Due to recent events, I would like to focus on diversity and inclusion for today’s blog post as a way of spreading the importance and raising awareness of becoming more conscious of our thoughts and actions, to wake up to our privileges to handle unconscious bias.
Ideal.com
While the world of human resources has a powerful role to play in tackling and controlling both overt and covert racism across our workforce communities and organizations, what’s more important is that one’s actions begins with how one is raised and taught.
This dispiriting event has reminded our NYC workforce communities and human services organizations to redouble their efforts by:
- Molding & building an internal workplace culture and environment where we can all intently listen and offer the support that provides an additional space of comfort, as well as extending our grace to staff and job seekers of color
- Supporting employer partners, community partners, funders, donors in taking bold and pivotal actions on equity and inclusion by hiring and promoting more diverse candidates
- Participating with our partners to further learn, support, educate, guide, engage others and to do more than just nation together
They have a very thorough article below that I encourage folks to check out.
What Top Leaders Get About the Importance of Diversity in the Workplace
While others continue to protest across the country due to the Black Lives Matter movement and the recent tragic death of George Floyd, this is a first instance of true crisis in the country.
As we are all aware, racism has always been an issue – in addition to inequality and injustice running deep in America. Humans have always been here to belong. However, for many decades, our country has always been culturally and innately diverse due to the large parts of immigrant population that makes up America’s cultural heritage. But then, why does this issue still subsist?
How can we move forward, let alone escape from our past if we don’t learn and acknowledge from our history?
Michelle Chen
In my opinion, it is due to the way we are raised and taught, and the individuals that we surround ourselves with, and the lack of understanding of another individual’s experience and the history behind it. Many do not recognize their privilege to speak up for the community, which seems to be the focal point of the rising issue. So what can we do? We can all teach America to be better by educating our folks to not be selective with anti-racism and to learn the history behind it. Unless we have faced racial injustice, we will never truly understand what the black community has endured.
When will we learn? When will the people of the world get up and say, enough is enough. God created us for fellowship. God created us so that we should form the human family, existing together because we were made for one another.
Desmond Tutu
When something happens in the world that is wrong, don’t try to move on with your life like it is right. The voice within you that says “This is not okay” is a direct call from the basic goodness of your spirit. Pick it up. Every time. Pick it up. And stay on the line until you figure out to to help.
Cleo Wade, Where to Begin: A Small Book about Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World
We need to stand up and call out discrimination when we see it, in both HR and leadership roles and as individuals. Whether we are in the workplace or outside of the workplace, it is crucial that we are empathetic with each other during these trying times because our colleagues could be facing many challenges that we don’t know about. If the workplace has no empathetic culture, the organization could pose potential risks.
Whatever is planted in our minds, that affects the way we think and act on this issue, we can correct that behavior and intuition whether consciously or unconsciously held. By doing that, we can all seek inspiration from others to engage in the critical importance of these uncomfortable conversations and constantly remind ourselves that we are all equally human. I believe that as a nation, we all should work together in fostering better equality so the generations henceforth may prosper from our choices today. To truly move the diversity and inclusion agenda forward is the only way.
Careers with Michelle 