Abercrombie & Fitch is facing a major backlash over its decision not to sell women’s clothes larger than size 10, including a pledge by actress Kirstie Alley to never again buy anything from the clothier.

The average woman’s size in the U.S. is 14, but Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries once told Salon, “A lot of people don’t belong in our clothes, and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”

Alley, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, said: “I’ve got two kids in that bracket who will never walk into those stores because of his view of people.”

The clothing-size controversy isn’t the first to embroil the clothing company. Last year, Jeffries’ 55-year-old pilot claimed age discrimination in a lawsuit that said he was fired in response to the company’s desire to maintain a “youthful, all-American style.” Court documents also revealed that Jeffries required his all-male flight crew to wear Abercrombie polo shirts, boxer briefs, jeans, flip-flops and Cologne 41.

Women in New York and Chicago formed picket lines in front of Abercrombie & Fitch stores this week. And a Los Angeles filmmaker, in an effort being chronicled on YouTube, hopes to “rebrand” A&F by encouraging people to give unwanted A&F clothes to homeless people.

Psychologist Maria Rago told Good Morning America that the views expressed by the CEO were harmful. “It’s the whole mindset that sets up bullying. You’re included, you’re excluded,” Rago said.

Abercrombie’s Response

In response to the latest backlash, Jeffries released a statement late Wednesday on A&F’s Facebook page, saying he regrets “that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense.”

“A&F is an aspirational brand that, like most specialty apparel brands, targets its marketing at a particular segment of customers,” Jeffries continued. “However, we care about the broader communities in which we operate and are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion. We hire good people who share these values.

“We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other antisocial behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics.”

Whether the mea culpa helps remains to be seen. At least one Facebook poster was unimpressed.

“It’s about this man stating that this company is too good for certain people,” a poster identified as Kenny Nabac wrote. “That’s just wrong … period.”

The post Abercrombie Discriminates Against Bigger Women appeared first on DiversityInc.

Women’s-rights advocates cheered The Walt Disney Company’s Merida, heroine of last year’s animated hit Brave, as a realistic portrayal of young womanhood.

Armed with a bow and arrows and dressed in a simple frock ideally suited for running through the forest, the headstrong, curly-haired Merida saves herself, rather than waiting on some prince.

So Disney’s recent decision to make over Merida à la Barbie for official inclusion in its Princess line of products has led to an uproar, with more than 200,000 people petitioning online to get the company to change its mind.

Merida’s creator, filmmaker Brenda Chapman, has called out Disney on the move, saying that this is “a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money,” according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

Columnist Beth Kassab of the Orlando Sentinel, whose coverage area includes Disney World, called the decision part of the “Kardashian-ization of the Disney Princess.”

The uproar has begun to pay off, at least in part.

In response to the criticism, Disney released a statement saying: “Merida exemplifies what it means to be a Disney Princess through being brave, passionate, and confident and she remains the same strong and determined Merida from the movie whose inner qualities have inspired moms and daughters around the world.” Disney is No. 39 in the DiversityInc Top 50.

But now Merida’s original look, rather than the glammed-up version, appears on the Disney Princess website. However, with no official word from the company as to whether the doll or other products will ultimately look more like the cartoon original, critics like Chapman remain skeptical.

“I will stay dubious until they give an official statement about changing the image to match the original version of Merida,” Chapman said. “All that said, the move to remove the sexed-up Merida from their U.S. site gives me some hope.”

Stereotype Threat

The danger of perpetuating stereotypes—be they racial/ethnic, gender, LGBT or about people with disabilities—are particularly prevalent in the workplace. If hiring managers or supervisors have “ideas” about people because they are members of an underrepresented group, engagement, ability to contribute to the business and retention are impacted.

Dr. Claude Steele of Stanford University told a DiversityInc audience how stereotypes are a major barrier to the corporate advancement of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, women, LGBT people and people with disabilities.

Even “stereotype threat”—the fear of being perceived through the lens of a negative stereotype—can prevent employees from succeeding.

The post Is Disney’s Princess Sexist? appeared first on DiversityInc.

And so the heads have begun to roll.

Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller is out of a job, President Obama announced, as his administration attempts to insulate itself from the outcry over the agency’s targeting of conservative nonprofit groups.

Miller is the first casualty of a scandal that began late last week when the IRS announced that personnel had singled out conservative groups for additional questioning regarding their tax-exempt status.

“It’s inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it,” Obama said Wednesday night in announcing Miller’s departure. “It’s important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence.”

Democratic operatives had said that if the President hoped to safeguard his second-term agenda, he would need to be seen as getting a firm handle on this issue.

Miller indicated, in an internal message to IRS employees, that circumstances made his departure necessary, according to The New York Times.

“This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS, given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation’s tax agency,” Miller wrote. “I believe the service will benefit from having a new acting commissioner.”

On Friday, the President appointed Office of Management and Budget official Danny Werfel to serve as Acting Commissioner. The agency has not had a permanent commissioner since the term of Douglas Shulman, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ended in November.

IRS personnel could also face criminal charges. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder told congressional lawmakers that the Justice Department has launched an investigation.

The issue of leaders publicly confronting scandals is particularly relevant when corporations face discrimination lawsuits or other diversity-related scandals.

The CEOs we’ve interviewed and highlighted emphasize transparency, values, and clear decision-making. Even in the face of negative press, CEOs such as André Wyss of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (No. 6 in the DiversityInc Top 50), John Stumpf of Wells Fargo (No. 25), John Lechleiter of Eli Lilly and Company (No. 35), John Bryant of Kellogg Company (No. 32), Steve Howe of Ernst & Young (No. 4) and George Chavel of Sodexo (No. 1) embody these traits.

The post Heads Roll After IRS’s Illegal Targeting appeared first on DiversityInc.

May 14, 2013
CVS Caremark Pharmacy Services

Non-white patients have 50 percent greater odds, women have 10 percent greater odds of being non-adherent to statin medications for treatment of high cholesterol

WOONSOCKET, R.I., May 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — High cholesterol is one of the major risk factors forcoronary heart disease,heart attackand stroke,[1] which can be well managed with available prescription medications. New research sheds light onto the impact of gender and race on medication adherence for statins used to treat high cholesterol. The study, conducted by researchers at CVS Caremark and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and published in the May issue of The American Heart Journal, found that non-white patients had 50 percent greater odds of statin medication non-adherence compared to white patients, while women had 10 percent greater odds of statin non-adherence compared to men.

“These findings help us better understand the impact of certain demographic factors on medication adherence,” said Niteesh Choudhry, MD, PhD, associate physician, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and associate professor, Harvard Medical School. “Since a large number of patients depend on medication therapy for primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, we believe that efforts to reduce non-adherence for statins can have a significant effect on addressing health care disparities, improving health outcomes and ultimately reducing costs.”

The study consisted of a literature review of more than 50 publications focused on gender and racial disparities associated with medication adherence and included more than 1.7 million patients. Of note, the finding that non-adherence was higher based on the patient’s gender or race held true even in those studies that adjusted for income, insurance status, co-payment amounts and other clinically important factors that could contribute to non-adherence.

“While it has long been known that sociodemographic characteristics are associated with non-adherence, this study is the first of its kind to look at the scale and scope of this association,” said Troy Brennan, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of CVS Caremark. “This research helps those of us in the health care field better understand how to improve our outreach to patients who may be at a higher risk of non-adherence and develop programs to help these patients improve their medication adherence.”

The researchers note that there are a number of potential reasons for non-adherence among women and non-white patients. For example, active prevention of cardiovascular disease may not be a priority for women and their health care providers because of the common misconception that women are less at risk than men. In addition, women also frequently serve as informal caregivers for family members and may be further impacted by the fact that caregivers frequently have lower rates of medication adherence. The reasons that non-white patients may be non-adherent are more complex. As an example, the researchers note that non-white patients are less likely to have a consistent relationship with a primary care provider than white patients which can impact chronic care and adherence. Additionally, both women and various racial and ethnic minorities may be more likely to experience side effects from statins, a commonly cited reason for early discontinuation or poor adherence.

CVS Caremark has been working in a multi-year collaboration with Brigham and Women’s Hospital to research pharmacy claims data in order to better understand patient behavior, particularly around medication adherence. Annual excess health care costs due to medication non-adherence in the U.S. have been estimated to be as much as $290 billion annually.

About CVS Caremark

CVS Caremarkis dedicated to helping people on their path to better health as the largest integrated pharmacy company inthe United States. Through the company’s more than 7,400 CVS/pharmacy stores; its leading pharmacy benefit manager serving more than 60 million plan members; and its retail health clinic system, the largest in the nation with more than 600 MinuteClinic locations, it is a market leader in mail order, retail and specialty pharmacy, retail clinics, and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans. As a pharmacy innovation company with an unmatched breadth of capabilities,CVS Caremarkcontinually strives to improve health and lower costs by developing new approaches such as its unique Pharmacy Advisor program that helps people with chronic diseases such as diabetes obtain and stay on their medications. Find more information about howCVS Caremarkis reinventing pharmacy for better health at info.cvscaremark.com.

[1] http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/WhyCholesterolMatters/Why-Cholesterol-Matters_UCM_001212_Article.jsp

The post CVS Caremark Research Finds Women and Non-White Patients More Likely to be Non-Adherent to Medications appeared first on DiversityInc.

This time, it’s the Army.

A sergeant working as a sexual-assault prevention coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, is being investigated on charges of abusive sexual contact and running a prostitution ring, authorities say.

The sergeant’s name is not being released because he has yet to be formally charged. But a Pentagon official, speaking anonymously to The New York Times, says he is suspected of managing a prostitution operation, perhaps involving a subordinate.

The investigation is the latest regarding sexual abuses in a military that critics charge has a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and assault. Last week, an Air Force officer in charge of a sexual-assault prevention program was arrested after he allegedly groped a woman in a parking lot. The Pentagon also released a report that revealed that sexual assaults in the armed forces last year had risen more than 35 percent since 2010.

In the Air Force case, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, is accused of grabbing the breasts and buttocks of a woman in a parking lot before she was able to get away and call police. Arlington County (Va.) police arrested Krusinski on a charge of sexual battery. At the time of his arrest, Krusinski was chief of the Air Force’s sexual-assault prevention and response branch.

News of Krusinski’s arrest followed demands by advocates of military rape survivors for the ouster of an Air Force general who threw out a colonel’s sexual-assault conviction earlier this year.

In an open letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders, demanded Lieutenant General Craig Franklin’s ouster for his role in overturning the conviction by court martial of Lieutenant Colonel James Wilkerson, an F-16 pilot and former Inspector General at Aviano Air Base in Italy. Wilkerson had been found guilty of sexually touching a guest at his home last year while she slept.

“Tragically, the depth of the sexual-assault problem in our military was already overwhelmingly clear before this latest highly disturbing report,” Senator Carl Levin, D., Mich., and chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters in a statement.

Last month, the Defense Department issued new policies it hoped would enable it to better enforce its “zero tolerance” of sexual assaults. But military commanders still have the ability to overturn convictions, a practice long criticized by advocates and congressional critics like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

In the wake of the latest sexual-abuse investigation out of the Army, Gillibrand says she will present new legislation this week that would remove the military chain-of-command’s input into the prosecution of sexual-abuse crimes.

“To say this report is disturbing would be a gross understatement,” Gillibrand, D., N.Y., told reporters. “For the second time in a week we are seeing someone who is supposed to be preventing sexual assault being investigated for committing that very act.”

For more, read:

Military Sexual Assault: Group Demands General’s Ouster

Increased Support for Military Rape Survivors

Obama Signs New Military Sexual Violence Provisions Into Law

‘I Was Raped,’ Military Women Tell Senate

The post Military Faces New Sexual-Abuse Investigation appeared first on DiversityInc.

Photo by cinemafestival/Shutterstock

Actress Angelina Jolie is being hailed as an inspiration after revealing that she recently underwent a preventive double mastectomy.

The procedure is a move to cut the risk of breast cancer, a disease doctors told Jolie she had an 87 percent chance of developing due to a mutated BRCA1 gene. (Women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancers sometimes opt to test for a mutation of this gene to help determine the likelihood of developing the disease.)

Jolie’s mother was only 56 when she lost her own battle with ovarian cancer. In an op-ed piece that appeared in Tuesday’s New York Times, Jolie shared that she chose the mastectomy in hopes of sparing her six children from losing her in a similar manner.

“The decision to have a mastectomy was not easy,” Jolie wrote. “But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”

BRCA is an acronym for two breast cancer susceptibility genes, which normally serve as tumor suppressors, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes have been linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. A blood test can determine if a woman is “highly susceptible” to the cancers.

While Jolie’s decision may spur other women to take this preventive measure, Black women may not be as quick to do so, even though as a group, they have the highest breast cancer death rates of all racial and ethnic groups and are 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than white women. Black women not yet diagnosed with breast cancer are 49 percent less likely than white women to get genetic testing, even though they have about the same risk of having an abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene as white women, and even if their doctors recommend it.

Why this disparity? Part of the reason is likely cost. The BRCA analysis costs as much as $3,000 and is currently covered only by some health-insurance policies. But under the Affordable Care Act, this testing is going to be completely covered by insurance as a preventive service for those women whose physicians recommend it. It’s likely that physicians will recommend BRCA testing for Black women who are diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age or have a close relative who was diagnosed with breast cancer before age 35—a high-risk factor.

The post Angelina Jolie Reveals Double Mastectomy appeared first on DiversityInc.

Over the last few days, the White House has been battling controversy on three fronts.

The Obama administration faces continued questions about what was known and when regarding the official line in the days following the September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left the ambassador and three other Americans dead.

Then there is the news that IRS personnel singled out conservative groups for additional scrutiny regarding their tax-exempt status.

And Tuesday came reports that as part of a media-leaks probe, the Justice Department seized business and home-phone records of journalists working for the Associated Press.

With immigration, jobs and the continued rollout of healthcare reform topping the agenda for President Obama’s second term, the latest controversies could potentially slow or derail progress on those issues.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Obama characterized the Benghazi probe as politically motivated. He called the reported action of the IRS unacceptable and said he would not tolerate such behavior.

When pressed on the IRS issue, as well as for reaction to the AP probe, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that in-depth comment would have to wait until investigations were concluded.

Democratic operatives say it’s key that the President get ahead of the issues, especially regarding the IRS.

“He has to demand full accountability and then heads have to roll,” Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist close to the White House, told Politico. “Everybody has to condemn it, no one can be defending this, and the White House has to be at the top of the list in condemning it.”

The issue of leaders publicly confronting scandals is particularly relevant when corporations face discrimination lawsuits or other diversity-related scandals.

The CEOs we’ve interviewed and highlighted emphasize transparency, values, and clear decision-making. Even in the face of negative press, CEOs such as André Wyss of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (No. 6 in the DiversityInc Top 50), John Stumpf of Wells Fargo (No. 25), John Lechleiter of Eli Lilly and Company (No. 35), John Bryant of Kellogg Company (No. 32), Steve Howe of Ernst & Young (No. 4) and George Chavel of Sodexo (No. 1) embody these traits.

The post Obama Faces Criticism on Multiple Fronts appeared first on DiversityInc.

Race Discrimination

“For a young Black man … I’m already paying you a lot of money” was not the right reason to deny pay increase. An African-American auditor was promoted to team leader. However, unlike others who were promoted, he received no pay raise. When he inquired about this, a supervisor said that for a young Black man, he was already being “paid a lot of money.” The auditor then filed an EEO complaint.  Following this, he allegedly was told he could choose between being fired or dropping the complaint, and in a heated meeting a supervisor used the n-word. The auditor was then fired. He sued for discrimination and retaliation under 42 U.S. Code §1981. The court found evidence of discrimination in pay and retaliation. It also found that the single incident of the n-word was sufficiently severe to create a racially hostile environment under the harassment standards. (The supervisor was later fired after an internal investigation concluded that he did use the word.)

Ayissi-Etoh v. Fannie Mae (D.C. Cir., 2013)

Prejudice is not necessarily discrimination. An African-American delicatessen worker was fired for stealing from the restaurant—i.e., not paying for food and drink she consumed. The employee sued for racial discrimination, claiming that the manager had made numerous “anti-Black comments” and disparaged African-American public figures in front of the staff. He also tolerated hostile racial comments, including use of the n-word by a customer. The court dismissed the case, finding no connection between the manager’s comments and the decision to fire the employee. The employee did not deny taking the food and drink. Fourteen other employees, many of whom were White, had been fired for the same infraction. A company is not precluded from firing a person for theft just because a manager has made prejudiced comments unrelated to the theft policy. Even a prejudiced manager can do nondiscriminatory discipline by equally enforcing rules.

Addison v. Ingles Markets, Inc. (11th Cir., 2013)

Disability Discrimination

Court dismisses EEOC’s case over random drug testing. U.S. Steel did random drug and alcohol tests on probationary employees in safety-sensitive positions. This policy was approved under the collective bargaining agreement. A coke-oven worker failed the alcohol test and was fired. She claimed it was a false positive due to diabetes. She filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for disability discrimination. The EEOC filed suit against the company and the United Steelworkers Union on behalf of the person and all others who had been fired for failing the test. The EEOC claimed that the alcohol test is a medical exam which has an adverse impact on certain disabilities. It sought to prohibit all random testing and restrict tests to only individualized reasonable-suspicion situations. The court rejected this claim. It found that safety was fundamentally job-related and the alcohol test was “consistent with business necessity.” The EEOC’s argument was also inconsistent with its own rule that random testing is valid for “public safety” employees (fire, police, security, transit drivers). The court ruled that the lives of private-sector employees in “dangerous jobs” are “no less worthy of protection” than those in the public sector.

EEOC v. U.S. Steel Corp. and United Steelworkers (W.D. Pa., 2013)

Remember to separate medical information from the rest of the personnel records. The EEOC won a $109,000 jury verdict for an employee with epilepsy who was fired shortly after having a seizure. He had worked for the company only a week before the seizure. He was not allowed to return to work.  The company failed to engage in the interactive communication process. Another factor in the decision was the company’s failure to meet the federal requirement to keep employees’ medical information in a separate, more secure file than other personnel records.

EEOC v. Western Trading Co. (D. Col., 2013)

Short extension of leave is almost always “reasonable.” A company settled for $50,000 after firing an employee who requested a short extension of medical leave for stroke recovery. Her doctor provided a specific date for return to work without restrictions. The company allegedly refused to grant the medical extension and terminated the employment. The EEOC alleged failure to reasonably accommodate and no showing of undue hardship for the company if it had been flexible and granted the short extension.

EEOC v. REDC Default Solutions LLC (N.D. Texas, 2013)

Legislative and Administrative Action

FLSA amendment would end special disability wage. Rep. Gregg Harper (R., Miss.) has introduced a bill (HR-831) to discontinue the special subminimum wages that are paid to certain disabled workers. The special wage has drawn fire due to abuses. On the other hand, many nonprofit employment programs for those with special needs are dependent on this special wage. Without it, they may cease to exist, leaving many disabled people without employment, job coaches and vital support that have enabled them to have any sort of income and to be more functional in society and live more rewarding lives.

EEOC rules restrict criminal background checks, BUT states are moving to expand them. The EEOC, followed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), issued opinions that criminal background checks have an adverse impact upon certain racial and ethnic groups and are suspect under the antidiscrimination laws and contract-compliance rules. The EEOC issued guidance about proper and improper use of arrest/conviction records in employment decisions, seeking to restrict their use. At the same time, a number of states are expanding the requirements to do these same arrest/conviction-record employment searches—most recently, Arizona, Arkansas, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia. The EEOC takes the position that any state law in conflict with its own guidance is invalid and illegal. Yet the states require the background checks, or employers face state sanctions for illegality.

Bob Gregg, a partner in Boardman & Clark LLP, shares his roundup of diversity-related legal issues. He can be reached at rgregg@boardmanlawfirm.com.

The post Why Was Employee Not Given Raise Along With Promotion? appeared first on DiversityInc.

It was a job interview that Lora Fong, a Chinese-American, will never forget: “I was interviewing with the decision-maker. Out of the blue, he made a point of asking me for recommendations for Chinese restaurants.” Fong, who now serves as General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Transformation Practices for DiversityInc, says all she could do was “pleasantly profess ignorance” and change the subject.

Confronting subconscious biases and stereotypes about race is a frequent occurrence for many professionals in the workplace—in particular, those from traditionally underrepresented groups. While many comments and questions are raised merely out of curiosity or ignorance, it doesn’t lessen the offense.

“Stereotypes make people feel like they don’t belong, like they’re an outsider looking in,” according to Linda Akutagawa, a Japanese-American and CEO and President of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP). “It’s not necessarily the phrases or comments said, but the insinuations and how things were said.”
What can your organization do to improve cultural competence?

According to Jennifer “Jae” Pi’ilani Requiro, a Filipino-American and National Manager of Diversity and Inclusion for Toyota Financial Services, everyone has a choice of how he or she addresses negative comments. “In a case where there is a personal relationship and a certain degree of trust, I encourage people to have a private conversation to explain the negative impact,” she says.

Educating employees and exposing them to diversity is “critical to addressing comments born of ignorance,” says Dr. Rohini Anand, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Diversity Officer of Sodexo, who is Indian-American. “These impact how Asians are represented in the workplace.”

7 Things NOT to Say to Asian-Americans

1. “You speak English well. Where did you learn it?”
Typically meant as a compliment, this is one comment that really “pushes my buttons,” says Anand. “Just because a person has an accent—and possible appearance—that’s different than the mainstream” results in the assumption that a person can’t communicate.

Fong says she usually responds by saying thank you and then “I share the fact that I was born and raised in this country.”

2. “You need to improve your communication skills.”
Akutagawa does note that with globalization, there are increasing numbers of professionals who speak English with accents. And this can become an issue during performance reviews: Many times, Asian employees are simply told they need to improve their communication skills but are not given any elaboration on what that means.

“No one wants to come straight out and address the accent,” Akutagawa says. “It’s a two-way street: The manager has to think about what they’re doing to listen fully and be present in conversations.”

3. “Asians are not discriminated against. All of my doctors are Asian, and the Asian kids in school are the ones getting top honors. It’s the white kids who are at a disadvantage.”
“This was said to me by a fellow lawyer,” says Fong, who at the time was the only Asian attorney out of the 150-plus at her firm. Even positive stereotypes are damaging: The myth that all Asians want a career in medicine, math and science is limiting, she says. Additionally, you should never assume that an Asian employee is the IT person.

4. “Asians are good workers but seldom want to become leaders.”
There’s a strong stereotype that while Asians are good individual performers, they are not leadership material—and that’s OK with them, according to Akutagawa. As a result, she says, there is an unconscious bias that prevents Asians from being considered for more senior-level positions.

For example, Requiro recalls an anecdote someone shared with her: “After voicing her opinion in a meeting, my colleague’s male manager said to her, ‘You’re not like my Asian wife. You speak up.’ It is hard to forget a story like that.”

Anand says the issue lies in a lack of cultural competence. Many Asian-Americans with strong non-Western cultural roots might have a quiet leadership style, more behind-the-scenes than what is considered mainstream. The solution? Draw attention to a variety of successful leaders and management styles.

5. “Can you recommend a good [Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, sushi, etc.] restaurant?” Or “Chinese food is cat meat.”
Don’t ask for dining recommendations out of context or assume an Asian has this information on hand, warns Fong.

Similarly, Fong recalls how a friend one time disparagingly referred to Chinese food as cat meat. “When I had a chance, I took him aside and quietly said that I’ve never eaten cat meat and have had cats as beloved pets,” Fong says. “He was immediately penitent and we remain friends years later.”

6. “Where are you from?” “No, where are you really from?”
Aside from the fact that the question already implies that an Asian is an outsider, repeating it is even more offensive. Akutagawa says, “I get the question only every so often, but it’s frequent enough to remind me that stereotypes are there.”
“How often do you go home?” also should be avoided. Requiro says her typical response is: “I am from the Monterey Bay Area. I can drive there in about five hours,” even though she knows this isn’t what the person meant.

7. “Asians are overrepresented at senior and C-suite levels.”
Despite a variety of data, including DiversityInc Top 50 data, that consistently prove otherwise, this is a comment Akutagawa heard a speaker say at a recent conference. “It was so blissfully thrown out. My thought was, ‘We have a few high-profile CEOs and all of a sudden we’re overrepresented?’ Maybe when people see the one, they feel like they’re being overrun.”

The actual numbers show that Asians, much like other underrepresented groups, are lacking representation in upper management: DiversityInc Top 50 CEOs are 6 percent Asian, and Fortune 500 CEOs are only 1.4 percent Asian.

5 Ways to Prevent Asian Stereotypes

Don’t perpetuate stereotypes—even positive ones.

Make opportunities available outside the stereotypical career track.

Assign cross-cultural mentors and offer stretch assignments.

Elevate the mission of resource groups beyond sharing cultural practices and celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.

Draw attention to successful Asian leaders and role models.

More Things Not to Say

Any derogatory term

“You don’t act very Asian.”

“What’s your name again?

“You all look alike.”

“What kind of Asian are you?”

“Are you a bad driver?”

“Can you speak your language?”

“Were you a fan of Jeremy Lin?”

“Why do you only hang out with Asians?”

The post 7 Things NOT to Say to Asian-Americans appeared first on DiversityInc.

WOONSOCKET, R.I., May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ –CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) today released its 2012 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, which gives stakeholders an inside view of the company’s CSR strategy, priorities and performance on its sustainability goals and CSR initiatives. The report is available online on the company’s website at www.cvscaremark.com/CSR.

The key topics covered in the report represent CVS Caremark’s most important issues, which inform how the company defines its CSR strategy and priorities. These include a strong focus on improving patient outcomes through better adherence to prescribed medications; cultivating a more engaged, diverse and healthier workforce; making progress toward the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions; strengthening systems and practices to ensure supply chain responsibility; enhancing quality control processes in pharmacy operations; and building healthier communities through social investments and community engagement initiatives.

The report, titled Reinventing Pharmacy, Creating Sustainable Solutions, underscores how the role of pharmacies and pharmacists has evolved and become more instrumental in helping people get and stay healthy. Through its own research and insights, CVS Caremark understands that patients are concerned about the future of health care in the U.S., and they are increasingly turning to their pharmacists for guidance on a range of health care issues, beyond just advice on their medications. The report explains how the company views this as an opportunity to engage patients in many different ways, providing them access to health care resources and education that can help them maintain their own health, especially those patients who are managing chronic diseases that require continual medication.

Beyond patients and customers, CVS Caremark also discusses the opportunity to foster a culture of health and wellness among its colleagues, who represent a diverse workforce of 200,000 individuals. The report details some of the initiatives CVS Caremark is undertaking to encourage colleagues to take personal responsibility for their own health, such as a move to evolve its traditional health care plan into a Plan for Health.

Environmental stewardship is also critical to how CVS Caremark thinks about health. The link between a healthy environment and personal and public health is evident. For that reason reducing environmental impacts and promoting ways customers and colleagues can participate in those efforts remains a focus. With regard to its carbon footprint, CVS Caremark reports that its carbon intensity has decreased by seven percent since 2010, which is nearly half way to its declared goal of a 15 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2018.

New to the report is information on CVS Caremark’s social audits of contract factories, reflecting a robust process that was implemented in the past two years. This has enabled the company to collect reliable data and begin to report the outcomes of its process.

“When we think about the intent of our corporate social responsibility initiatives, we are mindful of our stakeholders: patients and customers, employees, local communities, regulators, and stockholders,” said CVS Caremark President and CEO Larry Merlo. “Our CSR report is the main vehicle we have for sharing details on these initiatives so everyone can have a stronger sense of who we are as a company.”

The CVS Caremark 2012 CSR Report was developed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3.1 Guidelines, an international framework that is widely recognized and used by organizations to report on their CSR and sustainability performance. Consistent with its 2011 CSR Report, CVS Caremark self-declared its 2012 report as a level B, based on the GRI application levels. For more information on GRI, visit http://www.globalreporting.org.

About CVS Caremark
CVS Caremark is dedicated to helping people on their path to better health as the largest integrated pharmacy company in the United States. Through the company’s more than 7,400 CVS/pharmacy stores; its leading pharmacy benefit manager serving more than 60 million plan members; and its retail health clinic system, the largest in the nation with more than 600 MinuteClinic locations, it is a market leader in mail order, retail and specialty pharmacy, retail clinics, and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans. As a pharmacy innovation company with an unmatched breadth of capabilities, CVS Caremark continually strives to improve health and lower costs by developing new approaches such as its unique Pharmacy Advisor program that helps people with chronic diseases such as diabetes obtain and stay on their medications. Find more information about how CVS Caremark is reinventing pharmacy for better health at info.cvscaremark.com.

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