Easing Racial Tensions at Work
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ELLA BELL SMITH SYLVIA ANN HEWLETT TREVOR PHILLIPS RIPA RASHID WITH MELINDA MARSHALL AND TAI WINGFIELD EASING RACIAL TENSIONS AT WORK SPONSORS: BP CROWELL & MORING LLP ERNST & YOUNG LLP INTERPUBLIC GROUP JOHNSON & JOHNSON NEW YORK LIFE PWC LEAD SPONSORS AND ADVISORS CTI PROJECT TEAM BP Sylvia Ann Hewlett, CEO and Founder Redia Anderson Laura Sherbin, CFO and Director of Research Ray Dempsey Melinda Marshall, Executive Vice President and Senior Editor Crowell & Moring LLP Julia Taylor Kennedy, Senior Vice President and Kent Gardiner Managing Editor Melanie Priddy Tai Wingfield, Senior Vice President of Communications Ernst & Young LLP Pooja Jain-Link, Vice President Karyn Twaronite Isis Fabian, Senior Research Associate Diana Solash Silvia Marte, Senior Communications Associate Yvonne Breitenfeld Bill Carroll, Research Intern Interpublic Group Heide Gardner HOW WE CONDUCTED OUR STUDY Johnson & Johnson ® Wanda Hope The research consists of a survey, Insights In-Depth sessions (a proprietary web-based tool used to conduct voice-facilitated virtual focus groups) involving ninety-seven people from our Task Force New York Life organizations, and one-on-one interviews with forty-four men and women in the US. Kathleen Navarro The national survey was conducted online or over the phone in October and November 2016 PwC among 3,570 respondents (374 black, 2258 white, 393 Asian, and 395 Hispanic) between the Jennifer Allyn ages of twenty-one and sixty-five currently employed full-time in white collar occupations, with Elena Richards at least a bachelor’s degree. Data were weighted to be representative of the US population on key demographics (age, sex, education, race/ethnicity, and Census Division). The base used for statistical testing was the effective base. The survey was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago under the auspices of the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), a nonprofit research organization. NORC was responsible for the data collection, while CTI conducted the analysis. In the charts, percentages may not always add up to 100 because of computer rounding or the acceptance of multiple responses from respondents. This document is copyrighted material and may not be posted or distributed without the written permission of the Center for Talent Innovation. Table of contents Foreword 2 Introduction 5 Painful racial tensions divide Americans 7 Race relations affect employees at work 12 Employers can help 16 Break the silence internally 20 Take a public stance on race 31 Benefits of breaking the silence 36 Appendix 40 About the authors 44 Endnotes 47 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 FOREWORD In the summer of 2016, as a string of violent events exacerbated racial tension in communities across America, I sent an anguished letter to our Task Force community (see the appendix). The response was extraordinary. I heard back from 63 senior executives from companies across industry sectors. They felt, as we did, that silence was not an option. We convened these executives by phone in July (by then the number had grown to seventy-seven) to learn how their organizations had already responded to external incidents of racial violence in the US, and to discuss ways to foment productive, healing conversations among their employees. By October, when nearly 50 of us met at Time Warner Center in New York, next steps were clear: CTI would undertake research to quantify not only the costs of silence, but also the benefits of talking about race at work. Because the workplace, as our executives perceived, may be the only place where we routinely encounter and come to rely upon people unlike ourselves, it is possibly the best place to start a national conversation on race relations. This report is both the culmination of those meetings and the outgrowth of our long-term relationships with Task Force members, who ensure that the research we undertake addresses their most salient issues. It reflects their input and feedback. It also showcases their field-tested guidance on how to initiate, sustain, and leverage conversations about race, because they recognize the vital role they play in building better working relationships. But for all the input of our Task Force, I must clarify that this is a CTI report: it is our lens on the data, and our interpretation of the findings. We take seriously our mandate to provide thought leadership, even when—especially when—the topic is as sensitive and emotionally freighted as race relations. If easing racial tension at work begins with a conversation, let us be the ones to frame it. Sylvia Ann Hewlett FOREWORD 2 Painful racial tensions divide Americans IN THE US, TENSIONS AROUND RACE AND ETHNICITY ARE NOTHING NEW. But the fault lines in our citizenry are newly visible, in ways we cannot ignore. They feature in campaign slogans and executive orders, in Twitter feeds and Instagram posts, on the nightly news and throughout the blogosphere. We are a nation divided. Tensions between Latinos1 and non-Latinos have grown in lockstep with resentment of undocumented workers.2 Fear of Muslims by non-Muslims, which has grown with every terrorist attack and immigration order, dominated the 2016 presidential campaign and helped deliver Donald Trump to office.3 Also present in the election, and thrown into starkest relief by ongoing protests, riots, and lethal encounters between black citizens and law enforcement, is the disenfranchisement that blacks feel as incarceration rates remain disproportionate, the inequality gap widens, and voting rights erode.4 PAINFULRACE RACIAL RELATIONS TENSIONS AFFECT EMPLOYEES—AND DIVIDE AMERICANS EMPLOYERS 3 Fault lines are newly visible Travis Wise / CC BY Beverly Yuen Thompson / CC BY Fibonacci Blue / CC BY Elvert Barnes / CC BY “After my election there was talk “In the face of a social crisis “We want to believe racism is “We have a situation where we of a postracial America. Such a unmatched in their recent an artifact of the past, and if have our inner cities, African vision, however well-intended, memory, poor whites have been you have a political massacre Americans, Hispanics are was never realistic. Race remains confronted with a confusing and [as we did in Charleston, SC], living in hell because it’s so a potent and often divisive force alarming idea: that they are the that contradicts that.” dangerous. You walk down in our society.” privileged ones.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates, Author, the street, you get shot.” 7 —Barack Obama, Former US President5 —J.D. Vance, Author, Hillbilly Elegy 6 Between the World and Me —Donald Trump, US President8 PAINFULRACE RACIAL RELATIONS TENSIONS AFFECT EMPLOYEES—AND DIVIDE AMERICANS EMPLOYERS 4 Americans see race relations worsening POLL AFTER POLL confirms that Americans perceive race relations to be bad and getting worse—particularly between blacks and whites.9 Shootings of young black men and tensions Polls conducted by other organizations stirred up in the aftermath of the election have contributed to this tension.10 echo these findings: 11 2015 57% Would you say race relations between whites and blacks are 0 20 40 60 80 100% Would you say race relations (between whites and blacks) are very good, 2016 63% somewhatvery good, good, somewhat somewhat bad, or verygood, bad? somewhat bad, or very bad? 0 20 40 60 80 100% 60% Americans who say race relations are generally bad 0 20 40 60 80 100% 2015 40 2015 68% 0 20 40 60 80 100% VERY GOOD 20162016 72% SOMEWHAT GOODGOOD 0 20 40 60 80 100% 20 Black Americans who say race relations are generally bad SOMEWHAT BADBAD VERY BAD 2015 0 2015 38% 0 20 40 60 80 100% 2013 2014 2015 2016 55% 2016 0 20 40 60 80 100% Americans who say race relations are getting worse PAINFULRACE RACIAL RELATIONS TENSIONS AFFECT EMPLOYEES—AND DIVIDE AMERICANS EMPLOYERS 5 We are a segregated nation 14 WeUnited don’t States’ live together: Average Score on Segregation Indices: COMPLETECOMPLETE INTEGRATION COMPLETECOMPLETE SEGREGATION SEGREGATION SOME IMPEDIMENTS to improving race relations are 0 20 40 60 80 100 structural. Groups of black, Latino, Asian, and white BLACK/WHITEBLACK/WHITE Americans rarely socialize together,12 thwarting interactions SEGREGATIONSEGREGATION 61 that might lead to greater understanding. Segregation ASIAN/WHITEASIAN/WHITE makes it easier for Americans to be unaware of the stubborn SEGREGATIONSEGREGATION 51 obstacles to equal civil rights for citizens of color. The LATINO/WHITELATINO/WHITE workplace is one of few settings where we commonly SEGREGATIONSEGREGATION 48 interact across racial and ethnic lines. This is particularly true Average segregation indices for US states in corporations, which strive to create a diverse workforce. WeWe don’tdon’t socializesocialize together:together:15 BLACKBLACK AMERICANSAMERICANS WHITEWHITE AMERICANS AMERICANS LATINOLATINO AMERICANS AMERICANS 100% “For most adult citizens, the single most likely site of integration—of genuine social interaction across racial 75 lines—is the workplace.”13 —Cynthia Estlund, author, Working Together: How Workplace 50 Bonds Strengthen a Diverse Democracy 25 83% 91% 64%91%91% 0 “Unless you experience discrimination personally, People in their social People in their social People in their social or live in a community where [stop-and-frisk] is networks are also networks are also networks are also black white Latino prominent, you can never understand. I only barely understand the impact of stop and frisk because a CompositionBut we do work of together:the overall16 US workforce close friend works in a community where it’s prevalent, and his personal stories are what have touched me.” 15% 62% 6% 14% —Asian/Pacific Islander female focusgroup participant BLACK WHITE ASIAN LATINOLATINO Composition of new entrants to the US white-collar workforce PAINFULRACE RACERELATIONS RACIAL RELATIONS TENSIONS AFFECT AFFECT EMPLOYEES—AND EMPLOYEES DIVIDE AMERICANS AT EMPLOYERS WORK 6 Race relations affect employees at work THE WEEKLY NEWS CYCLE, with its relentless inventory of racially motivated confrontation, injustice, and senseless tragedy, takes a toll on all of us.