Tag: DEI efforts

New Look at DEI and Affirmative Action

In this blog I’m going to write about hot topics to give ideas and insight about a better way of approaching employment issues.

DEI efforts post-hiring in the workplace are really a back-end fix to a front-end problem: no call-backs given to applicants with Black sounding names on resumes.

Research using two identical resumes except for the job seeker’s name have revealed that there are fewer or no calls to the Black candidates who applied.

The solution is to require anonymous resumes. Perhaps a hiring manager when getting resumes uploaded online can have the job seeker remove their name and use a computer-generated number code for each un-named resume to be identified.

The book above talks about this solution. Author Coleman Hughes is against affirmation action whereby the standards are lowered across the board—in classrooms, college admissions, and job hiring—for Black Americans. I had no idea this was the case—I thought only qualified candidates were considered.

In the book Hughes verifies that President Obama lowered the standard for Black Americans to apply for air traffic controller jobs.

He urges a return to Martin Luther King’s vision of our common humanity and a truly color-blind society in terms of race not solely mattering in the scheme of who gets ahead.

Not that I ever thought only White Americans were qualified to hold jobs. Hence my historical perception that we needed to level the playing field.

Hughes urges The End of Race Politics as it has been practiced: the segregation of Americans along color lines and the media darlings’ reinforcing of Black victimhood and the guilt they think White Americans should have.

Let’s not take this bait. No one of any skin color should be made to feel ashamed for the color of our skin. There’s no apology needed for being White. Or Black. Or whatever shade you are.

Hughes calls the current anti-racist proponents ideology about how to help Black Americans “reverse racism.” To Hughes this is a barrier to true racial equity. The woke crowd would be out of business if the media didn’t give these darlings column space and book contracts.

There’s a better way. We can choose our humanity over hate; our dignity over racism wherever the bigotry comes from; our worth over shame.

If we get to be hiring managers we can ask for the resumes we receive to be anonymized. Right.

In coming blog entries I’m going to talk about how individuals with disabilities can get ahead. Intelligence should rule the day not coddling in terms of how any of us are treated.

We can be the first daredevils who use what I call our “self-power” to change the status quo and get ahead via our own efforts.

My first Left of the Dialogue will talk about the new presidential Executive Orders that strip away the rights of those of us with disabilities.

The Truth About DEI

The fact that companies instituted DEI efforts tells us something. In June 2022 I checked out of the library and read 5 DEI business books one right after the other.

I propose that the remedy falls on White coworkers and coworkers of color to come together. The scarcity mentality that exists keeps people competing against each other for self-gain. We should come together because everyone’s in the same lifeboat holding on for dear life.

Any DEI efforts should first be initiated coworker to coworker regardless of our skin color. All coworkers should feel like we have equity or ownership in the outcome of our work projects.

There’s no cause for a coworker to gaslight you or me or to sabotage our work.

It starts with us–with you and me treating every coworker the right way. Banding together on the job to agitate for worker’s rights. It’s like the suspicious packages credo in the NYC subway system that mandates: “If you see something, say something.”

We should not fear retaliation for coming to the aid of coworkers or for fighting against workplace injustice. This issue of being laid off is a real thing though.

Perhaps what we really need along with an emergency fund is a “see you later” account. So that we can speak out and survive financially.

Really DEI begins long before any of us starts our first job. It hinges on widening our circle of friends. Being aware of what’s going on beyond our own lives. Checking a non-fiction book out of the library to read about these topics.

Twenty-five years ago in a Library Management course in graduate school I was already thinking about workplace dynamics. I chose for my term paper to write about how to reward workers for a job well done. How managers could motivate workers.

Giving staff members five 3 x 3 inch sheets of origami paper to “rekindle from burnout” doesn’t cut it.

In coming blog entries I’ll talk about finding a job you’ll love waking up to go to in the morning.