The study marks the first time in our country’s history that white births were in the minority (49.5 percent). View an interactive map of the population.

The data coincides with the Census Bureau’s projections for a rapid rise in population diversity over the next 40 years. By 2050, whites are expected to total 46 percent of the population, with Blacks (about 13 percent), Latinos (more than 30 percent), Asians/Pacific Islanders (approximately 9 percent) and American Indians (almost 1 percent) comprising the majority.

The demographic shift is a significant one that will affect diversity and inclusion in many sectors—corporate, political and educational. Watch the video below for more on these implications.

The talent in the workforce is changing dramatically, and many colleges and educational institutions are already experiencing the increasing diversity among students. The number of bachelor’s degrees obtained by Blacks and Latinos increased 32 percent over the last decade, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In 2000, Blacks and Latinos accounted for 11 percent of the total 31,256,000 degrees received and 15 percent of the 41,289,000 degrees in 2010.

How This Impacts Your Business

• Diversity Recruitment: As the educated workforce becomes more racially diverse, it’s essential for companies to be able to hire and retain the best talent. Studies have shown that younger people, including straight, white men, want to work for companies that are known for their diversity and inclusion. Additionally, as our recent diversity web seminar on recruitment shows, on-boarding and engaging people from underrepresented groups is vital to ensuring their retention and promotion.
• Talent Development: If you aren’t representative of the population, the talent will leave or fail to maximize individual potential. No one wants to be the first “anything” in an organization; that’s why diversity and inclusion is so important. DiversityInc research from The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity shows a direct correlation between formal cross-cultural mentoring and talent development of people in underrepresented groups. Watch our diversity web seminar on talent development for more insights.
• Market Share: A culturally competent workforce that is representative of the marketplace reaches customers and suppliers and increases market share. DiversityInc features many case studies of resource groups that have been able to help with market research and customer connections. For example, at our Innovation Fest! in February, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (No. 13 in the DiversityInc Top 50) discussed how it saved $1 million by using its seven ethnic resource groups to vet marketing campaigns. Watch our diversity web seminar on innovation for more unique solutions to leverage your diversity and inclusion.

The post Diversity & Inclusion Milestone: More Than Half of U.S. Babies Are Black, Latino & Asian appeared first on DiversityInc.

Read personal stories from two INROADS interns: Talent Development Creates Ability for INROADS Students to Succeed.

The president and CEO of INROADS, who spent 28 years at Pfizer (including his last role as vice president of capability development and stakeholder relations), started life as the son of migrant workers in Fort Pierce, Fla.

“My parents worked in the fields, harvesting vegetables and fruits … we lived in the projects, and from the top of the roof, I had two views, the drive-in theater and Cape Canaveral,” recalls Harper, who now heads the nonprofit that helps low-income students find and succeed in corporate internships. Most of those students are Black, Latino and American Indian.

For more on talent development and diversity in education, read Rutgers Future Scholars Enhances Talent Pipelines With Corporate-Student Outreach and PhD Project: Getting Diversity to the Next Academic Level.

The Power of Support

His family, friends and teachers recognized that the bright child and gifted athlete had a chance for a better life. He excelled at football and basketball, and as starting quarterback, he led his high-school football team to a state championship. Harper won a full scholarship to Morgan State University in Baltimore, but a serious knee injury put it at risk. The school let him in on a conditional scholarship: If the knee got better and he could play, he could stay.

He boarded a Greyhound bus for Baltimore, not knowing if he had a real future or if he would return to the fields. His knee got better and he made the team—and then he was injured again.

“Before I was hurt, I was at football practice and a tall gentleman in uniform came over to me,” Harper recalls. “He said: ‘Maybe I can talk to you about how you can leave Morgan State with two degrees, no matter what happens with football.’”

The gentleman was with the Army ROTC, and his suggestion and mentorship changed the young man’s trajectory. Harper went on to major in social work and then went in to the Army, where he achieved the rank of captain in the 82nd Airborne Division.

Harper loved the structure and opportunities of the military, but his family was having tough financial times, so he decided to seek employment in private industry. His first and only corporate employer was Pfizer, where he was hired as a salesman.

For more on veterans and talent development, watch Diversity Web Seminar: Veterans in the Workplace Webinar.

Recognizing Potential

“My district sales manager, Richard Matthews, asked me what my aspirations were. I said, ‘I would like to grow up and have your job.’ He said, ‘Then that’s what you’ll do,’” Harper recalls. “I owe him a tremendous amount for just being able to tell me I could reach for this. Leadership is not about you but what you do for your people.”

Harper spent almost three decades at Pfizer, becoming a senior executive with major leadership positions in sales, public affairs and public policy. He helped start the company’s African-American resource group and served as its president—and he was deeply involved in the company’s efforts to reduce healthcare disparities. He also was a member of Pfizer’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Committee. Along the way, he broke a few barriers.

“I was the first and only in eight different positions at Pfizer. I could do nothing about being the first, but I could always do something about being the only,” he says.

Harper spent two years as an executive on loan to the National Urban League and the Executive Leadership Council, which works to get Blacks into senior positions in corporate America.

Pay It Forward

In his mid-50s, Harper decided he wanted to share the business and leadership skills he had learned in corporate America with nonprofits, and his strongest goal was to mentor and educate students.

Thus the fit to lead INROADS was perfect. INROADS has found spots for more than 2,000 student interns with more than 200 major corporations. With nearly 24,000 alumni, Harper sees great opportunity for expanding the organization’s potential to help young people gain the first foothold to corporate success.

“My one-year plan is to work with the national board of directors and key stakeholders and ensure we have the financial stability to help our 2,000 students. I want to enhance the awareness and benefits of INROADS so we are no longer the best-kept secret in corporate America,” he says.

Beyond that? “Our goal is that companies tell us over and over that they value the partnership because it is a part of their overall talent blueprint,” he says, adding, “Talent is a continuing life cycle, not just a one-time thing.”

Follow INROADS on Twitter (@INROADS), Facebook and LinkedIn, or watch video interviews with INROADS alumni on YouTube. Read this profile in DiversityInc’s June 2012 digital issue.

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DiversityInc’s Luke Visconti was the keynote speaker at The Skanner Foundation’s 21st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast in Portland, Ore. More than 1,200 people attended:

What would King say?

Bernie Foster built a bridge by asking me to speak at this event–a white publisher invited by a black publisher to speak to an audience about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s quite an honor.

Bernie and I met at another event where I was discussing “the business case for diversity.” That the business case for diversity is a reality and not just a theory is directly due to Dr. King and the civil-rights era.

The business case for diversity is based on two factors: changing demographics and corresponding changes in economic power.

In Dr. King’s time, there were roughly nine white people for every one person of color in our country. Immigration had ended in the late 1920s and would not resume until the mid-1960s, so our racial demographics were relatively stable. African Americans were our largest demographic of people of color, and access to college and corporate America did not exist for them. Most African Americans did not even have the right to vote.

Shifting Demographics

Today we live in an era of more immigration per capita than any time in American history. For Americans under 40 years old, there are less than 1.5 white people for every person of color. White people will probably be the minority by 2040.

People of color are increasing educational attainment more quickly than their rise as a percent in our population. Households of color are increasing their household income at more than double the rate of white households–and have been doing so since 1990.

In essence, people of color are our country’s engine of growth. When you factor demographic changes with household-income changes, people of color have an eightfold higher growth rate than white people.

This has caused a group of companies to take notice and become more progressive. My company runs a competition once a year to determine The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity. This year more than 600 companies asked for a survey, and we expect over 350 to compete–participation is up over 100 percent from three years ago.

We ask over 230 questions on four areas: CEO Commitment, Human Capital, Supplier Diversity and Corporate Communications. Just so you know, there is no connection between our list and business conducted with my company. The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies are very different than typical companies. For example:

• Although they employ 5 percent of the work force, they employ 17 percent of college-educated people of color
• They hire 43 percent people of color even though the U.S. work force is only 28 percent people of color
• 7.5 percent of their procurement budget is spent with minority- and women’s-business enterprises. The national average is 2 percent.

And perhaps the most important business indicator, the DiversityInc Top 50, expressed as a stock index, outperforms the DJIA, Nasdaq and S&P 500.

What this tells you is not that diversity is driving stock price, but that diversity is a core management practice of superior companies. It also tells you that diversity brings sustainability to a company. The numbers show that companies which have diversity in their DNA will dominate competitors which do not.

Despite the compelling business case, 80 percent of the Fortune 1000 does not practice diversity management. By diversity management, I mean disciplined, measured, accountable management–not just Mexican food in the cafeteria on May 5.

Why the lack of attention? Most corporations are run by straight, able-bodied white men. The luxury of being in the majority culture is never having to think about race.

Now that doesn’t make all white people bad. Some of my best friends are white and they’re OK. But being in the majority makes most white people oblivious, and we miss a lot of opportunities because of that. For example, the median worth of a black household is one-tenth that of a white household, and at the current rate of closure, it will take 1000 years for black households to catch up.

However, if you caught black household wealth up to the median of white households today, it would be like injecting the entire gross domestic product of Japan into our economy–over 4 trillion dollars. How many houses, office buildings, schools, cars, plasma TVs would we have to build with all that new capital in our economy?

So, who is being hurt most by this kind of a program not being implemented at once? White people. Why? There’s more of us.

If the facts are so clear, why are a minority of companies practicing diversity management? Why isn’t there an emergency program to enable black households to build wealth?

One reason is that we all have counter-productive human tendencies, like the feeling that if another group gets something, we’ll lose something–this is called the zero-sum argument. It works when we’re all hunting antelope in the jungle with spears. If the other tribe gets the antelope, our tribe goes hungry. However, zero-sum doesn’t work in an economic model as you can see with just this one household-wealth example.

There’s another reason for a lack of progress: People will do a lot to avoid feeling guilty. To look at our society and effect programs to build an equitable situation would cause us white people to really look at ourselves more clearly. It’s far easier to blame the victim.

But let’s look more closely at the cost of disparities. If you believe that all people are created equally, then you have to assume that talent is also distributed equally. Unfortunately, we can tell by graduation rates that a vastly disproportionate percent of the black and brown talent in this country is dashed on the rocks of a poorly funded public-school system. This can be fixed, but it would require a huge commitment of resources.

In his August 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King spoke of our country’s obligation to live up to the promises made by our founders–that “black men as well as white men would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’”

He spoke of a check that had been returned marked “insufficient funds.” He did that before he got to the often-taken-out-of-context parts like “my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

The “I Have a Dream” speech isn’t about being colorblind; it’s about the obligation that had to be paid before our society could move forward together.

The check still hasn’t cleared. Have we cashed other checks? Is it worth it to pay this long overdue bill, or should we continue to ignore the knocking at the door? Let’s look to history.

Following World War II and Korea, millions of veterans went to college for free on the GI Bill. Due to the implementation of this program, white veterans disproportionately benefited, so let’s focus on white people. Before WWII, less than 7 percent of white people attended college. Today, 44 percent of white people attend college. Our country’s workers went from industrial and agrarian employment to knowledge-worker employment. The corresponding generation of wealth from white people working to the true extent of their potential was unprecedented in human history.

I think you can make the case that the $4 trillion in missing black household wealth is a drop in the bucket compared to what we’re sacrificing to maintain a society of “them” and “us.”

This is where it gets scary for our country.

White people will be the minority by 2040 in this country; however, 75 percent of the planet is already not white. The elimination of information barriers–most importantly the Internet–has liberated the talents of billions of people world wide. The Chinese now have as many people on the Internet as we have citizens–and they are building colleges faster than any country on the planet. People in India can call the U.S. for less money than it costs for us to call them.

Talent can now flow from where it is to where it is best treated. There are six billion people on the planet and only 300 million Americans. Unleashing the talent of formerly oppressed Americans has made our market robust. As the world’s formerly oppressed people have been able to exercise the talent they were born with, the global economy is surging. Investors in this country have already reacted. According to the current issue of Barron’s magazine, an amazing 90 percent of inflows to mutual funds went offshore in 2006.

By non-violent protest, Dr. King forced our federal government to action in the 1960s. I don’t think you can say that Washington is any more visionary today. Last June, my magazine ran a story in our Top 50 Companies for Diversity issue titled “The Worst Company for Diversity? The United States Senate,” which described the almost total lack of diversity in key senate staff positions. In that article we ran a photograph of the Alito hearings. Out of roughly 300 people in the room, there wasn’t a single black person. Not one.

In this environment of malignant neglect, there is a concerted effort in this country to enter a new era of oppression.

Bigots like Linda Chavez and Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity along with sad souls like Ward Connerly are actively working against affirmative action and diversity. They say we should be “colorblind”–that all things are equal and affirmative action is wrong. They have worked to end affirmative action in California, Texas and Florida and most recently in Michigan, where the recently passed “Civil Rights” initiative eliminated affirmative action.

Their arguments disregard the lasting effects of racism and ignore the obvious disparities in our society. The fact is that we don’t have a colorblind society. It takes the blinders of the majority or the deception of evil people to not deal with the obvious:

• A colorblind society would not have more segregation in schools today than ever before in our history.

• A colorblind society wouldn’t foster a prison industrial complex and incarcerate people disproportionately by race–and have highest incarceration rate per thousand in the world, even surpassing the former record in the Soviet Union.

• A colorblind society would have rebuilt New Orleans by now.

• A colorblind society would understand that not having universal healthcare is the equivalent of wealth redistribution–from poor to wealthy.

• A colorblind society would have 50 percent women senators and roughly 28 percent senators who are people of color.

• A colorblind society would have equal rights for both straight people and gay people.

• A colorblind society would keep track of Iraqi civilian deaths as carefully as we’ve tracked our own soldiers’ deaths.

• A colorblind society with the mightiest military in human history wouldn’t stand by as 2 million people are herded to their execution in Darfur.

• A colorblind society would understand that “unalienable rights” were not limited in our Constitution only for those with the right documents.

• A colorblind society would not allow admissions to public colleges to be determined by tests which have different results by race, like the SATs.

• A colorblind society will have an equal chance of a white publisher inviting a black publisher to speak about America.

Ward Connerly and Linda Chavez are well funded and working nationwide. They have attacked affirmative action at the state level and have attacked diversity programs at the corporate and university levels. Be aware. Dr. King taught us that we have the obligation to forthrightly address the practices that preserve racism. For more on affirmative action, read “Why We Still Need Affirmative Action.”

We also have the obligation to act.

Vote your ethics. Most eligible people of color are either not registered or do not vote. The reality is that your elected officials look at who votes and portion their attention accordingly.

Be careful about who you do business with and work for. Reward companies that share your vision.

Become financially literate. Build your family wealth through homeownership.

Read other accounts on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Before MLK, None of My Accomplishments Would Have Been Possible
DiversityInc’s Denyse Leslie, senior vice president of consulting, draws a parallel between Dr. King’s firsts (first arrest, first book published, first Black man to win the Nobel Peace Prize) and the firsts of Blacks still alive (or recently deceased) as they live out Dr. King’s vision.

Taking Risks for Your Brothers: The Power of Martin Luther King’s Words
Human-rights activist Raymond Brown learned about the need for humanity from Dr. King.

Civil-Rights Progress: Helping LGBT Youth
GLSEN’s Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard notes how Dr. King’s message that Black people would eventually reach the promised land is a reminder today that progress, no matter how slow, is crucial.

How Has Dr. King’s Legacy Changed Lives?
While Hurricane Irene hit during the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial dedication, R. Fenimore Fisher reflected on how Dr. King’s actions changed the law that changed society.

The post What Dr. King Really Meant: The Obligation That Benefits Everyone appeared first on DiversityInc.

The New York–based Big Four company, No. 5 in The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, recently held its Discover Ernst & Young event and the fourth annual Campus Diversity and Inclusiveness Roundtable in New York. 

From Talented Students … 

Discover Ernst & Young, which stems from the company’s former Discover Tax program that targets increasing interest in the tax sector, is a three-day seminar of workshops and activities, like a scavenger hunt. Its purpose is to engage the 150 freshmen, sophomores and juniors from 73 national colleges and universities who are primarily Black, Latino and American Indian. The goal is to inspire future accounting professionals for Ernst & Young’s talent pipeline. 

“I’m big on planting trees. From our talent-development pipeline, we have to invest early before students think about other careers,” said Ken Bouyer, Americas director of inclusiveness recruiting. Those initiatives also include students on the high-school level, as detailed in Rutgers Future Scholars Enhances Talent Pipelines With Corporate-Student Outreach.

At the kick-off experience, for which E&Y covered all the students’ expenses, Chairman and CEO Jim Turley directly engaged with students during a Q&A session along with other E&Y recruitment leaders, including Americas Campus Recruiting Director Dan Black and Americas Vice Chair of People Nancy Altobello, to spur excitement for the accounting profession. 

“The world is a very turbulent place. There is a lot of angst. In turbulent times there are going to be winners and losers, whether a country or a company,” said Turley. He discussed what it takes to be a winner—the mindset of an entrepreneur with an aggressive eye for opportunity. 

… To Schools That Educate 

The firm simultaneously hosted its fourth annual Campus Diversity and Inclusiveness Faculty Roundtable. University teachers and administrators from 15 schools discussed the business imperative for diversity and the need to create a culture of inclusiveness. For more about existing diversity gaps among college students, read American Universities Hinder Diversity Among STEM Students.

The roundtable sought to address three main objectives: why diversity is important to Ernst & Young, why it’s important to schools, and formulating an action plan that will move the needle.

Panelists included: Tony Anderson, vice chair and Midwest area managing partner, Ernst & Young; Denice Kronau, chief diversity officer, Siemens; and Bruce Jackson, senior counsel, Microsoft. Read How to Increase the Number of Black CPAs for recruiting and retention best practices. 

“We need you. We can’t do this without the pipeline of students,” said Bouyer during the introduction. He noted that 49 percent of Ernst & Young’s intern hires came from colleges represented in the audience. 

Blacks, Latinos and Asians make up about 32 percent of Ernst & Young’s North American workforce, and women make up 48 percent of its North American workforces. In 2011, Blacks, Latinos and Asians totaled 39 percent and women totaled 47 percent of all new North American hires. 

Global Implications 

Turley also addressed the administrators, discussing trends in global business and the economy and the business imperative for diversity and inclusiveness today. 

“The world is going through the most geopolitical economic shifts in history. Emerging markets are on fire … The slowest-growing economies in the world are the oldest, Europe and Japan,” he said. “The workers of tomorrow will be much more diverse, not just in the United States but everywhere in the world.” 

He encouraged the administrators to think about how they are going to educate students to have a broader global mindset so they can contribute to increasingly global teams of workers. It’s “building this pipeline for long-term success” that is the hardest thing, he said. 

For information on how to help fund scholarships for financially disadvantaged students, read about the DiversityInc Foundation.

The post How to Get 150 Top-Performing Black and Latino Candidates Now appeared first on DiversityInc.

Most of the accounting profession recognizes the importance of attracting more Blacks to the field and helping them pass the CPA exam. Few, unfortunately, have a good track record in getting results. In 2002 and 2010, Blacks hired by CPA firms accounted for only 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Even slightly lower, the percentage of Black professional staff members of CPA firms was 2 percent in 2002 and 3 percent in 2010. As expected, this has resulted in the marginal representation of Blacks at the management level of CPA firms, with only 1 percent of Black partners in 2002 and less than 1 percent in 2010, according to the American Institute of CPAs.

I believe that this poor performance is due not to disinterest or resistance to the goal—as a whole, our profession means well and wants to do well—but we as a profession are struggling with fully understanding what works and what doesn’t.

How do accounting firms succeed at attracting more Blacks, helping them through the CPA barrier, and enabling them to advance to the leadership level? Research at the Center for Accounting Education and my many years of experience as a senior partner in a Big Four firm have taught me that the way to start is with low-hanging fruit and a strong commitment from the top to make a difference—not overnight but over the long run. For more on recruiting strategies, read “E&Y CEO Engages Students to Foster Diverse Pipeline of Accountants.”

Increasing the retention of all staff is a major challenge that the profession faces. Most firms continue to address this problem aggressively. As to their Black professionals, retention is even more difficult. The reason for this is very complex and not yet fully understood. What role does culture, subtle and unconscious biases, lack of advocates, etc., play in the high turnover? Continuing study of these areas is necessary. If the profession hopes to increase the number of Black CPAs on their staff, they need to make sure they retain more of their Black hires and eventually make them managers and partners in their firms. By doing this, they will, over the long run, improve the number of Blacks at the higher level. It will also make the profession more attractive to middle- and high-school students looking at the profession as a career.

Here are several practical, achievable strategies that firms of any size can follow:

• Discover what motivates young Black accountants in your firm. Don’t assume that what motivates you will motivate them. Use existing “minority” structures such as affinity groups and networks as a venue to help discover the unique motivating factors.
• Encourage Blacks to take the exam during the summer before they join their firms as a full-time hire. Thus, when they begin work, not only do they have the academic credentials necessary, they also have the professional certifications.
• Include certification as a measure in employee evaluation and aggressively monitor progress. For employees who don’t take or pass the exam, discuss during the counseling session any hurdles standing in the way of the exam and develop an action plan to address them.
• Assign a CPA mentor for all new hires who are not already a CPA. The primary role of the mentor is to encourage the new hire to pass the exam and answer any questions they may have.
• Offer to pay for CPA review courses as well as fees to sit for the exam the first time. Reimburse candidates when they enroll; don’t wait for them to pass the exam. The risks inherent in early reimbursement are well worth the long-term benefits of a highly qualified staff.
• Give candidates time off to study and sit for the exam.
• Provide a bonus or pay increase, and other recognition, if an employee becomes a CPA within a defined time period. Many firms already do this, but for those firms that do not, I strongly recommend that they incorporate such a policy.

Performance-Evaluation Process

The performance-evaluation process is one of the most important areas that firms need to review to ensure that it is not a hindrance to the retention of their Black staff members. Performance evaluations significantly impact assignments, individual morale, compensation and one’s ability to assume increased responsibility. What can be done? In a paper entitled “Retaining African Americans in the Profession: A Success Model,” I and Leslie Traub of Cook Ross wrote the following suggestions to improve the performance-evaluation process of Black associates:

Performance Manager/Engagement Manager/Partner

• Examine conscious and unconscious beliefs about people whose cultural background is different from theirs, and how these beliefs can negatively or positively impact Black associates’ evaluations and assignments.
• Examine input into associates’ performance for bias.
• Ensure diverse input into evaluations.
• Look for patterns of commentary by seniors, managers or other influencers about Blacks. Use data as a way to gently probe about larger bias issues. Offer concrete solutions to moving past bias. Many times evaluators of Black associates are afraid to provide honest suggestions as to the areas of weakness that should be improved upon. This cannot be allowed to happen.
• Mentors must be aggressive but honest advocates.

Associates/Senior Associates

• Use your relationship channels to share your concerns about performance ratings; be open to telling your story and experience on engagements, and understand that others have their story too. Try to be as dispassionate and factual as possible about your experience. Remember that you too have unconscious biases that might impact how you react to a suggestion as to how improvements can be made to your performance.
• Clearly communicate needs and limitations about work opportunities to your engagement manager and partner. Look for opportunities for flexibility.
• Seek out mentors who will serve as your advocate. Remember that they do not need to be of the same race or gender.

Increase the Number of Students Majoring in Accounting

• Increase the profession’s visibility and viability with younger people by supporting outreach efforts in Black communities. For example, Rutgers Future Scholars worked with Ernst & Young to host a learning event for high-school students. Encourage your successful Black employees, specifically managers and partners, to become more active with younger employees from traditionally underrepresented groups and in recruiting and outreach.
• Join in marketing the accounting profession among high-school and college students in your community. Drive home the message that a CPA is a board-certified professional like a doctor or an attorney.
• Incorporate into all new-hire orientations the message that an accountant’s education is not complete until he or she is a CPA.
• Provide scholarships to Black accounting students. These scholarships should incorporate the goal that the recipient agrees to take and pass the CPA exam within a certain time after graduation.

In the end, it’s up to the individual to choose the career, choose to succeed and advance in it, and choose to become a CPA. But as firms, we can and must make that choice more desirable—and more attainable—for Blacks.

For more on existing diversity gaps among student populations, read “American Universities Hinder Diversity Among STEM Students.”

Frank K. Ross is the director of the Howard University School of Business Center for Accounting Education and a visiting professor of accounting, teaching auditing and ethics. In 1968, Ross was one of the nine cofounders and the first president of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA). In December 2003, he retired from KPMG after providing more than 38 years of service. Prior to retiring, he was the Mid-Atlantic area managing partner for Audit and Risk Advisory Services and managing partner of the Washington, D.C., offices. Ross was also a member of KPMG’s board of directors and chairman of the KPMG Foundation board of directors.

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Question:

I just thought you might enjoy the irony in this story. It is telling about one of my soapbox subjects, the lack of understanding and support of LGBT students in the public schools. I am a teacher and have a close family member who is gay.

This is the story as told to me by an employee of the school in question:

About 10 years ago, a local high school decided to hold a “Diversity Day.” The plans and arrangements were to be made by the student leadership group. The students invited the previous year’s student-body president, who had come out as gay during his first year of college, to speak at the event. The school administration objected and asked the students to rescind the invitation. The students refused, and the entire event was called off by the administration!

I wonder how much has changed in the past 10 years. I completed a master’s degree in secondary education in 2004. Nothing was said in any of the courses about working with gay and lesbian students, unless I was the one to bring it up.

Answer:

A 2007 Gallup poll showed that 68 percent of college freshmen and women approved of gay marriage. This rate climbed steadily every year the poll was conducted–in 1997 only 50 percent approved.

Further, according to Pew Research, 55 percent of all Americans approve of LGBT “civil unions.” Again, the approval rating has been climbing steadily.

So I think there’s progress being made–especially with younger people. That might be “despite” the school systems in this country, but it’s happening.

There are certainly regional differences in awareness, and cities/regions that have proven to have a “live-and-let-live” culture have benefited from migration of LGBT people from less to more tolerant parts of our country.

Perceptions and opinions change from humanizing the situation. As people build friendships, they develop understanding.

My favorite story about going from “object” to “person” came from a senior vice president of a media company. He lives in a rural city in the deep South, with his partner, in a typical suburban setting. After a decade of dinner parties and other gatherings, they became very close with their neighbors. At a holiday party, one of their neighbor friends asked, “Why aren’t you two married?” The other party goers chimed in, “Yeah, why not?”

The answer was “Because it’s illegal in this state.”

The post Ask the White Guy: Do Public Schools ‘Get’ LGBT Issues? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Question:
Do you believe that a focus on socioeconomic status and level of education will get greater attention and debate from the diversity community in the future?

Answer:
I hope so.

Realistically, race/gender and socioeconomic status in the United States are directly linked because of hundreds of years of legal discrimination. Aside from the inability for Black people to amass wealth during legalized slavery and Jim Crow, legal barriers to voting, education and capital only fell in 1964, 1965 and 1977 (Civil Rights, Voting Rights and Community Reinvestment acts, respectively).

Simply by analyzing wealth, income and education of our constituent communities, we can see that Blacks, for example, have not achieved equity–specifically due to race. However, it is an increasingly complex picture because of the rising middle class of Blacks and their exceptional educational achievements.

The situation for American Indian-, Latino- and women-headed households has also become more complex. For example, our DiversityInc Top 50 statistics show that Asian Americans are still underrepresented in middle and top management, yet it is difficult to paint a stereotypical economic portrait of Asian Americans because of the changing Asian socioeconomic demographics created by the repeal of the Chinese Exclusionary Act (1943) and the end of non-white immigration quotas in the mid-1960s.

This is why I think the focus in the future should be on socioeconomic and education status–with an adjudicating eye toward ensuring equity across race and gender.

If the outcome is equity, then the entire way we look at problems changes. Instead of incremental changes in education, for example, we would make sweeping changes.

By the “diversity community,” I’ll assume you’re referring to corporate America. I think that the practices that prove beneficial to society are also good for corporate America, because the underpinning issues are the same: human and civil rights.

How this plays out in the workplace is direct and clear. For example, your mentoring programs should be for all employees, not just Black and women employees (a common mistake). Your most talented employee might just be a white, heterosexual man, with no ADA-defined disabilities who grew up in a poor neighborhood and had parents who were not corporate. Without mentoring, that man may never reach his potential.

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Question:
Why should public schools receive equal funding? If some communities choose to pay higher property taxes, why shouldn’t they be entitled to a more well-funded education if they so choose? Why must the state ENFORCE a faux equality? We all know the D.C. public schools and the California public schools receive some of the highest funding in the country, yet perform miserably. Yet when you look at the states that succeed the most academically, you’ll note that while Wisconsin and Minnesota pour money into their public schools, Wyoming and Montana don’t. Yet all four states perform in the top 10 in the country. The one common denominator? They all have predominantly white populations.

Let’s be honest: This is a cultural thing, if we’re going to throw the genetic component out (and I think for sanity’s sake, we should). Name for me a single Black community that outscores the state average for white students. I’ll be waiting awhile.

The problem isn’t an uneven playing field. The problem is that Blacks are simply not even playing the same game as Asians and whites. Until a cultural emphasis is placed on success in the Black community (and it’s decidedly not), things simply will not change.

Answer:
It’s not intellectually honest to discuss Black educational underperformance as if it is something that arrived on the current scene fully formed. The state isn’t trying to force “faux equality.” It’s (ineffectively) dealing with centuries of oppression. Equality in opportunity has never been part of the American experience. We can’t run away from that reality because it is responsible for the disparities in outcome by race in the facts you cite.

The good news is that getting to a solution for the disparities in education is not difficult when you accept that we are genetically all one human race.

This doesn’t mean everyone is of equal talent, but it does mean that every group of people has an equal percentage of talented people. Therefore, if education is managed correctly, every town–Black or white–SHOULD have the same outcome if the process assumes equal outcome as the only acceptable result.

So let’s not worry about the past–let’s worry about the future. If our country is going to be sustainable in this global economy, we need to develop ALL of our talent. It doesn’t make economic sense to under-educate talented people.

If we believe that all people are created equally (and that’s a genetic fact), then the only sensible thing for us to do is make sure that all students graduate from public schools with the same qualifications (within the statistical spread that accounts for all individual performance, measured not by group but by the entire United States).

If we accept equity in outcome, then we will be forced to reverse our thinking about education. Instead of applying the same failed solutions to the same problems and hoping for the best (or in your case, blaming the victim), we would have to impose conditions on the end result (percent graduating with the same skills, verified by testing).

What I think we’ll quickly find is that we IMMEDIATELY have to keep schools in low-income areas open 24/7/365 and serve hot meals three times a day–for the parents too, if they’re hungry. And while they’re there, let’s give skill assessments to the parents and give them education if they need it.

Studies show that people who are malnourished have behavior problems–and I’m sure even you would admit that you can’t learn if you’re hungry. And please, let’s not have talk about the responsibility of parents when it comes to hungry children. Let’s just feed the kids.

To get to equity in outcome, we’ll have to come to grips with the fact that the typical school schedule is simply inappropriate for most places in the country–especially underperforming districts. There are no cows to milk in the inner cities, so there’s no reason for students to go home at 3 p.m. In most cities, there are no crops to tend to in the summer–so the students can stay in school all year long. Further, a recent New Yorker article presented research that demonstrated that poor teachers have a higher impact than poor schools. Let’s get to a place where we pay teachers for accomplishment, not just the amount of time on the job.

You didn’t mention immigrants in your e-mail, but let me add that studies show that learning English is more important than learning the coursework. If we’re going to have secure borders and a coherent society, then we need a common language and it’s the obligation of “we the people” to provide that education up front.

Is this going to cost money? You bet it will, but not over the long run. Imposing the condition of equitable outcome would create the greatest economic development boom ever seen in our country. The government conducted a study and found that the GI Bill (which gave returning World War II and Korean War veterans free higher education) had a SEVEN to ONE return on investment when you consider tax revenue from better-educated people.

In this time of economic crisis, is there a better way to spend federal and state funds?

In closing, I agree with you about a shift in “cultural emphasis,” but not in the way you framed it. The burden isn’t on just Black people–it’s on all Americans. The change in “cultural emphasis” needs to be that we no longer accept differences in outcome that are based on race. Equity in outcome is the only way to build a sustainable country in a global economic environment.

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Question:
I’m considering going back to school for an MBA.

I have a particular interest in a company that highly favors MBA grads from Ivy League schools. A few colleagues in leadership have expressed their favoritism for the “best” candidates from these affluent institutions.

I consider myself a seasoned professional who meets all of the minimum qualifications of the job description–except the MBA. I have contemplated going back to school, but it won’t be to an Ivy League institution. For one, I don’t have access to an Ivy League education in my local area. And, unfortunately, I don’t have the financial resources to quit working and become a full-time student.

The schools that are available in my area are very credible. I’ve compared their curriculum with the Ivy League schools’. I’ve found that they are all 36 hours with the same classes – just different course names and, obviously, different educators.

If I choose one of the less-than-favorable schools, how can I justify a credible and valued education over an Ivy League graduate?

Answer:
In my opinion, there is a glut of mediocre MBA programs, which has led to a dramatic decrease in the perceived value of an MBA, especially among companies that favor Ivy League backgrounds.

This disproportionately affects people who have less economic means–or connections–for admission to Ivy League schools, but it is a reality in my observation.

Considering you have an interest in a particular company, I suggest you try and find executives that may have non-Ivy degrees. A thorough Internet search, assisted by subscription programs such as Hoover’s (which your local library may subscribe to), may help you find those people.

You may also want to speak to the career-services people at the schools you’re thinking of to see if they have placed anyone at the company you’re interested in.

If you can find people who are not traditional for that firm, you can write them to ask for an “informational interview.” I suspect they would be likely to share some time with you because your question is well thought out.

Once you gain access, I would recommend that you be very direct in asking why this company has such a preference for Ivy League graduates. It concerns me that they would. Even if you get hired, would you be limited in your career for this reason? Does the company irrationally value the Ivy League graduate? If it does, it will be almost impossible to overcome a cultural decision with reason alone.

You’re not fighting just the quality of the education. I’ve observed that Ivy League graduates have a very strong network. Their institutions cultivate an obsessive cohesiveness from the first day. Their alumni associations are powerful and vibrant. Just about every graduate from Harvard or Wharton will take an appointment from a fellow graduate if asked. That person has to perform once they get there, but that level of access is a powerful advantage.

You also can’t ignore that there is a value attached to a brand name. Ask anyone who has paid 10 times what the item is worth to have a special logo on a watch, car or bag. A Chevrolet Aero will get you to the country club as well as a Mercedes, but it won’t raise your social status. I think it relates back to our basic human trait: We’re tribal animals. I’ve found that many Ivy League graduates consider your alma mater to be your tribe.  

By the way, while you’re speaking to the non-Ivy schools you’ve researched, you should ask which companies have hired most of their graduates. If they have a fuzzy answer to a question like this, think hard about what that means: It could mean a poor-quality program.

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