One of the most frustrating things about being a problem-solving expert is seeing simple solutions to complex problems and then having to watch everyone scratch their heads like there’s nothing that can be done.
Creating racial equity at work is one of those issues for me. The solution seems so simple to me that we must be living in a simulation operated by a puppy for how fantastically we are missing it. Scratch that. We all know the operator is actively avoiding the solution. That’s because the one thing that has to happen in order for change to occur directly affects the operator.
If you are ready to make real change for racial equity, this is the number one thing you have to do: Be willing to make yourself uncomfortable as you stop centering your own comfort.
So many of the world’s injustices could be solved if the people who have more than enough were willing to share just a fraction of a percent of what they have. My first supervisor gave additional raises to his team by sacrificing his bonus because he was more than comfortable with his standard salary. Meanwhile, the CEO who earned more than twice my supervisor’s salary received a bonus of up to 100 percent while the rest of the workforce was fighting for cost-of-living raises.
In my own experience as the “token female engineer,” I, too, found myself gobbling up special opportunities to attend conferences, be the poster child for marketing materials, and take the fast track to promotions to keep those diversity checkboxes filled. Truly, it wasn’t until I became financially stable enough to know that I wouldn’t have to worry about how to pay my bills that I finally was able to pass along those opportunities to others. This is when I learned just how much fear and discomfort impact the choices people make. Meanwhile, those who are struggling are left to struggle while everyone around them fears losing their own comforts. We have the power to reject this norm and model something different.
For organizations, I’ll offer two strategies you can implement to create meaningful change around racial equity:
1.) Check Your Budget
It saddens me to think that these organizations who are laying off employees by the tens of thousands could probably keep people employed by cutting the salary of their top earners by less than a few percent. Not only is there an unwillingness to take a pay cut, but there’s also a strong refusal to take on the task of retraining people for new positions. People could be kept at the company, but it would fall onto someone else to take on the work of training them when they could just hire someone else who already has the required knowledge and who could likely do the work for less money.
Last year, I saw a television commercial by a well-known car brand boasting about the hundreds of millions of dollars it donated to charitable organizations. Meanwhile, this same organization has employees earning less than $30,000 per year. I can’t help but wonder how many people wouldn’t need the assistance of charities if they were paid decent wages and given adequate benefits from their employers.
Reevaluate your budgets to see where money can be redirected toward creating more equity rather than focusing on the impact of a few.
2.) Think Outside the Corporate Walls
When I heard the argument that “there are no ‘diverse’ candidates,’ ” my first thought was: How hard did you look? My second was, Create them. This, of course, would require the organization to look beyond its corporate walls into school systems and communities. If there truly are no qualified diverse candidates, then there must be something preventing diverse individuals from becoming qualified.
The question shifts from “is someone qualified?” to “what is required in order for someone to become qualified?” Whether it’s education, training, funding, transportation, or something else, removing barriers is how organizations can truly make an impact on obtaining racial equity.
In keeping with the theme, realizing these strategies will require some individuals to push themselves beyond the walls of their comfort zones. Consider how you can continue to hold yourself accountable, and support others in making this shift by modeling your own learning and insights. Together, we can drive solutions rather than avoiding them.
