Question:

Why is it whenever white people defend their racism, the first thing they default to is “I’m not a bigot” and the second thing is “I have friends who are black”? I could scream.

Answer:
It’s disorienting for white people who think they really aren’t biased to be confronted with a reality they have not considered. You’ll also hear things such as “Oh, I guess we have to be politically correct” as opposed to something more accurate like “I guess I can’t manhandle your self-esteem anymore.”

Considering most interracial conversations happen at the workplace (Americans are socially very segregated), these common phrases of denial demonstrate how diversity training is crucial to productivity and engagement.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

The post ‘I Have Black Friends’ Doesn’t Mean You Aren’t Racist appeared first on DiversityInc.

Do you think diversity training is effective? What would make it effective?

Answer:

Most of the “diversity training” I’ve seen is not very sophisticated. Some companies think “compliance” training is diversity training, but that’s incorrect. In my opinion, to build a good diversity-training program, you have to first have a plan. To have a plan you need goals. And to get goals, you need measurement to tell you where you are. Here is a quick sequence:

1. Benchmarking (find out where your company is)

2. Engagement, broken out by race, gender and age (how the people in your company feel)

3. Understanding goals (approved by the CEO)

4. Diversity plan (to take from where you are and how your people feel to where you want to go)

5. Training (to help accomplish the plan)

DiversityInc has the most sophisticated benchmarking available—we use SAS software to crunch the extensive data we’ve collected (for 13 years) in the DiversityInc Top 50 process. We also use our own engagement survey to gain more perspective on the benchmarking data; if you can benchmark and survey by division, you can get very finite in finding where your opportunities are. In the past year, we’ve helped several companies align their diversity programs with the strategic direction of the company. This has the result of pulling in top management to the cause.

One more thing: Training for top management should be considered carefully. I’ve found that a discussion of legacy is motivating for senior executives. The recent presidential election has brought understanding about the business case for diversity in a way I’ve never seen before. There seems to be far more clarity on how effectively relating to people where they are is absolutely necessary to achieve the results you want. I’ve spoken at several meetings where I’ve seen an immediate change in tempo as a result of linking the reality around demographics and diversity-plan results to their roles as senior executives—and whether or not they’re going to leave their organization better, or worse, prepared to meet the immediate future.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

The post Ask the White Guy: Is Diversity Training Effective? What Would Make It Effective? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Don’t: Neglect your homework.

Do: Understand your CEO as a human being first. What is his/her story? Understanding family background, education and values is core to developing a diversity-and-inclusion message that will click. Did an incident, experience or relationship provoke an epiphany? It’s our experience that behind every diversity-passionate CEO is a story.

Don’t: Tell your CEO to emphasize “it’s the right thing to do.” Of course, inclusion is the right thing to do—and we’ve seen a small number of CEOs advance D&I primarily because they feel it’s the right thing to do. But most CEOs already have come to an understanding that it’s the right thing to do for their businesses. In this light, your presentation should have the same format (including font and PowerPoint template) and quality of content as your CFO’s presentations. Avoid diversity parlor tricks like jelly beans or animal analogies (unless your CFO uses them, in which case it’s probably time to look for another job).

Do: Make sure your CEO is given relevant information about how diversity helps your company reach its business goals, and that he or she is encouraged to communicate support frequently and as part of regular business messages. Consider that 94 percent of DiversityInc Top 50 CEOs have a personal quote on diversity on the homepage of their company websites and also communicate regularly on their intranets about the business benefits of diversity. And if you look at those quotes, especially of CEOs whose companies are in the top 10, you’ll see that they are business-focused, not full of platitudes.

Don’t: Tell your CEO that diversity management is about having fewer white men at the top. Since odds are that your CEO and his direct reports are primarily white men, you won’t be sending a message of inclusion at all.

Do: Help the CEO and the senior executives understand through data and facts that by improving the diversity of human-capital demographics, they will expand the business by improving innovation, engagement and outreach to increasingly multicultural clients and suppliers. Emphasize the “inclusion” part of D&I, which means making the business case to white men for their involvement and getting their buy-in from the beginning. And be sure to understand that this group of similarly dressed white men is also very diverse in its own regard.

Don’t: De-emphasize human-capital metrics.

Do: We’ve seen almost 100 percent correlation between a chief diversity officer’s de-emphasizing metrics and a reduction of D&I department staff and budget. At a well-run company, any business project worth doing is tracked very closely to results. Diversity management is no different, and it’s your job to make that connection. Link recruiting and talent-development goals to quality and performance. (Finding the best and brightest from every group is harder than “going with the majority flow,” but it doesn’t set up your company for a more-diverse future—and doesn’t leave a good legacy for the future leadership of the company.) Understanding the trajectory of best practices and outcomes at other companies is key to successful diversity-management initiatives.

Don’t: Think that the objections of senior-management naysayers are insurmountable.

Do: A large-company CEO recently told one of us that he had two naysayers regarding same-gender partner benefits. Both were senior and well regarded. Both “retired” earlier than they had anticipated. As Dr. Martin Luther King said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Stick to your facts and your principals. We’re on the winning side of history. Keep your chin up, and give us a call if you would like some support.

–Luke Visconti and Barbara Frankel

The post What Not to Say to Your CEO About Diversity appeared first on DiversityInc.

Click the images below to download a PDF, or click these links to expand the view: Hispanic Heritage Timeline and Hispanic Heritage Fact & Figures

The post Hispanic Heritage Month: Facts & Figures for Diversity & Inclusion appeared first on DiversityInc.

Egea explained during a DiversityInc event how Prudential’s 2011 acquisitions of AIG Star and AIG Edison insurance companies forced Prudential to adopt a global-diversity mindset as “more than 50 percent of employees now speak Japanese.”

He credited the company’s emphasis on cultural competence with its success in forming common goals/connections with its new Japanese businesses and developing internal messaging that stays true to the core corporate culture and company values on an international scale. (Prudential Financial is No. 9 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50.)

The audience of corporate diversity leaders and executives was able to ask Egea questions on global diversity, contribute their best practices for cultural competence and diversity-awareness training and share their real-life success stories.

Executives from Deloitte, Monsanto, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, WellPoint and Kaiser Permanente discussed how a culturally competent workplace can help talent development—and productivity—flourish.

Global Diversity: Best Practices for Cultural Competence

• Build understanding and respect for cultural competence
• Ensure senior leaders are culturally competent
• Leverage resource groups to on-board international hires
• Have a consistent way to assess talent development
• Identify implicit biases, both internally and externally
• Use training and education to increase diversity awareness/sensitivity

Click to read the full Are You Culturally Savvy Enough to Profit in a Global Market? article, available to subscribers at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Not a subscriber? Request subscriber information and pricing for DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

The post Are You Culturally Savvy Enough to Profit in a Global Market? appeared first on DiversityInc.

What Is Diversity Management?

Diversity management is the method of implementing diversity-and-inclusion strategies—also referred to as D&I strategies—to maximize benefits of corporate diversity in the workplace. Using best practices in recruitment and retention, resource groups and mentoring, diversity management enhances talent development and workforce diversity through utilization of diversity metrics and diversity benchmarking.

Your Diversity-Management Primer

DiversityInc is in the unique position of assessing diversity management because in 13 years of running The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, we have collected in-depth data on more than 500 companies. The articles below feature the best practices and strategies needed to get companies’ diversity-management departments up to speed. For in-depth information on diversity-management best practices, visit www.DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Ask the White Guy: Can Companies Survive Without a Concern for Diversity?
The White Guy says companies that don’t pay attention to diversity face a scary long-term future.

Diversity Management: The Four Stages of Diversity Management
We’ve studied the four stages of diversity management for more than a decade. What stage of managing diversity in the workplace is your company in?

What’s the Key to Diversity-Management Success?
What’s the one factor that determines whether your company’s diversity efforts will succeed or fail?

Ask the White Guy: Can a Diversity-Management Question Kill Your Career?
The White Guy responds to a reader’s inquiry by breaking down how data on retention rates can be analyzed, but he warns about discussing diversity topics in certain professional circles.

Diversity Management’s No. 1 Advantage: The CEO/Chief-Diversity-Officer Relationship
Diversity management at Sodexo centers on a special trust and open dialogue. What can you learn from this DiversityInc Top 50 company?

What Diversity-Management Metrics Are the Most Valuable?
From recruitment and promotions to engagement and retention, here are the best practices your company should use.

Diversity Management: What Diversity Questions Should Be on Employee Surveys?
Diversity-management questions on employee surveys are a key way to gain critical feedback. What questions deliver results?

Diversity Management: Which Diversity-Councils Model Is Best for Your Organization?
Two companies—one with a more traditionally structured council and one with a more integrated model—share their best practices and significant results.

Additional Diversity-Management Training

DiversityInc Training offers an online corporate university designed to provide basic diversity training to professionals whose work is aligned with diversity management.

Four DiversityInc Training courses—employee-resource groups, mentoring, diversity councils and generational communications—provide an in-depth overview of the topic, data-based trends for best practices on how to structure diversity initiatives/programs, key measures for success, and specific case studies from The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.

For more best practices and case studies on resource groups, mentoring, diversity councils and generational communications, view our diversity web seminars.

The post Diversity Management 101: This Definition of Diversity Management Can Help You Make a Business Case appeared first on DiversityInc.

Walmart’s Global Chief Diversity Officer Sharon Orlopp

This includes a hands-on diversity immersion course for Walmart and Sam’s Club managers, which gives associates a firsthand tour of civil-rights and other historical venues for diversity and inclusion, such as trips to Martin Luther King Jr.’s house in Montgomery, Ala., and to see the effects of border-patrol regulations on Latinos in San Antonio.

Orlopp discusses the importance of diversity immersion during this interview with DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti, as well as her current responsibilities to improve global diversity and inclusion for all employees and Walmart’s plans for increasing accountability for its diversity goals.

Luke Visconti: You’ve been chief diversity officer for a little over a year, with a team of 14 people. What do you track on the diversity part?

Sharon Orlopp: We report once a quarter to the compensation, nominating and governance committee of the board. We track against our diversity-goals program. We look at the applicant pool compared with placements for our field for Walmart and Sam’s Club for quite a few goal positions. We look at representation. Then we look at our good-faith efforts and our mentoring programs.

We meet with key leaders and go through representation, new hires, promotions, departures. We look at the pipeline of management. Women, women from traditionally underrepresented groups, men from traditionally represented groups and total people from traditionally underrepresented groups are some of the typical diversity metrics.

We look at turnover. I am always very interested in women turnover compared with men, and also minority compared to non-minority, to see how we are standing.

Visconti: The organization has changed things over the years. What are your next steps in terms of measurement and what you’re going to do about it?

Orlopp: We are spending a lot of time talking about what’s next for diversity and inclusion. It seems like a lot of chief diversity officers are doing that right now.

We’ve had a program in place for the last eight years. We may move away from good-faith-effort activity, move away from diversity events and activities, and really incorporate diversity and inclusion into each business unit’s strategic plan and then measure against that.

Each business unit has different diversity needs. Each of them is in a different place on their diversity journey. Having them come up with what their specific plan is that links to their business strategy and then measuring against that is what we are looking at for next year. We are trying to flush out the template and how that would work.

Visconti: What specific things would you put in their individual strategic plans?

Orlopp: It would be a combination between quantitative and qualitative. There have to be some quantitative measurements, probably around representation, retention, promotion, etc. Then qualitative measurements would probably be around mentoring, recruitment and other diversity initiatives.

Accountability for Workplace Diversity Gains

Visconti: Since you are just starting, to what degree will you be tracking accountability for accomplishing these goals? Where would that reside?

Orlopp: One of the discussions we want to have is whether there should be both a carrot and a stick. We’ve had just the stick for the last eight years. We want to look at that piece and figure out what pieces are individual versus which are group-unit goals. I think you could do it both ways: have an overall goal and then an individual goal.

Visconti: What kind of stick have you been using in the past, and where do you think you are going to go with the carrot?

Orlopp: In the past, there were two components: the good-faith effort, which includes mentoring two associates and also attending diversity events, and the other component for our field organization, applicant pool versus placements.

We look at the end of each year whether there has been any disciplinary action around inappropriate comments, language, behavior in the workplace. If someone has met their good-faith efforts and attended their diversity events and mentored associates, done all that’s required of them, but their behaviors haven’t demonstrated it, they get marked that development is needed in that area. They can’t pass that performance-evaluation section.

The performance-evaluation accountability is 10 percent. The bonus accountability is up to 15 percent. If people fail to meet their goals on that, then we do both a quantitative review and qualitative review.

Visconti: Can people ask for help if they are not making their goals and they have self-identified?

Orlopp: We have a helpline. We have email access, phone access. The reporting is available all the time. People know where they’re trending.

We do a lot of follow-up. We watch very closely who’s not hitting their metrics and we do one-on-one phone calls. We also reach out to some parts of the organization that may be having concerns.

Visconti: Then you coach them and help them. How deep down is this going in the organization?

Orlopp: It goes all the way down to the assistant managers in our stores and clubs. We track 60,000 people.

On specific turnover in a store, there are HR people out in the field that would probably notice that and call them. We’re looking more for how their good-faith efforts look. All the HR representatives and all the business units pay very close attention to it and are helping drive it and have those discussions.

Visconti: Do you ever get a chance to speak to senior management?

Orlopp: All the time. We meet with them regularly on their metrics. Half of my job is diversity, inclusion; another half is corporate HR. I support five of our CEO Mike Duke’s direct reports. I have regular face time with them. 

Diversity Metrics: Measurable Talent-Development Results

Visconti: What has this discipline resulted in over the years?

Orlopp: We made a lot of progress in talent development in our Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs. Some examples: When you look at our management-trainee program over the past five years, we’ve put about 12,000 women through that program. It’s entry-level management. Eighty-five-hundred people from traditionally underrepresented groups have gone through a management-trainee program over the last five years.

Walmart has more than 3,000 stores in the United States. Our percentage of female store managers has grown 39 percent in five years. Our percentage of people-of-color store managers has grown 31 percent. Our female assistant managers [percentage] is 47 percent. Those are huge increases on a huge base.

It’s a combination of very strong, strategic recruiting efforts, but a lot of internal development. We’re seeing people being pulled through the talent pipeline.

Last year, our EVP promotions for traditionally underrepresented groups were 100 percent from within. We’re just seeing people moving through the talent pipeline, and the same with entry-level management on up to the various levels of management and in clubs and stores.

Visconti: Do you think that’s changed your sales in the stores? Have you been able to track an effect yet?

Orlopp: We haven’t been able to track an effect. But I think it makes a difference from a customer relevance and from an associate relevance. Our associates are from all over the world, from so many different backgrounds, and the same goes for our customers.

You have to have an associate population that serves them in order to be relevant. We currently don’t have any tracking mechanisms that say because we’re more diverse it’s driven sales up. 

A Family of Advocates 

Visconti: What in your background led you to this job?

Orlopp: When I was growing up in Colorado, my parents were very strong advocates of the civil-rights and women’s-rights movements. When I was 12, they made one of the most purposeful parenting decisions that impacted who I became as a person: They moved us to a neighborhood that was predominantly African American and Hispanic.

I was the only white girl there. We weren’t welcome in the neighborhood. We had our yard set on fire, our home vandalized. My parents had a small landscaping business in the community; it was also vandalized.

Our family lived in that neighborhood for 30 years. I was never afraid, even though all this was going on. I just wanted to make friends.

My parents said whatever you learn socially will far outweigh anything else. I think it made me the person that I am. It made me a champion of diversity. It gave me this internal radar whenever I feel people are being excluded. I feel like I lived through it a little bit. I spent about 25 years supporting this industry. I am comfortable if I’m the only woman in the room, the only white person, the only straight person. You just have to be comfortable with who you are but also be loving and accepting of everybody else.

Diversity Training Through Experiential Learning 

Orlopp: I came here nine years ago. I was head of HR for Sam’s Club and Doug McMillon was the CEO of Sam’s Club. I kept thinking about how I could teach adults about diversity and inclusion. I kept going back to my childhood: My parents immersed me in the situation.

I kept asking how I could give them these “aha” moments or how I can teach them from my heart so that it changes behaviors. I came up with what I call diversity-immersion trips.

Our signature trip was to Montgomery, Ala., for two days. We took the CEO of Sam’s Club, all his leadership team, about 20 to 25 associates, a very diverse group [in position] as well as ethnic, gender and background. We started with the Rosa Parks Museum. We went to the Martin Luther King church, his home where he lived. We went to the Interpretive Center where the voting-rights march was done. Everyone on this trip was incredibly moved. Our CEO came back and said he wanted to put every single Sam’s Club manager through it.

We host two annual large manager meetings, and he said to see if we can do it in Montgomery and let’s go to all the venues.

When we had gone on this tour, we met a young man. He had been 15 in the voting-rights march with his 16-year-old brother. Their parents were sharecroppers. When they returned from the march, they got kicked off the land. The family of five lived in a tent for two and a half years. (At this Interpretive Center, there’s a big plot of land where a lot of families lived in tents since 1965.)

This man came to speak for us at Sam’s Club in Montgomery. We turned the stage into a tent and he showed photos from when his family lived in a tent.

We brought in Morris Dees, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. We did a 90-minute training session about what this trip had been like. Later, we showed that same training program in the home office and broadcasted it to clubs and stores. About 6,000 people went through it.

Every six months we held a different diversity-immersion trip. The next one was on Latino culture. We went to San Antonio and then we went to McAllen, Texas. We worked with the border patrol and they took us to the wall that was being built between Mexico and the United States. Because of labor cost, the wall is being built by people of Mexico to keep people in Mexico out of the United States.

We talked to the people in the community. We talked to our customers. We talked to people who had walls right in their backyard. We went up and felt the wall. That was really powerful and interesting. We had a lot of associates share their personal stories about coming into the country and what they went through.

The third one was around women. We met with Indra Nooyi [chairman and CEO of PepsiCo] and talked to her about her role and raising two daughters.

Then we did a trip to San Francisco around people with disabilities. We went to Lighthouse for the Blind. We went to this place where they make bicycles for people with different disabilities. We all rode different types of bicycles.

That creative approach to helping people understand led me to the path that came here. I want to take it to the next step, whatever that is, but I feel like we have a great story to tell. We still have progress to make, but it’s time to take it to a different level, and that’s what I am excited about.

The post How Walmart’s Chief Diversity Officer Gets Talent-Development Results appeared first on DiversityInc.

The partner at Boardman & Clark spoke with DiversityInc and gave a high-level presentation on compliance, training and the legalities in Diversity Training Goes Way Beyond Compliance. He provided six reasons for companies to go above and beyond basic compliance training. These include:

1. The focus on compliance training is aimed at saving money, while diversity training is about making money.
2. Courts frequently hold companies liable for allowing discriminatory cultures to flourish.
3. More and more decisions involving significant punitive damages occur when companies fail to give basic compliance training.
4. Courts have ruled that when the people in charge aren’t given the right training, there is liability.
5. Training should emphasize respect for the workplace and carry a message.
6. Specific training on issues, such as generational differences, often needs to be held.

Read more of these insights in Diversity Training Goes Way Beyond Compliance.

The post 6 Reasons Your Company Needs More Than Compliance Training appeared first on DiversityInc.

Photography by Gary King

An emerging Asian superstar in a Black-dominated sport, basketball wonder Jeremy Lin is suddenly the subject of stereotypes, jokes and racism. Why do fans, commentators and journalists think it’s funny to make Asian jokes? Is Lin’s celebrity at least in part due to his “difference”?

Bigotry in sports is nothing new. From Don Imus’ rant about the Rutgers women’s basketball team to Jimmy the Greek’s infamous claim that Blacks were naturally superior athletes, we’ve seen the furor erupt and the marketplace repercussions.

But this one’s a little different. Lin, if you’ve somehow missed the excitement, is a point guard with the New York Knicks. Despite the presence of big-name athletes like Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire (both Black in a sport where Black players are the majority), the Knicks have been struggling this year. Enter the previously unknown Lin, the American son of Taiwanese immigrants. His heroics, including some amazing last-minute plays, vaulted the team to a seven-game winning streak that ended Friday night and excited fans and sports followers. Yesterday, he led the team to another amazing victory, which has the sports world buzzing.

The controversy erupted when boxer Floyd Mayweather tweeted: “Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.” FOX Sports columnist Jason Whitlock has already apologized for his tweet, which insulted Lin’s sexual ability, using a negative stereotype about Asians.

To top all this off, Madison Square Garden showed a fan’s video of Lin’s head popping out of a fortune cookie, and fans have taken to calling him “Yellow Mamba,” allegedly a play on Kobe Bryant’s nickname of “Black Mamba.”

And then early Saturday morning, an ESPN commentator and the ESPN mobile website used the phrase “Chink in the Armor” regarding the Knicks’ loss to the Hornets Friday night. ESPN immediately pulled the headline and apologized, but the damage was done. (The ESPN commentator was fired Sunday.)

This was their apology: “Last night, ESPN.com’s mobile web site posted an offensive headline referencing Jeremy Lin at 2:30 am ET. The headline was removed at 3:05 am ET. We are conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.”

What’s going on and why are stereotypes so dangerous? What can your organization do when someone who’s very different from the majority takes on a major role?

Don’t Wait on Teaching the Power of Words 

As former NBA player John Amaechi, who is gay, told DiversityInc’s audience this fall: “In a world where diversity is important, sometimes people wonder about all the initiatives you can do for diversity, but what you can really do is teach people to really be there when they are talking.” This becomes the opportunity for an understanding that goes beyond stereotypes. Sixty-six percent of The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity have mandatory diversity training for all their employees.

In other words, don’t wait for an incident to occur. Make sure ALL your employees have mandatory cultural-competence training and that managers are vigilant in creating an atmosphere that’s always inclusive.

Education Is Your Most Valuable Tool

Stereotypes are dangerous in every way. They destroy confidence and the ability to work and function successfully. They damage relationships, in the workplace and outside.

The greatest danger is in people accepting these stereotypes, making them “a normative behavior. That’s what happens eventually; behavior shifts and these are no longer the norm,” says Dr. Claude Steele, former provost of Columbia University and now dean of Education at Stanford University.

The best way to diminish the power of stereotypes is by education. As our recent panel on Muslims and stereotypes demonstrates, understanding the reality often changes perceptions.

Values Emanate From the Top 

Your organization’s values must be consistently and emphatically stated from the top. Take the recent example of JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson standing up proudly for the organization’s decision to hire Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson.

The organization’s values and mission should be expressed clearly on the website in the mission statement and in the CEO’s statement.

The visibility of the CEO—and the leader’s ability to hold people accountable for results—is most essential in ensuring everyone in the organization understands what’s acceptable and what’s not.

Learn more about what everyone’s been saying about Jeremy Lin and racism:

Jeremy Lin And Racism: Frequently Asked Questions
An SB Nation editor explores the psychological sources and differences in connotations and racial history.

Is This Jeremy Lin Fortune Cookie Graphic Racist? Knicks, MSG Didn’t Think So
Here’s a screen grab of Madison Square Garden’s depiction of Jeremy Lin as good luck in a fortune cookie.

Asian stereotypes appearing in coverage of Knicks’ Jeremy Lin
Madison Square Garden responds to the fortune-cookie image of Lin, saying it was created by a fan, while TV personalities such as David Letterman and Jon Stewart and a FOX Sports columnist also are cited for instances of racism mixed with humor.

Video: David Letterman’s Top 10 Worst Jeremy Lin Puns
From “Super Lin-tendo” to “Amasian,” Lin puns and references are everywhere in the media, many of which tie into his Asian heritage.

Columnist apologizes for racist Lin tweet; is that enough?
A complaint by the Asian American Journalist Association prompts FOX Sports’ Jason Whitlock, a Black man who tweeted a racist Jeremy Lin comment, to give an apology. A reader poll asks, “Is it enough?”

Is Knicks Jeremy Lin Overhyped Because He’s Asian? Floyd Mayweather Thinks So
A part of “Linsanity” is based in Lin’s ethnicity. But is the hype really because he’s Asian, as boxer Floyd Mayweather tweeted, playing a sport that has typically been dominated by Blacks? OpposingViews argues that it’s not.

Jeremy Lin and race: Bigotry in sports is nothing new
From Floyd Mayweather’s tweet to fellow teammates bowing karate-style to Lin after a game-winning shot, the racism toward Lin is nothing new among sports players—and Lin says he’s used to it.

Reaction to Lin’s success shows underlying racism
A San Francisco Gate blog discusses Asian stereotypes and whether Lin’s breakout can change social perceptions of the race and culture.

The Article I Didn’t Want To Write: Jeremy Lin & Racism
Are people more comfortable making puns about Asians than other racial groups? A blogger explores why as well as why people don’t seem to understand the implications and offense it can cause.

Linsanity May Reinforce Racial Stereotypes
Is Jeremy Lin’s story one of an underdog rising to the top, or is it an example of the problem of continuing stereotypes toward what is considered to be racial norms?

The post Jeremy Lin & Racism: 3 Ways to Stop Dangerous Stereotypes appeared first on DiversityInc.

What should you do if one of your executives uses a negative stereotype, especially in a public forum? How can you make sure your workplace doesn’t tolerate these types of damaging misconceptions, which impact morale and productivity? Learn a lesson from recent verbal missteps by presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum and see what Dr. Claude Steele advises you to do.

Gingrich announced that “If the NAACP invites me, I’ll go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied cultural competence with food stamps.”

NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous called the statement “inaccurate and divisive.”

Santorum said at a campaign stop in Iowa: “I don’t want to make Black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” After getting national criticism for the remark, he said he was “pretty confident that I didn’t say ‘Black,’” but the video shows that he did indeed say that. Watch the video.

Dr. Steele, dean of education at Stanford University and former provost of Columbia University, is the author of “Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us.” Dr. Steele, who analyzed these stereotypes at a DiversityInc event, told us that statements like these have long-term impact on workplace engagement and productivity. Watch the video.

“As my work has taught me and illustrates, stereotypes are not innocent or easily ignorable. They create pressures on people to see others in those stereotypes and degrade the quality of life for people who are stereotyped. They have a profound effect of creating discomforts that are attached to our identities,” he said. “Politicians resort to reinforcing old stereotypes about groups because it gives people belief that these things still are true … it creates a sense of social reality. Even though Obama’s the president, it keeps them alive.”

What would he recommend you do if someone in your organization perpetuated a stereotype? Be true to your values. “If I were leading an organization and this happened, if the opportunity arose in a naturalistic way, I’d condemn it and say this is something to be ashamed of. That’s what happened in the civil-rights movement; I’m old enough to remember when you could use the N-word in Congress, and that’s not acceptable anymore,” Dr. Steele said. 

For more on clarity of values, read CEO Commitment: Why Visibility & Accountability Matter and Why Julie Goodridge Might Be the Scariest Person in Investment Banking. Also read Ask the White Guy: Decision Making, Clarity of Values & What to Do When It Goes Horribly Wrong.

The real danger, Claude emphasized, is in people accepting these stereotypes. “These people are dangerously trafficking in stereotypes and making this a normative behavior. That’s what happens eventually; behavior shifts and these are no longer the norm,” Dr. Steele said.

And people often accept these statements without checking the facts. For example, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, offers food stamps. PolitiFact says participation is high, but that’s because of efforts since the Bush administration to increase participation. The largest group of SNAP recipients is white people, and most SNAP participants are younger than 18.

Facts are important in diversity work and in destroying stereotypes. Here are some diversity-management lessons demonstrated by companies in the DiversityInc Top 50 to address stereotypes in your organization. 

Ensure Diversity Training Is Mandatory

Seventy-eight percent of the DiversityInc Top 50 require mandatory cultural-competence training for their managers, and 66 percent require it for their entire workforce. While one can’t regulate what comes out of an employee’s mouth, teaching people about the need for respectful speech, as well as what type of speech is hateful, goes a long way to avoiding these types of hurtful communications.

Former NBA star John Amaechi addressed the power of hateful words recently when he keynoted DiversityInc’s special-awards ceremony. Read highlights from John Ameachi’s speech and watch the video.

Get the Message Out Externally and Internally, Starting at the Top

From your CEO’s statement on diversity (which should be on your corporate homepage) to your mission statement to all your external and internal communications, the message of respect and inclusion has to be clear and constant. Allowing any stereotypes for any group, including white men, to be perpetuated in any way by your company opens the door for these kinds of comments. A no-tolerance-for-disrespect policy, from the highest ranks of the company on down, must be clearly and consistently articulated.

Mandate Cross-Cultural Mentoring—Allow Senior Leadership to ‘Walk in Others’ Shoes’

Formal, cross-cultural mentoring relationships enable people from different backgrounds to really get to know each other and enhance cultural awareness, especially for senior, white, male executives. The one-on-one nature of the relationship, both studies and DiversityInc data show, are critical to that increased knowledge. Progressively more companies also require both mentors and mentees to undergo cultural-competence training before beginning the formal mentoring arrangement. Ninety-four percent of DiversityInc Top 50 companies now have formal, cross-cultural mentoring programs.

Expose CEOs and Senior Executives to Different Employees Through ERGs

Ninety percent of DiversityInc Top 50 CEOs now meet regularly with leaders of employee-resource groups. That connection, one shared by other senior executives, is invaluable in developing understanding of the group’s constituencies. For more on the positive effects of CEO commitment on talent development, read Increasing Diversity in Talent Development.

Related stories/videos:

The G.O.P.’s ‘Black People’ Platform
New York Times’ op-ed columnist Charles M. Blow comments on and debunks the rhetoric from GOP candidates Santorum and Gingrich and how they play on existing racial anxieties.

Gay, Black Aide Defends Santorum
One of Santorum’s former aides, Chris Matthews, a Black and openly gay man, defends the candidate. Here’s what he said.

NAACP Blasts Santorum for Targeting Blacks in Entitlement Reform
A CBS news video shows Rick Santorum’s comments that single out Blacks as recipients of federal benefits. The NAACP says his remarks are “inaccurate and outrageous,” while Santorum denies he said “Black.”

NAACP Leader Blasts Gingrich’s Food Stamp Comment
Gingrich’s comments, as shown in a CBS news video, positions Blacks and other traditionally non-represented groups as jobless people relying on food stamps. NAACP refutes the inaccuracies and Gingrich denies his remarks were racist.

Newt Gingrich ‘Irritated’ By Outrage Over His Comments On Food Stamps
A Black person, Yvan Lamothe, speaks up to Gingrich at the candidate’s town hall in New Hampshire, and Gingrich aims to clarify his original remarks.

Black Woman Confronts Santorum Over Comments: ‘Why Do You Have A Problem Against Black People?’
At a campaign event in New Hampshire, a Black woman confronted Santorum on his racist remarks. A Think Progress post provides an audio recording and a photo of the exchange.

Why Santorum’s Comment Isn’t Racist
An article on The Root calls attention to how the comments take root in a deeper fear by GOP members to discuss issues of race and truly connect with Black voters.

Rick Santorum To John King: I Didn’t Say Black People, I Said ‘Blah’ People
What did you hear Santorum say? “Blah,” “Black” or something else? Mediaite.com offers readers a “What Did You Hear Rick Santorum Say?” poll and a video from the candidate’s appearance on John King USA where he tries to defend his statements.

Did Newt Gingrich really say Blacks should “demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps”?
Gingrich said that his comments aren’t racially charged if you look at them in context. Metro posts the full text of what he said for readers.

Rick Santorum, Racist—It’s a Lie
National Review blog defends Santorum, saying he did not say “Blacks” and upholding that he is not a racist but honest about data facts in American populations.

The Slanders Against Santorum Clarify the Real Conflict
This blog defends Santorum, saying NPR and leftists “manufactured a controversy” to slander “a man who’s one of the nation’s leading advocates for rebuilding African-American families.”

Sarah Palin defends Newt Gingrich: David Gregory of ‘Meet the Press’ asked ‘racist-tinged’ question
Palin says the “Food Stamp President” line wasn’t racist—it was an answer to a reporter’s question that was tinged with racism. Was it a set-up?

The post ‘Blacks Should Not Be Satisfied With Food Stamps’: The Danger of Stereotypes appeared first on DiversityInc.