Resources for Developing Diversity Strategies

  • Due Quach, Guest Contributor, Mindful Leader. How The Human Brain Can Derail or Bolster DEI
    • Three patterns of neuroscience-based framework and design for DEI training
    • Excellent article that examines how the human mind reacts to external triggers, risks, and changes in DEI training. The author looks at brain activation patterns depending on training objectives. Most training is designed to get people to look at their own patterns of reactions to marginalized groups.
  • Due Quach, author: Calm Clarity: How to Use Science to Rewire Your Brain for Greater Wisdom, Fulfillment, and Joy. 
  • Research on Restorative Justice in Schools

Some Related Topics to Consider

  • Zoomers and Boomers – cultural changes and expectations
  • Changes in work behavior based on new technologies, social media and  value conflicts
  • How do healthy/unhealthy organizations affect the bottom line?

Bibliography

  • DiAngelo, R., (2018). White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. Beacon Press, NY.
  • Gladwell, M., (2019). Talking to Strangers. Little, Brown and Co. Publishers, NY.
  • Gladwell, M., (2000)The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Little, Brown and Company
  • Huntley, R. Moore, R. Pierce, C., (2017). Journal of Race, Color & Culture, National Training Institute, New Dynamic Publications.
  • Jackson, R., & Rao, S., 2022. White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How To Do Better.
  • W. K.Kellogg, The Business Case for Racial Equity
    • https://www.wkkf.org/news-and-media/article/2018/05/michigan-analysis-makes-the-business-case-for-equity-in-new-report-released-by-wkkf-and-altarum
  • Stevenson, H. C., (2014), Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference, Teacher College Press, Columbia University, NY.
  • Tough, P., (2012), How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity And The Hidden Power of Character. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers, New York
  • Wilkerson, I. (2020), Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent,  Random House, New York.

Glossary of Terms

  • Anti-racism – Is the rejection of societal stratification, which holds that some groups of people are inherently inferior to others and is based on pseudoscience and a social status classification by majority group members. An anti-racist believes that skin color, ethnic background and social class differences are irrelevant reasons to dominate others.  
  • Backlash – A strong and adverse reaction by a large number of people to control and recoil against social change and political advancement of marginalized groups.
  • Bias – A belief that groups of people are inferior because they are different from white mainstream culture.
  • BIPOC – Stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. This term is specific to the United States and is intended to center the experiences of Black and Indigenous groups and to demonstrate solidarity among communities of color. 
  • Colorism – Having a preference for lighter complexioned skin people based on the belief that certain biological characteristics are superior to darker skinned individuals.
  • Cross Cultural Intelligence – The ability to recognize and connect with people from different backgrounds, cultures and races.
  • Culture – Is a manifestation of the ways of life that is passed on from generation to generation. It includes the feelings that one belongs to groups of people with shared traditions, social norms, language patterns, symbols, beliefs, values, identity and behaviors. Culture allows a group to interpret reality based on shared historical experiences.
  • Dimensions of Diversity – Includes members of groups whose characteristics are either visible or invisible to the members of the majority group.
  • Discrimination – Refusal to offer services or goods to members of marginalized groups.
  • Diversity Change Process –  A description of developmental stages an organization moves through when implementing a diversity strategy. The goal is to review and change structural barriers which have historically excluded marginalized people from career advancement in organizations.
  • Ethnic Identity – The process of belonging to a group where there is  a history of shared life experiences based on tribal affiliation, common customs, beliefs, language and a shared national bond. It is defined by racial/ethnic similarities, social practices, geographical location and a national identity. Members share common beliefs about family relationships, religion, styles of dressing and linguistic patterns.   
  • Ethnic Group Markers – Styles of social behaviors that evolve inside one’s ethnic group. It includes shared non-verbal gestures, language idioms, styles of dressing, social class and a common interpretation of interpersonal behavior.  How one communicates within their ethnic group conveys a shared understanding of what it means to belong to that group.
  • Ethnocentrism – Is the belief that one’s ethnic cultural group is superior to other groups as defined by power relationships, social positions and past historical social practices. 
  • Gender Consciousness – Means to create policies where both men and women have equal chances to advance in workplaces. The Feminist Movement challenged biases against women in what were traditional male occupations. In the past, physical strength meant that women could not work in certain high paying industry jobs. To make things more equal, for example, robots are now used so that both genders can do heavy lifting. The same was true in the nursing profession which now includes men.
  • Implicit Bias – An unconscious belief discovery that a person or group is superior or inferior based on historical stereotypes and physical characteristics
  • Intergenerational Trauma from Oppression – The passing of traumatic historical memories and experiences from an older generation to a younger one.
  • Internalized Racism – The reinforcement of racist beliefs, attitudes and behaviors toward one’s own ethnic group. A denial of historical trauma inflicted by a power group upon one’s own racial group. 
  • Institutional Racism – Biases that are invisible to leadership but are structured into the system and maintained by those in charge. In large organizations that espouse “fairness” – “color-blindness” is a value that is touted as fairness.  In practice, however, covert biases are supported and maintained as a social hierarchy among managers and leaders.  Leadership decisions are made based on invisible biases that are structured into the ways of doing business.
  • Microaggressions – A subtle or indirect message that unintentionally communicates hidden insults or covert stereotypes toward a marginalized group. These comments are examples of microaggressions:  “You don’t act like other Black people.” “You are smart for a woman.” “I can’t tell that you are gay, you act straight.”
  • Prejudice – Judging a person’s worth based on an arbitrary physical or mental characteristic.  Judgments are used to reinforce superiority.
  • Racial Consciousness –  Is a policy that seeks to understand how whites as a cultural group have used social-political and economic  tools to maintain domination over marginalized racial/ethnic groups in America. 
  • Racial Gaslighting – Is the manipulation of a marginalized group (BIPOC) by a dominant or mainstream group (whites and men) into believing that past traumatic experiences inflicted on them “didn’t happen or it wasn’t that bad.” Gaslighting occurs when a dominant group denies the systemic impact of violence against someone (e.g. slavery, ethnic cleansing) by twisting facts to justify brutal behavior. The goal of mainstream culture is to maintain generational power by any means necessary.  Racial Gaslighting is one technique used by the dominant group for maintaining power. 
  • Racism – The use of power, stereotypes, pre-judgement and historical justification to marginalize ethnic and gender groups.
  • Rehumanization – The process of developing cross cultural muscles. 
  • Social Justice – Social justice is a process that explores the history of how power, wealth and domination were obtained by one group through political justification, religious beliefs and/or war. The ultimate goal of one group is to acquire resources of another through legal, social and religious manipulation. Social systems are put in place to maintain a social hierarchy of one group over others. Social justice aspires to bring balance and power sharing into the equation. 
  • Structural Racism – A shared belief about the inferiority or superiority of a group based on socially constructed roles which maintain traditional social role stratification among racial groups, social classes, gender and disability groups.
  • White Supremacy Culture – Socially constructed beliefs that white culture is the standard to which all groups should compare themselves. It insinuates that white people are superior to all other groups and that white culture is not only the standard, but that other groups are inherently inferior.

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