Zacch Estrada-Petersen, Founder, My Brother's Keeper Scholarship Endowment Fund, UNCC
Written by Zacch Estrada-Petersen
A few weeks ago on LinkedIn, a woman by the name of Aaisha Joseph began posting a series of senior leadership diversity factoids about a number of globally-recognized companies.
At many of the corporations she mentioned - Microsoft, Amazon, LinkedIn, Twitter, Gap, Levi, Disney, Nike, Sephora - there were ZERO Black members on either of the company’s executive-level leadership teams. In several of the others - Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Salesforce, Charter Communications, Zoom, Bank of America - there was only one.
I did my own research, verifying that all of the above was true, and finding a horde of other businesses with similar statistics: PayPal, Siemens, IBM, Dell, Intel, 3M; just to scratch the surface.
The lack of diversity in and of itself isn’t entirely surprising. Many of us have been screaming about this for years. And the fact that many of these large corporations now have one Black executive on their teams could, in some ways, be seen as a step in the right direction. But it’s the commonality of all the single-Black-exec cases that is troubling. Each and every one of these leaders serves in pretty much the same capacity - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Let’s go down the list to be sure:
- Google: Melanie Parker, Global Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Facebook: Maxine Williams, Chief Diversity Officer
- Airbnb: Melissa Thomas-Hunt, Head of Global Diversity & Belonging
- Salesforce: Tony Prophet, Chief Equality Officer
- Charter Communications: Rhonda Nesmith Crichlow, Chief Diversity Officer
- Zoom: Damien Hooper-Campbell, Chief Diversity Officer
- Bank of America: Cynthia Bowman, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
There are more, but you get the point.
The problem isn’t the role itself - I personally welcome it. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and systemic inequality won’t change overnight (or apparently over centuries) either, so I view it as a (modest) attempt to level the playing field, but only if it’s utilized properly.
The problem is that the role often seems ceremonial.
Last week, Marilyn Booker, the former global head of diversity at Morgan Stanley, filed a lawsuit against the company alleging racial bias. Among other complaints, she says that the firm “feigned interest and support in her efforts”, but ultimately “ignored and evaded her.”
It begs the question of whether some companies believe that having a diversity, equity and inclusion position, and having a Black person fill it, addresses the DEI issue in its entirety, and whether it stymies any push for further progress on the issue on an organizational level. It’s like putting a girl on the roster of your all-male football team, but never letting her play. And when another girl wants to join, you can say “I already have one.”
Amidst the current national conversation of Black equity in America, most recently following the death of George Floyd, the visibility of whether companies employ diversity officers has come into intense focus. Even Nascar, known for its white homogeneity and for having only one Black driver (Bubba Wallace), appointed one of their Black employees to the newly-created role of Vice-President of Diversity and Inclusion last week.
I applaud it…for now. But I still maintain that the mere existence of these roles alone isn’t enough to bring about meaningful - and lasting - change.
Aaisha Joseph articulated it best in her now-viral LinkedIn post: “Are we not competent and intelligent enough to oversee financials, human resources, partnerships, marketing, etc.?”, she asked. “Why are we relegated to DEI?”
The fact that the position exists, and the need it hopes to address, isn’t really up for debate. The difference these roles can make - or that they’ll be allowed to make - remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
The My Brother's Keeper Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is an endowment fund targeted to Black males majoring in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields at UNCC. Learn more at www.unccmybrotherskeeper.org.