2020 was a noteworthy year for a number of reasons, not least because it marked a cultural shift and sea change in discussions about racism and inequality. In the wake of George Floyd’s killing while in police custody, the #BlackLivesMatter movement surged, becoming the largest social movement in US history and prompting industries, organizations, and companies to proclaim their commitment to ending systemic racism and reversing long-term inequalities.
A mere four years later, the climate is noticeably different. Legal threats to affirmative action and backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming mean that companies are rethinking whether and how to commit to these ideals. However, the core racial issues that prompted companies to revisit their policies, practices, and outcomes haven’t gone anywhere.
In my book Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It, I consider seven Black workers from a variety of occupations: from film production to chemical engineering to journalism. What I find, across the board, is a paradox: companies reaffirm their commitment to diversity, yet highly qualified Black workers are isolated from peers, paid less, and face blocked routes to leadership. This isn’t because companies are explicitly discriminating based on race; nor is it because Black workers are inherently less capable than their colleagues. Instead, social relationships, cultural norms, and access to networks—the “gray areas” of work—allow these disparities to persist.
Take Brian, for example. A film producer, Brian was hired in the wake of the #OscarsSoWhite movement to help a major studio develop projects that would diversify their slate of films, allow them to tell a variety of different stories, and in doing so, reach broader audiences. But when Brian brought films about the depth and breadth of Black life to his supervisors, they often dismissed him out of turn, leaving him frustrated as he watched other studios snap up the same film projects his bosses rejected—and turn them into award-winning movies. Brian was hired by a company that touted its commitment to diversity, but a market-based culture where leaders uncritically (and incorrectly) assumed Black films couldn’t make money made it impossible for him to do his job.
Amalia is another example. She is a highly successful journalist whose job necessitates reporting on controversial issues. Unlike many workers today, she is employed in an environment where colleagues acknowledge that racial issues are real and present, if only because they are often key parts of the stories they cover. But the nature of Amalia’s job also means that doing it well brings with it an unwelcome form of visibility. Being a public figure is part of the job when you work in news media. But the explicit racist and sexist harassment she receives means there are additional consequences to this visibility. Her company expects her to do the reporting associated with her job, but they rarely consider how the mere fact of doing her job sets her up for a specific form of abuse.
As Brian and Amalia show, the racial inequities that prompted the #BlackLivesMatter movement haven’t disappeared. And while these are issues present in public and private sector companies, policymakers can play a role in helping resolve them. Researchers have documented some of the pathways that help reduce racial disparities at work: collecting and sharing data, broadening recruitment initiatives, and encouraging family-friendly policies, to name a few. Policymakers can incentivize and support companies’ efforts to implement initiatives like this, so that workers like Amalia and Brian aren’t constantly fighting an uphill battle to do their jobs.
On November 20, 2024, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Center for Policy Analysis and Research is hosting a Virtual Policy Briefing, entitled Championing Inclusion: The Impact of DEI Programs in Higher Education, to engage participants in a vital conversation regarding DEI initiatives at U.S. colleges and universities. Experts will clarify misconceptions and discuss the impact these programs have on students’ academic success and future job security and earnings.
Click here to RSVP for the DEI Virtual Policy Webinar
Click here to read CBCF’s latest research on education equity.
Adia Harvey Wingfield is the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, where she also co-directs the Office of Public Scholarship. She is the 116th President of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.