Diversity Exchange

We Are Made By History

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

- Maya Angelou

 Last night, I was privileged to attend an event for an organization called Facing History. This is a wonderful organization with a mission to educate children on the past so that they can make better choices for the future.

 

As we look at the work being done in diversity and inclusion within corporate America, we can easily separate it into 3 parts:

• Educating corporate leaders on the importance of a diverse workforce and enhancing their cross cultural competence.
• Developing employees and ensuring a diverse pipeline of talent for future leadership roles
• Connecting to or developing a diverse external pipeline and ensuring that our future workforce have the technical and social skills to navigate in a complex global workplace.

The value of Facing History is in developing empathetic, cross culturally competent future leaders whose decisions can change the workforce and the workplace as we know it.

So I pass on a question that was asked of the attendees at the Facing History event...What moment in history had the most impact on you and why?

Sincerely,

LaShana Jackson

Global Director of Diversity & Inclusion

 

 

Prop 8 Declared Unconstitutional

On August 4, 2010, Judge Walker declared that Proposition 8, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California,” was unconstitutional in that it violated the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples. While an appeal is certain, there is hope for justice for all loving couples in the foreseeable future (at least in California and a few other states).

 

Aon has a good record of supporting GLBT issues: Sponsorship at the Chicago Gay Games (where several Aon employees competed); three years running of scoring 100% on the HRC (Human Rights Campaign) Corporate Equality Index; even asking the Hawaii Business Roundtable to take Aon’s name off of the letter to the Governor of Hawaii that asked her to veto a civil union bill (HB444). I applaud Aon and all the other organizations that recognize the importance of equal rights.

 

You may think that you are not affected by discrimination. However, I ask you: Can you talk freely about what you did over the weekend or on holiday or who your boy/girlfriend is? Can your school-aged child talk about who her parents are without fear of being teased (or worse)? When the subject turns to sex, do you hide or lie? Are you able to bring your full self to work every day?

 

Results of HRC’s 2009 Degrees of Equality survey indicate that even with corporate policies in place prohibiting discrimination, 51% of GLBT employees hide their sexual orientation at work and even more report hearing derogatory things “at least once in a while” not just about gays and lesbians, but other minority groups as well. Even such a small thing as the word used to describe one’s life partner can make a difference: “Spouse” indicates the right to be married, ignoring those who do not have that right, as opposed to “partner” or “significant other.”

 

We all know that ignoring evidence does not make the situation go away. What steps have you taken to make your workplace safer for yourself or your co-workers? Civil rights are an appropriate discussion topic for the workplace, for as far as we are not able to be ourselves at work, our employer suffers to that extent. Only when all employees are able to talk freely about themselves without fear of repercussions in the form discrimination, jokes, hatred or personal attacks, will we experience a workforce at full production. And full participation and production is what is needed to excel, especially in this global economic climate.

 

I invite your comments and suggestions.

Rejoicing at my desk,

BethLynn Cardall Leehy, M. Div.

Broker/Senior Account Specialist

Chair - Western Region Aon Pride

Aon Risk Services

 

Diversity Can Happen, Inclusion is Intentional

In May, Anderson Cooper presented a four part series to discuss the results of a recent study on children and how they view skin color. Go to CNN to watch videos about the study. This series connects so well to Kara Burrell Wright and her concept of Mindhearted because, as this study showed, almost 70 years after the Kenneth and Mamie Clark Doll Study, a significant number of the children who participated in this current study are forming opinions on the "value" of skin color. During interviews with the parents of these children, many of them were shocked to know that their children had shown a bias because they believed they had been raising a color blind child. 

What does this mean?  It means that at any given point, diversity can happen but inclusion is intentional. What do I mean by that? Many times we assume that we are teaching our children certain values and beliefs, but without supporting behavior they can model, children will disregard those words. More importantly, as with any skill, being more open to different cultures, religions, skin tones, sexual orientation or any number of diverse factors takes practice. It is normal to experience fear, rejection or even disgust as an initial reaction to something that is foreign or different. It is how we elevate ourselves to control that response and embrace these differences that matters...and ultimately takes more than a verbal agreement to do so. It takes exposure beyond the surface which makes true inclusion a much more difficult thing to execute.

When we look at what surrounds us at home, in our communities or who we have as close friends you can begin to see how easily we become comfortable engaging only with others like ourselves. And why not? On the surface, they are more likely to have the same values, engage in the same activities, like the same TV shows, eat the same food...there is common ground to connect on that surface level. So you begin to see that stretching your children, and more importantly yourself, by experiencing inclusion in an intentional way is the only way that you will begin chipping away at the idea of "value" linked to skin color or exclusion based on a disability, or fear based on sexual preference or anger based on religious affiliation.

This exercise in stretching ourselves is not exclusive to one group but something that we all must be cognizant of. So I ask, how are you increasing your and your children's' ability to be inclusive?  I welcome your thoughts!

 

La Shana Jackson

Aon Corporation

Director - Diversity & Inclusion

Chicago, America's most segregated big city - What does it really mean?

During a recent reading of the on-line Chicago Tribune, I noticed an article about Chicago and segregation: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-segregation-26-dec26,0,976255.story

 

(Left) Whites make up about 28 percent of Chicago's population and are largely located on the North Side. Slivers of the population live on the South Side. (Right) Blacks make up about 35 percent of the city's population and are largely concentrated on the South and West Sides. (Tribune photos by Chris Walker / December 10, 2008)

After some discussions with friends and colleagues, we decided that this article was not a surprise for individuals who actually live in Chicago. It was actually one of the most glaring differences I noticed about Chicago when I moved here from the east coast 6 years ago. I was blatantly told where I should and shouldn't live based on the majority population that lived in that part of the city.

However, the actual article wasn't what inspired me to write. It was the responses or posts to the article from random individuals that shocked and disheartened me:

 "As a white NW (north west) suburb homeowner, my family welcomed the diversity when a black family moved in next door. Unfortunately, the stereotype began to play out true. It wasn't long before the grass was left uncut, trash was left out on the lawn all week, snow is never shoveled, several junk cars are always left out. For several years the police were called to the house while the family's teenagers were growing up. People come and go all hours of the day and night - we suspect drug dealing. Worst of all the house looks like hell. No one will ever want to buy our house should we decide to sell. Too bad this particular family played right into our stereotypes. That's why we prefer to remain segregated. "

"If I pay to live in a certain area, why should I have to tolerate free loading section 8 ghetto trash in my neighborhood? "

 

"Majority rules, might or white is right so its hard to change things. One good thing about this is that on the southside since every one is a huddled up on the northside scared of the big bad blackman, parking is very good. "

 

"The blacks are the ones that discriminate. For example I flew from Orlando to Chicago Midway on Southwest and my bag was lost. I went to the lost baggage office and was the only white in there. It took 15 minutes before someone would even acknowledge me. They need to stop blaming the “white people”, speak English and get a job!"

 

These are just a small sampling of the over 1500 comments that were posted by individuals from across the country, but they are examples of the predominant anger and racial tension that was expressed by individuals from almost every race. Some blamed all whites while others blamed blacks, Hispanics, etc. There were many examples of sweeping generalizations and stereotypes; all whites are racist and the words ghetto and section 8 were frequently used as language substitutes for black or Hispanic.

It made me recall a time when I was in high school and a white student came up to me to say he hated blacks but that I was ok because I wasn't a normal black person. When we generalize and stereotype based on one experience or even a few experiences or what we see in the media, that bias can, and probably will, bleed into our everyday interactions with others. The responses to this article made me think of what these comments can lead to and how they play out at work or in social settings. If you are able to so freely generalize about a race, what will stop you from carrying that same bias into a room when you interview candidates for a job, select your doctor, or hire a contractor? How many of the individuals who posted biased comments go to work everyday and claim that they will hire or promote anyone regardless of race, gender, sexual preference or disability. To me, this is when segregation becomes dangerous....when lack of exposure or experience leads to uneducated assumptions that can then affect our actions. One of the positive aspects of living in a diverse community is the fact that it allows you to teach yourself to override the initial fear reaction that often occurs when we encounter something new.  You learn to understand and respect differences. It would then follow that if you live in a homogeneous community, it is more difficult to learn to do this effectively...it takes practice.

With all of this said, my real question is: Is segregation wrong? By nature, we are attracted to others like ourselves. If people decide where to live not because of who they don't want to live around but rather who they prefer to live around, should we be concerned?  Or does the negative impact that segregation can have force us to view segregation itself as a negative.  Are we too comfortable in what many are calling a "post racial" environment where a black man can become President of the United States? Is there still work to be done to open the lines of communication and confront racial bias and heal the wounds that are obviously still present in America?

 

I welcome your thoughts.....

 

 

LaShana Jackson

Director - Diversity & Inclusion

Aon Corporation