Читать книгу Diversity and Inclusion Matters - Jason R. Thompson - Страница 16

When my daughter Piper was in her second year of college, she came to me and said, “Dad, look at this!” Piper put a makeup advertisement under my nose and said, “This makeup company makes twenty shades of makeup for White people and only four shades of brown! This company needs a diversity and inclusion program!” We both laughed, but the reality of this statement hit too close to home. For my daughter, her brown skin is both beautiful and a reminder of the work we need to do.

This experience with my daughter was an example of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), both literally and metaphorically. DE&I work is about more than four shades of brown. The makeup ad provides an entry point to the framework I use to think about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Using the ad, I considered the company that developed the makeup and asked myself some questions related to DE&I.

 Diversity: Were any of the company's employees from non-dominant ethnic groups, genders, or countries? Did anyone working on this ad or product line have brown skin?

 Equity: Did any of the employees of the company realize the disparity in the ad?

 Inclusion: If so, did they believe they could speak up?

I also wondered about the process this company used to make decisions. Was there a group of employees who sat together in a room to approve the ad? Was it possible that a group of employees saw the ad, and everyone agreed that there were only four shades of brown skin? Did they decide that four shades were all that was needed for people with brown skin, but twenty variations were needed for White people? Did they give any thought to the many different cultures in the world and how they use makeup?

DE&I work is about pointing out these types of disparities and developing solutions.

The challenge is not simply to develop an equal number of shades for people with brown skin. Rather, it is to change a company's culture so employees can recognize the disparity and see the opportunity. The more I thought about this experience with my daughter, the more I began to think about the opportunity that DE&I brings to companies. When companies have a great product and start to think there are more than four shades of brown, they expand their perspective and, therefore, their potential for success.

I wanted to do this work because it was a way to let people know there are more than four shades of brown, so to speak. The world is a diverse place full of people with different skin tones, identities, backgrounds, and experiences. Inclusion is about developing a culture that prevents moments like the one my daughter pointed out and about realizing that developing more than four shades of brown is an opportunity to expand a company's customer base.