more people. A mixture of both is best. Many organizations adopt global efforts at the corporate level and support associate involvement with localized efforts. Victoria’s Secret supports cancer research from a global perspective through the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, named after Victoria’s Secret CEO, Leslie Wexner. There are also multiple opportunities for stores to get involved at a local level by partnering with domestic violence shelters on Mother’s Day and Christmas.
3. How often does your organization engage in CSR? One of my previous employers engaged in CSR daily by donating perishable food items to food banks. Other organizations make CSR an annual event. Decide Diversity engages in CSR twice monthly through the local Urban League.

No matter how big or small your organization, corporate social responsibility and diversity and inclusion need to be an intertwined strategy. There’s immense power in joining forces and multiplying impact.What other areas of diversity and inclusion could use a jump start? Complete this short quiz to learn other areas of opportunity! ​

Continue the conversation at the Network of Intersectional Leaders!

Intersectionality: Bridging the Identity Gap

"Professor, I feel like I'm missing something. I'm going to one class and we talk about ways to attract and be more inclusive of women. Then, I go to another class and we discuss issues facing black and brown people. I don't feel like my experiences and perspective are discussed. I don't feel like I can bring myself into the conversation. What am I missing?" 

That was the gist of my bewildered conversation with my professor and advisor in an attempt to understand what was missing. The recommendation from my professor changed my life.

"Demetria, have you ever heard of intersectionality? Have you read about the critical race theory? Do you know Kimberle Crenshaw? Go research and read all you can, then you'll find your answer."

Needless to say, I dove head first into the research to better understand what was missing.

The Roots of Intersectionality

In 1851, Sojourner Truth stood on stage at the Women's Convention and said, "Ain't I a woman? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over mud puddles. Nobody ever helped me into carriages or lifted me over mud puddles. Ain't I a woman?" It was at this point that Sojourner Truth first pointed out the differences in the way white women were treated and how black women where treated. Sojourner was one of the few activists who were mindful of the gap black women fell into. She fought for voting rights for black people and women, knowing that no matter which group were granted voting rights first, she would still come in last. Sojourner's speech was full of examples where she, as a black woman, is treated differently than her white counterpart.

In 1989, Kimberle Crenshaw put a name to the invisibility black women faced in a world where people who faced multiple marginalization often weren't considered. Kimberle Crenshaw called this phenomenon, 'intersectionality'. Her simple analogy explains the concept perfectly. Imagine an intersection where two or more cars crash and, of course, blame each other for the accident. It can be difficult and sometimes impossible to determine who is at fault. The concept of intersectionality is the same. 

At the intersection of 'woman' and 'black', it can be difficult to pinpoint the cause of the discrimination or hatred black women face. It could be because she is a woman, because she is black, or a combination of both. Intersectionality has mostly been a part of the social justice vocabulary for quite some time, but is finally picking up steam in our workplace conversations.

Intersectionality Today

Intersectionality today is not much different than it was during Sojourner Truth's time, except that the definition has expanded to describe the experiences of all intersectional people, not just black women. In the workplace, leaders are realizing that the identities we typically group people by often leave many on the sidelines. By focusing on intersectionality, not only do we recognize the many identities we each possess and the uniqueness it allows us to bring, but we bring more people into the conversation and into the solution. ​

Continue the conversation at the Network of Intersectional Leaders!

Diversity & Inclusion: What's Your Point?

One of the very first activities I have all clients and task forces complete is to answer the questions, "Why diversity?" and "Why now?" It's important for the client and for me to understand why we are undertaking this massive task of increasing diversity and improving inclusionary behaviors. Diversity and inclusion is no small feat. It takes time, commitment, money, and a willingness to change processes, procedures, and norms. Diversity and inclusion is not something that is ever complete! There is no end point nor a level of perfection. For most organizations, even the level of what would be considered 'acceptable' is still very far away. But why the sudden focus on diversity and inclusion?

The responses I see range from emotional stories of being excluded despite intellect and experience, to stories filled with fear of being ostracized for not making diversity and inclusion a priority. One thing's for sure, everyone has an opinion! The good thing about diversity is that we are all different, but because we are all different, it's difficult to settle on one reason why diversity is important. When was the last time you had to make an important, life changing decision? If you've ever bought a house; bought a car; went on vacation; gotten married; gotten divorced; or even changed jobs, you had to take many factors into consideration. How much money will this cost? How much money will this generate? What will be the impact of this decision in the next 5, 10, or 20 years? Is this a like, love, or hate? All of these things, and more, are important to consider before taking the next step towards commitment. Most factors fall into one of two categories, emotional or data, but are vital to the sustainability of the final decision. You wouldn't go on a vacation to a place you hate just because you could afford to go! Nor would you finance a car that is $20,000 outside your budget, even if it's your dream car! Both the emotional case and the business case must agree in order for the best decision to be made. The same is true for diversity and inclusion.

The Emotional Case for Diversity and Inclusion

What's your story? If you are an intersectional employee or leader, you may have a story highlighting your courageous battle to overcome racism, sexism, homophobia, or a host of other biases or discriminatory acts. These stores are powerful in persuading others to take up a cause or to maintain momentum. Think about the telethon for Jude's Children's Hospital. Every 5 seconds, there is a story about a kid suffering from a horrible disease that could be cured with your small donation of $100. These stories move us to action and give us a glimpse into the struggles other people nedure and overcome. The emotional case for diversity and inclusion is what attracts and engages leaders and advocates, however, it isn't sustainable. When times get hard and sacrifices must be made, the emotional case for diversity and inclusion isn't enough. That's why the emotional case must always be accompanied by the business case.

The Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion

What's the impact to your specific business? Many leaders struggle forming and articulating the business case for diversity and inclusion that is specific to their industry, organization, and even the project. You must be able to show why diversity and inclusion will help the organization reach its goals faster and more efficiently. I was working with a client whose goal was to improve customer satisfaction. No, customer service is not my area of expertise! However, when developing the business case for diversity and inclusion, we tied it to a significant improvement in customer satisfaction. The client's audience was mostly women, primarily white and African American, and between the ages of 24 and 40. The organization's leadership team? Older white men! Um, hello! We need women at the table to provide a different perspective!

Increasing diversity and inclusion for the sake of getting greater numbers cannot be the goal. Diversity and inclusion is the vehicle in which we achieve organizational goals faster and more efficiently. Spend more time on the impact specific to your business. A questions leaders don't spend enough time thinking about and answering is, "Who needs to be at the table to help us achieve this goal?"

Combining the emotional case for diversity and inclusion with the business case specific to your organization is key to sustainable change!

What You Can Do

Your organization is full of intersectional employees who have a story to tell. Capture these stories and relay them to leaders, stakeholders, and clients. These stories will get people involved and invested from an emotional level. At Decide Diversity, we call these "Spotlights on Intersectionality". Many organizations house these stories on their website, in marketing material, and at leadership meetings.

Don't forget the facts. Having a variety of perspectives at the table has never caused an organization to lose money! Calculate the return on investment to determine the benefits diversity and inclusion bring. In the early stages of the journey, it may be easier to determine what pitfalls the organizations will avoid because of the variety of perspectives at the table. It never hurts to get an outside perspective from an experienced diversity and inclusion professional to help point out additional benefits not readily apparent.

Continue the conversation at the Network of Intersectional Leaders!

Ditch Stereotypes & Get Curious!

     Entitled! Lazy! Me, Me, Me! Job Hoppers! Welcome to the Millennial Stereotype! You've heard all these and more, but you probably never realized how destructive this stereotype, and all others like it, is to your ability to attract, hire, and retain top talent. Stereotypes and biases are our brain's way of reaching a solution quickly. They are meant to help us avoid danger, and are generally good at their job! For example, if you see someone waving a gun, you probably don't have time to ask a lot of questions to determine how you should react, you probably just take cover! Unfortunately, our brains don't know when NOT to apply stereotypes or biases to certain situations. When we think about it, we know that not all millennials are entitled, lazy, or self-absorbed. Yet, we like, comment, and share the million articles we see reinforcing the stereotype! So, how do you know who fits the stereotype and who doesn't?

     Let me give you a hint! You can't know based on a person's age! The only way we can determine who fits the stereotype is by asking questions. In recent news, an African American man walked in to his nearby Old Navy store to do some shopping. Coincidentally, he was wearing an Old Navy winter coat when he entered the store. The manager and two associates approached the African American man and demanded that he show proof that he paid for the coat he was wearing. The man insisted that he had purchased the coat but couldn't provide any evidence to back it up. He asked that the manager review the cameras to prove that he walked in wearing the coat. The manager demanded that he remove the coat so the Old Navy crew could check the system and verify the purchase. He complied. They checked the system and reviewed the camera footage, and came to the conclusion that the African American man was telling the truth.

     A similar situation happened at Victoria's Secret and Applebee's all involving African American customers and non-African American employees. The employees in every example mentioned were terminated from their respective company. In the case of Applebee's, the entire restaurant closed.

    Women are stereotyped to be kind, helpful, and collaborative. These stereotypes follow women into the workplace. According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, women are often assigned tasks and projects that are aligned with the stereotype of women. Getting coffee, taking notes, ordering lunch, cleaning the office. These are the types of tasks that women at work, regardless of position, are relegated to. These stereotypes have detrimental side effects! Organizations risk losing customers, top talent, and market share. Old Navy's public image is tarnished due to the acts of a few employees. Customer loyalty suffers, top talent think twice about applying to work for the company, and other retailers use this as an opportunity to gain market share. This all stems from the stereotypes our brains conceive about groups of people.

     There's good news! Stereotypes and biases don't have to influence behavior. In most instances, it would be advantageous for us to take a minute to get curious. What does it mean to be curious? To continuously ask questions! When approaching a situation, that is not life threatening, I practice metacognition. Metacognition simply means, "thinking about thinking" and it's one way for people to understand, analyze, and control our cognitive processes. It's most useful in learning situations and involves questions the situation, the solution, and the process at which we arrive at the solution. In other words, metacognition challenges the shortcuts our brain subconsciously creates.

     At various points in my career, I've been in a recruiting role responsible for hiring for entry level and managerial roles. It's true! Hiring professionals spend less than 10 seconds reviewing a resume. It's been proven that stereotypes and biases play a role in preventing women and people of color from being hired. These preconceived notions help us draw conclusions quickly, for better or worse. For example, most organizations utilize an Applicant Tracking System to review and filter through resumes. However, at some point, hiring managers come in contact with a resume and must face their biases. It's time to get curious!

1. Your brain will likely come to a conclusion before you consciously realize it. Ask yourself, "Do I know that this is a fact or am I basing this on a gut feeling or hunch?" "The candidate is not qualified for the position. Is this a fact or my gut feeling?"

2. Regardless of your answer, ask yourself, "What are the facts?" List the indisputable facts. "Candidate has 5 years of experience, candidate was responsible for leading a team of 4 salespeople, candidate has a bachelor's in business management, etc."

3. Ask yourself, "What else?" Rarely, do we catch all the facts at first glance. Review the situation again and question everything! "What thoughts am I having regarding the candidate's gap in employment? Am I giving this person a negative review because of their employment gap? What more do I need to know about this situation?" Now's your chance to channel your inner kindergarten! Keep asking questions!

4. Compare the list of facts to the criteria. In hiring situations, the criteria is the job description. "The candidate has a bachelor's degree. The job description asks for a master's degree. The candidate has 5 years of experience. The job description asks for 3 years of experience."

5. Determine if the facts warrant your initial reaction. At this point, you may experience confirmation bias, or you will look for facts that back up your claim. Think about your thinking! Now, you can make a decision based on facts. Try not to allow your emotions to creep into your decision making. You can't defend emotions, you can defend facts!

     Let's see this in action! You are the leader of a team and it's time to issue pay raises. A 1-5% raise is customary, but your team's average increase must be around 3.5%. You go down the list of teammates and assign increase percentages. All done right? Easy peasy! Well, maybe not! You just reprimanded one of your team members for working past midnight...again! This absolutely has an impact on your assignment of pay increases. You may be likely to give this employee a higher percentage due to the amount of hours and dedication he is putting in, but if you ask yourself "What else?" you will see all the facts. The employee has volunteered to serve on several projects and committees unrelated to his role. After reviewing his calendar, you realize that 60% of his time spent at work is dedicated to these extraneous projects. Because he doesn't have a lot of time at work to get his time sensitive projects complete, he has to work past midnight. Those are all the facts. Does he still deserve the pay increase you initially thought?

     Getting curious and challenging your stereotypes and biases may seem like a longer process but with all things, it takes practice. Eventually, you will be curious about everything and the five steps will become second nature. Once you get curious, you discover answers you didn't even know you were looking for!

Diversity in Business: A Spotlight on Intersectionality

Imagine this: You're an African American woman applying for a position at a prominent manufacturing company. You go through the first round of interviews and find out that you were not selected to continue forward in the hiring process. At first, you think nothing of it. Maybe, you weren't qualified. Maybe, it wasn't a good fit. Then, you see that other African American women are not making it past the first interview phase. It seems weird, but maybe they weren't qualified either. Then, you discover that the workforce at this company is comprised of white men, white women, and black men. The white men are managers, the white women are in administrative positions, and the black men are machine operators.

The more you think about it, the more you believe that you have been discriminated against by the company. You talk to the other African American women and consult with an attorney. Collectively, you file a lawsuit. In the lawsuit, you proclaim that your race and gender were both targets for the discrimination you faced. You're positive that it was a combination of both. You go to court and plead your case, only to be told by the judge that you can't double dip. You are told that you cannot benefit from racial and gender discrimination (as if that's truly a benefit). 

You must choose and prove which one type of discrimination you endured. You consider saying that it was a case of racial discrimination, but are quickly reminded that African American men didn't endue the type of discrimination you are claiming. Then, you consider saying it was a case of gender discrimination. Again, you are quickly reminded that white women weren't discriminated against. What do you do? You have no legal argument, but you know you were discriminated against. You wonder why the law hasn't considered this before. Consequently, your case is dismissed.

This is what happened when Kimberle Crenshaw, the forward thinker behind intersectionality, agreed to assist the legal team for Emma DeGraffenreid and other African American women, in a suit against an employer. Jobs at this company were segregated by gender, an unwritten rule, of course. There were jobs for women, such as administrative jobs, and there were jobs for men, such as machine operating jobs. These jobs were also inherently segregated by race. In the end, black women were not hired for the administrative jobs because they were black, and they were not hired for the operating jobs because they were women. This effectively meant that black women could not work at this company, resulting in a discrimination suit. However, they were faced with a legal stumbling block.

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White extremely beneficial for many Americans, the anti-discrimination laws catered primarily to the 'single dimension' population. White women could attribute the discrimination they faced, clearly to gender. African American men could attribute the discrimination they faced, clearly to race. Differently-abled people could attribute the discrimination they faced, clearly to disability. But what happens if you don't fit neatly into one of these marginalized groups? Intersectionality occurs when a person identifies with two or more minority or marginalized groups. For example, African American women identify with two groups: African American and woman. Lesbian white women identify with two groups: Lesbian and woman. Disabled, gay, African American men identify with three groups: Disabled, gay, and African American. There is no limit to the number of minority groups a person can belong to, but the more marginalized groups a person identifies with, the more difficult it is to explain her or his experience.

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Early research into intersectionality showed that identifying with two or more marginalized groups, such as being an African American woman, meant that one had experiences congruent with being African American (regardless of gender) and being a woman (regardless of race). African American + woman= African American woman. However, recent research on intersectionality has discovered that instead of a math equation, where the result is predictable based on the equation, intersectionality is best described as a recipe. The individual ingredients in a recipe come together to create an entirely new experience. If the final product in a recipe doesn't turn out perfectly, it can be difficult to determine which ingredient caused the issue. The same concept can be applied to situations where intersectional individuals feel harassed or discriminated against. Determining the source of the discrimination can be difficult to pinpoint and describe.

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The law has since caught up with the concept of intersectionality, but the invisibility of intersectional individuals in the business world is still very prominent. Business leaders are unaware and uninformed on intersectionality. As a result, it's become the diversity topic we aren't talking about.