[newfeatureok]

Unless a company is willing to do completely blind hiring and eventually promotions/raises anything they do internally to "address systemic racism" is merely posturing.

To illustrate this point, suppose there's Big Corp A - a company that's extremely racist. However they say they're not racist. To prove this they do everything you could imagine for their employees, seminars, diversity training, etc. All of the employees who work there conclude Big Corp A is not racist. However, suppose they actually are racist and simply do not hire anyone who is not of their preferred race. This would mean it's possible for the employees to feel that they're not racist, but also that they have racist policies.

Racism is something that can be viewed empirically. Without transparency, any company claiming to not be racist is lying. Blind hiring, transparency in wages, etc. are all things that a company would do to address systemic racism.

In any case, a company could make a large donation to many organizations trying to solve these problems I suppose. One would have to measure that impact vs. the impact they have that furthers the divide (e.g. a company whose existence might hurt individuals of certain races disproportionally).

[eeZah7Ux]

Is there a word to describe a behavior e.g. doing just enough to look like you are actively trying to solve a problem?

It probably goes together with greenwashing and astroturfing.

[haleymbryant]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Totally. Diversity and inclusion can end up feeling like and being a box to check versus a genuine effort to create change.

Process changes take time and can get easily derailed. I think about the small changes that can make a difference. Sharing resources written by black people, looking at your website to see if people of color are represented and giving solution oriented feedback if it isn't, asking for/demanding unconscious bias training for all team members...no act of inclusivity is too small. They all plant seeds of change.

Re: furthering the divide, it's interesting to look beyond the gestures of Fortune 500 companies esp to think about how their mission and model hurts or helps people of color broadly.