Daily Diversity Download Upgrades Coming December 1, 2010

Dear Fans & Followers of the Daily Diiversity Download,

I want to first Thank You for your continued interest in and support fo the Daily Diversity Download.  It is truly a labor of love. To provide you with a more interactive experience, we are adding some enhancements to the blog that will not only continue to address the broad dimensions and contemporary issues of Diversity & Inclusion, but also allow you to bettter connect with readers, contributers and subject matter experts. I am excited about the changes. We expect to be live again on December 1st.

Although scheduling has sometimes prevented me from posting daily, please know that there is still a great deal to say and share about how Diversity & Inclusion impacts our lives daily. As we all connect with these essential pricnciples, the world coninues to get better. Therefore, I am renewing my commitment to sharing with you each day. In the meantime, you can always follow me on Twitter @Diversitywiz to get the latest updates and breaking news regarding Diversity & Inclusion.

Thanks,

Sean Huddleston

It is Getting Cold in the Desert

Greetings. It’s been a few days since I have been able to post on the daily diversity download, so let’s get right to it. As I sit here and gaze out the window at the fine mist of snow currently falling to the ground in Michigan, I can’t help but thinking of those that are enjoying warmer days elsewhere in this great country of ours. My thoughts should go to sunny California, beautiful Hawaii or the beaches of Miami, Florida. But, as a passionate Diversity Professional, my thoughts have seemed to naturally land on the state of Arizona. I shake my head.

What the heck is up in Arizona? As many of you recall, just a few months ago the state’s Governor Jan Brewer pushed, supported and passed legislation that essentially legalized the racial profiling of Hispanic Americans. While the legislation’s wording essentially says that it targets illegal and undocumented residents, I am doubtful that Canadians, Irish or certain Europeans will have little to worry about if their documents are not in order. Since the queues to initially provoke such an investigation are likely based on appearance, it is easy to assume that Hispanics will be most impacted. And let’s be honest, this is the group that is perceived to be the “problem” and therefore the legislation was passed for in the first place. I shake my head again.

It gets worse. On Tuesday November 2nd, the voters of the state of Arizona passed a law banning Affirmative Action, which basically prohibits consideration of race, ethnicity or gender by units of state government, including public colleges and universities for employment, procurement contracts and college admission.  For the record, Latinos making up 29 percent of Arizona’s population and if current population trends continue, Arizona will become a majority-minority state by 2015. To add to this, Arizona is home to 21 federally recognized Native American tribes whose reservations and tribal communities comprise over a quarter of Arizona's lands. Now, one could assume that Affirmative Action may not even be needed in Arizona. After all, Affirmative Action programs were designed to eliminate disparities amongst genders and races in areas like employment and higher education. If the majority of the job and college applicants are people of color (namely Latinos or Native Americans), then the disparities should correct themselves, right? Wrong!
The benefits that Affirmative Action has and would continue to bring to Arizona go beyond the numbers. For starters, Arizona's universities -- like most institutions -- have many programs for minority students, some of which could be in trouble if not allowed to “recruit” students for these programs. For example, Arizona State University announced new summer fellowships in digital media for minority students in August as a means to get more diversity in this profession and academic discipline. This is money desperately needed by the students in order to be able to afford ASU’s tuition. What happens now? Desperate to prevent what ultimately happened on Tuesday, the University of Arizona posted this video on the potential impacts of banning Affirmative Action in Arizona.  In the video, Jeff Milem, associate dean of the College of Education makes the following statement:  "the most profound impact would be on graduate and professional education, where many programs do consider race or gender in admissions decisions.” He also said that in fields where there are clear disparities -- such as engineering, which has a large gender gap -- many professors believe they should make extra efforts to diversify their classes. Makes perfect sense to me.

On the employment and State contracting front, the ban on Affirmative Action will have economic development impacts felt by the entire state. While the state’s unemployment rate is just below the national average at about 10%, the figure is much higher when discouraged workers are included in the count. That brings the broader unemployment rate to nearly 1 in 5 workers, most of whom are people of color. Additionally, when you factor in the compensation disparities, you will notice that those that are employed and on the higher ends of the compensation scales are also those that are soon to be in the state’s minority. So, who is going to buy goods and services sold in Arizona to help the state economy progress? Banning Affirmative Action adds to the problem because it essentially means that people of color and women can continue to be disenfranchised in Arizona because of a lack of simple intervention by the State’s government to help level the playing field. The same goes true for Minority & Woman owned businesses. It is no secret that small businesses make the economy move. They are more nimble than large businesses, able to hire more people faster and often more loyal to the local economy & communities. Moreover, small minority and woman owned businesses tend to locate and higher from communities that need economic development the most, and therefore rely on Supplier Diversity programs to help open the doors of opportunity. When these state programs go away, then typically the opportunities (and businesses) do as well.

Simply put, Arizona appears to be on their way to becoming “anti-diversity & inclusion”. I can’t imagine what’s next. Just so you know, I think Arizona is an absolutely beautiful state. My mother and step-father reside there, and have enjoyed visiting as often as possible. My wife and I even contemplated relocating there at some point. Not now thought. Not until I see some tangible steps to make Arizona “warm” again for people of color and women. It’s getting cold in the desert. If you go, dress warm.

Thanks. As always, I welcome your comments and reactions. Tune in again for the next Daily Diversity Download.

Feet on the Welcome Mat

Greetings. Last Friday, I had the great opportunity to attend meeting with some of the key stakeholders for downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. The topic we were discussing was “How to create a more inclusive and welcoming Downtown” for residents and visitors of this great city. This meeting was just one of a series of meetings that have occurred and will be ongoing. Admittedly, it’s a big mountain to climb. Not being born and raised in Grand Rapids gives me some disadvantages, in that I lack the long history and catalog of experiences of not being welcomed by downtown that some lifelong Grand Rapidians share…the very problem we are attempting to solve. However, I do easily recognize this issue as a consequence of a number of other diversity-related issues for the region that I have experienced and am working with others to address and fix. It’s the reason I started this business in the first place. I see, feel and experience the lack of Diversity & Inclusion in this region every single day. However, I also have seen, felt and experienced it work here in small ways. But I am convinced that small is sometimes the best way to start as long as it is sustainable. That’s where my passion to solve the problem resides.

I gathered from the discussions that some of the main issues around building a welcoming downtown include a lack of diverse employment in the downtown businesses, lack of ethnically and culturally diverse business establishments to patronize, lack of events that target diverse audiences, a downtown experience that is economically out of reach for mainstream urban consumers and a history of poor treatment of minority patrons. Because of this, people of all races and cultures don’t feel that downtown is for them, so they don’t come. I warned you, the mountain is big.

Compounding this problem is the fact that if our ethnically and culturally diverse citizens don’t come downtown to work, conduct business, shop, eat or patronize the arena and concert venues, then we also risk missing out on diversity from (1) sports teams and entertainment acts looking to fill seats, (2) national conventions and meetings looking to hold events and patronize the city’s hotels and restaurants and (3) visitors looking for a great experience. The risk is that if they don’t see people that look like and have some of the same cultural experiences as them, then they will not choose Grand Rapids as a welcoming destination. Now, one could easily say “good, that will teach the downtown stakeholders a lesson, and THEN maybe they will get it and start to change”.  However, that statement could only be accurate if the problems described above were the downtown businesses and organizations to solve alone. You see, this truth of the matter is that we are all stakeholders in this issue.  “They” is actually “We”.

Let’s examine further. Let us assume that everyone accepts that this is a universal problem and become invested in the solution. The more business that is conducted downtown, the more economic activity. This has several implications. It increases employment needs and opportunities, which in turn increases disposable incomes and the pool of taxpayers while bringing more diversity to the forefront of downtown businesses. More business activity results in a greater need for competition and the addition of more businesses to handle all of the new customers, especially businesses owned by people with a wider range of cultural connections and competencies to assist a broader customer base. More economic activity also results in a better story for entertainment promoters to tell. A good lesson comes from the failed Mary J. Blige concert. Here’s a quick recap: less than 10,000 tickets sold and a promise that she would NEVER come back to perform in Grand Rapids. Hence, more people and patronage downtown provides a greater chance of improving numbers to entice top-notch and diverse talent. Now if we add all of that up, it means more people working with more money to spend and businesses and venues being able to charge less due to higher volumes of customers.

Sounds logical, but that works for everything except one issue which is arguably the largest of all and the root of the problem….the history of poor treatment experienced by minority patrons of downtown. Should we be trying to convince them to “forgive and forget”? That’s a tough one and rightly so. Also, what about the downtown businesses? Will they get the logic and are they prepared to change? Before tackling these, I need to point a few things out. As one of the great minds in this “Think Tank” pointed out, we do have some diversity downtown. There is diversity in the workforces of a number of the downtown businesses, although not very pronounced. There are minority and woman-owned businesses downtown as well, although not in large numbers.  There have also been a number of entertainment events and large meetings focusing on more diverse audiences coming to downtown grand rapids in more frequency, although still not frequent enough. To borrow a phrase from that great mind, we need to “showcase that diversity more” by making improvements in all areas.  

How do we fix it?

The only way to move forward with solutions is for everyone to be willing to try something different. I’m convinced that it starts with content. We must first improve and then “showcase” that diversity, which means that the downtown businesses have to make changes first. The good news is that if nothing else, business people understand economics. I think if we keep speaking this common language, the social justice and imperatives that go hand-in-hand with economic benefits will begin to take shape…but not without help. It will definitely take some time and coaching for the needed changes to get into their DNA.

For consumers and residents, some forgiveness would need to occur. However, I don’t think anyone should forget. I think the emotions and passions garnered from past experiences should be preserved but channeled in a different and forward direction. That way when things are better, the stark contrast and improvements are vibrant. But in order to become invested, residents need to see, feel and trust the change. They also have to recognize that "they" are part of the “we”. Therefore, the downtown businesses that are already there (or moving forward with diversity) need to be frequented now. Entertainment and sports events, especially those brought to Grand Rapids for diverse audiences, need to be attended now. Museums and other major downtown attractions need to be visited now. The more we do now, the faster the future can get here.

Thanks. As always, I welcome your comments and reactions. Tune in tomorrow for another Daily Diversity Download.