INTRODUCTION
CLAIMING A LANE
Setting Expectations
The workplace. Race. Applying a strategic business lens on the latter to reimagine the former. That’s the lane we’re in.
Why focus on the workplace? Simply, that’s what we know. We are organizational development professionals, coaches, and educators with a combined business experience of 50-plus years with Fortune 5, 50, 100, and 500 companies in roles as both external consultants and internal employees. Beyond the workplace, numerous complex, intersecting facets of structural racism are rampant across our institutions: health, education, law, childcare, housing, banking and finance, law enforcement, and the penal system. We respect and support the work being undertaken to dismantle racism in these domains; however, that is not the focus of The Business of Race. Our lane is the workplace.
The Business of Race uses a business lens, not a social justice lens, to address the emotionally charged, polarizing, and deeply complex dynamic of race. Further narrowing the width of our lane is particular attention to the interactions between and among Blacks, African Americans, and Whites. Why? Gina self-identifies as both Black and African American. Margaret self-identifies as White. Neither of us is in a position to examine the dynamics of dominant and nondominant groups in, say, Hong Kong, Honduras, Trinidad, Brazil, Ghana, or Croatia, which include wide-ranging cultures and ethnicities within racial identities. That would be committing an injustice to people in those communities and around the globe. We can, however, speak to our own experience. And share additional insight through the interviews we conducted with business professionals in Western nations.
WHO IS THE BUSINESS OF RACE WRITTEN FOR?
“Is this a book for White people?” A frequent question we received from friends, colleagues, and complete strangers, upon hearing the title, The Business of Race. Our reply? An emphatic “No.” We wrote this book for the human race and specifically for people working in the business world. If you are a business leader, individual contributor, Human Resources or DEI professional, educator, coach, or consultant then we wrote this book for you.
WHAT ARE RACE WORK AND RACE TALK?
Throughout this book we write with caution the word “diversity.” That broad term is often wielded to avoid specific discussion of race and racism in the workplace. We are staunch supporters of all aspects of diversity including gender, religion, sexual orientation, veterans, and individuals with (dis)abilities, in every sector of society including the workplace. However, those affected groups are beyond the scope of these pages. Instead, we use the terms “race work” and “race talk.”
Race work includes the inner work of raising our awareness and building new ways of thinking and being in the world. The term also includes the outer work that organizations perform to develop, implement, and measure policies and practices to create and sustain an antiracist workplace. There’s a difference between a nonracist and an antiracist workplace. A nonracist workplace is one in which a company does not consciously discriminate against people of color. But neither does it acknowledge racism’s metastatic toxicity. So no actions are taken to address racial inequities in how the company operates. An antiracist workplace, first, acknowledges that racism exists. And then forges a connection between that history and the toll it exacts on individuals, the organization, and society at large. In response to that understanding, leaders in antiracist companies actively engage the entire organization in a strategic imperative to create and sustain business practices and policies that advance racial diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Race talk is a subset of race work. Conversations that encompass topics of race, racism, racial identity, and racial equity are what we mean by race talk. It is filled with intense emotions that reveal major differences in worldviews, which can at times feel threatening. Unless prompted, many employees in the workplace would prefer to avoid such discussions, minimize their importance, or dilute their meaning by talking about diversity in general terms.
As a society we tend to react and mobilize only in response to a perceived isolated incident captured on cell phone video that goes viral. For example, a violent attack or murder of an Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) or an unarmed Black man. These incidents, however, are but symptoms of intentionally-enacted, centuries-long inequities. Systemic change will only come when we connect individual acts of racial violence and economic oppression to their daily expression in every societal institution including the workplace.
OUR PROCESS
We are not diversity, equity, and inclusion experts, so we had to educate ourselves first. We read. Researched. We took a course. Read some more. Took another course. We conducted a survey of more than 50 racially diverse professionals to learn their burning questions and struggles about race and racism in the workplace.
We also conducted interviews with more than two dozen business professionals to explore their stories. They represent myriad industries including financial services, construction, advertising, healthcare, high tech, real estate, and manufacturing and distribution. Their fields include education, diversity, human resources, law, marketing, organizational development, psychology, and research.
The professionals we interviewed work for, lead, or own micro, small, medium-size, and large multinational businesses. Also, they represent different organizational levels. Their roles range from individual contributors, supervisors, and middle managers to C-suite executives and board members. Their business experience spans careers of seven years to longstanding tenures of up to four decades. Britain, Cuba, India, Korea, Mexico, and the United States are their countries of origin. These business professionals also have wide-ranging racial identities. We include their race when we share their stories so you can get a feel for how their lived experiences shape their perspectives. You will also notice that we capitalize both Black and White when referencing racial identities. Capitalizing these words in this context is a recent phenomenon in the writing world. And whether or not to do it continues to be hotly debated. Not here. Simply stated, we’ve engaged our own race work and this writing through an asset lens. To lowercase one racial identity and not the other runs counter to that view. A few professionals we surveyed and interviewed preferred that we only include their racial identity, not their name or company name. We wanted their voices heard. So we included their perspectives while still honoring their request for anonymity.
Not every company or business professional we approached granted us an interview. People have much on their plates. Perhaps, too, it is symptomatic of the avoidance in discussing the undiscussables—race and racism. As much as we learned from our coursework, reading, and research, we learned even more from the people we interviewed. Also, the following 11 companies are featured prominently in The Business of Race: Amazon Web Services, CFRA Research, CVS Health, EVERFI, Living Cities, MassMutual, McCormick & Company, Prudential, Shawmut Design and Construction, Truss, and Walton Isaacson. We’ve woven their stories throughout The Business of Race with no vested interest in any of these companies other than wanting to share their approaches to race work. Not as formulas but to inspire your own race work. Our hope is that you can learn from them like we did, and that their journeys will spark your own.
Finally, we share asset-based models, research, and tools to help you better appreciate how the individual journey buttresses race work in the business cases we cite. We’ll also remind you of the business toolkits you use nearly every day to manage projects, people, and systems and show you how to apply them to your race work. Many of these tools will feel familiar and accessible to you. But don’t confuse accessibility with ease. This is hard work. Don’t expect to reimagine 400 years of racially imbalanced norms in one financial quarter.
OUR JOURNEY
The Business of Race would never have been written were it not for George Floyd—a man we would never know personally but whose public loss of life spawned a global movement. His murder by a White police officer, and captured on cell phone video, not only sparked protests around the world, but also a phone call.
Margaret called her friend Gina and said, “I’ve been thinking about you and wanted to hear your voice. What is going on in the world?!” And that’s where Margaret left the space for Gina to share her feelings.
In our 20-plus-year friendship, we rarely talked about race, until now. Gina grew up in a White neighborhood and had mostly White friends during her childhood. Today she lives in a predominantly White town and works around mostly White people.
“You’re one of only two White people of the many in my circle who reached out to me,” said Gina.
She shared how isolated she felt. She shared her anger, frustration, and sadness. That fateful call between two friends prompted a series of LinkedIn articles. Not alone. Together. We felt compelled to act. We would use our friendship and love of writing to bring voice to what nobody wanted to talk about—race and racism.
OUR HOPES
Fifty years from now, social psychologists, cultural anthropologists, epidemiologists, and historians will still be studying the year 2020. As the pandemic ravaged the globe, many businesses were ahead of governments by mandating work-from-home policies to protect employees. Worldwide, kitchen tables, basements, and bedrooms became the new workplace and the new classroom. “Social distancing” became a new norm to help “flatten the curve” of the Covid-19 infection spread rate.
The year 2020 was also when the murders and attacks against Black and Asian people in the United States, and around the world, galvanized people of all races to protest against systemic racism. Our hope is that The Business of Race instills in you the courage to talk about race and racism. Moreover, to do something constructive about it—no matter your level in the organization, no matter your racial identity. We don’t pretend to know what that “something” is for you. It may be reshaping your thinking, conversations, and decision-making. It also may be evolving your business strategy, policies, and practices. Our hope is that The Business of Race will inspire you to use your voice, to create and sustain an antiracist workplace. Now let’s get down to The Business of Race.
GINA AND MARGARET
August 2021