Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts Have a Long Way To Go
Words only go so far. Real change requires action.
It’s easy to praise the concepts of diversity, inclusion, and creating a more equitable society. But trying to diversify one of the most important workplaces in the United States—the Supreme Court—showed how much progress we still have to make.
If we want our nation’s workplaces, our highest Court, our institutions to be reflective and representative of the people in our country, change isn’t going to happen overnight. It took 245 years to get to this point, so to correct the intentional actions of the past, we have to be intentional with our actions now.
While campaigning in 2020 and with the need for change in mind, President Biden pledged to nominate a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and has since selected Ketanji Brown Jackson as his pick. Following a lengthy confirmation hearing, she is now the first Black female justice. Many people weren’t pleased with his promise. An ABC News/Ipsos poll showed that 76 percent of Americans wanted President Biden to consider “all possible nominees” when it came to selecting someone.
The Supreme Court was formed in 1789—178 years later, it added its first member who was not a white man: Thurgood Marshall. And it was only 14 years ago that the first woman of color, Sonia Sotomayor, took her spot on the bench.
President Biden’s declaration and subsequent action was not about picking someone who is not qualified to serve on the highest court. It was rather about shrinking down the vast pool of qualified candidates to select someone who fills a need, whose position on the bench will bring new perspectives and experiences to a group that doesn’t currently reflect the way the United States looks. A perfect depiction will never happen, but progress can be made. It has been 233 years. If not now, when?
The reason we need diversity on the Supreme Court is the same reason we need diversity in our workplaces. Whether we’re building products, offering services, or making decisions that shape the foundation of our nation’s legal system, we need to ensure our teams are accurate representations of the various groups of individuals we are going to be impacting.
The benefits of having more diverse teams have been extensively researched and are well-documented. According to a 2019 McKinsey analysis, companies in the top 25 percent of ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed those in the bottom 25 percent by 36 percent in profitability. In terms of gender diversity, companies in the top quarter were 25 percent more likely to experience above-average profitability than those in the bottom quarter.
Despite these notable gains, our workforces are still not an accurate depiction of society, especially in higher-ranking positions. Women make up half of the U.S. population, yet only about eight percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. According to census data, around 13 percent of people in the U.S. are Black, while 18.5 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino. However, only about one percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are Black, and only between three and four percent are Hispanic or Latino.
We can partly attribute these numbers to discriminatory practices and laws throughout history, but we should also focus our attention on the essential work there is to do now.
We need to adjust the narrative of, “We should only hire the best candidate” to, “There are a lot of qualified candidates for this position. Which one will provide the most unique value to our team?” We need to better articulate to people who think diversity goals will negatively impact them that creating more diverse teams is not about skewing a system against certain people but is rather about correcting a system that has always been skewed against certain people.
And it isn’t just about the numbers. We have to prioritize not just diversity but also inclusion. Vernā Myers—social commentator, author, and the VP of Inclusion Strategy at Netflix, perhaps articulated it best when she said, “Diversity is being asked to the party, Inclusion is being asked to dance,” a quote that is prominently featured on her personal website and is frequently cited by others.
It is not enough to just change the way our teams look; we need to make sure everyone understands why a diverse make-up is valuable while simultaneously ensuring every individual feels valued and heard. In the workplace, we need to analyze our hiring practices, pipelines, and promotion structures and make them more equitable. We must have conversations and training about biases and the importance of allyship, including mentorship programs.
These efforts have to extend into our personal lives as well. We have to examine our own biases and challenge them. We must hold ourselves accountable and call people out when they say things that are harmful or hateful.
At 18 Coffees, we work to educate our clients, and educate ourselves, on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We emphasize that there is a direct correlation between having diverse and inclusive teams and having successful products and services. After all, how can you expect to address the needs of customers if you don’t have team members who reflect the experiences and needs of those customers?
It is undeniable that some progress has been made, but we still have a lot of room for necessary growth, and we have to put in the effort. When our workplaces look more like our country does, we’ll know our efforts have been worth it.
