New York Times Hosts Diversity Discussion Inspired By Fortune Coverage

Set an alarm on your phone and plan on visiting the New York Times’ Facebook page at 9 p.m. EST tonight. Correspondents John Eligon and Rachel Swarns will be discussing diversity issues in corporate America with Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture — which just pledged to have a fully gender-balanced workforce by 2025 — and Rory Verrett, founder and managing partner at Protege Search.

If you miss it, the video will be available on the New York Times‘ Facebook page after it airs. But the great thing about watching live, of course, is that you can react to, and participate in, the conversation in real time.

You might also be interested to know that Verrett, one of the guests for the NYT video tonight, is the host of the Protege Search podcast. If you have no more than 20 seconds to spare, listen to the intro for this episode, in which Verrett’s adorable daughter, Jordan, introduces herself and urges listeners to pay attention to her dad.

Awww, right?

But back to the live talk: I’m more than a little proud to say that when Eligon emailed me about the NYT Facebook conversation, he mentioned: “It’s all inspired by the diversity reports you all recently released at Fortune!”

The Fortune data team is beyond (beyond!) flattered.

Here’s a quick recap: We have so far reported that only 3% of Fortune 500 companies release their full diversity data and another 17.5% make partial data available. We also looked at senior executives, a broader category than just CEOs, at the 16 companies that share data and found that 72% were white men.

This Friday, in the spirit of openness and practicing what we preach, we’ll be sharing the Fortune 500 diversity data we collected online. Fellow data nerds will be happy to hear it’ll be released with a data dictionary and detailed methodology. I’ll include a link to everything here, in raceAhead, on Friday.

We plan to keep building and refining the dataset. It’s not our intention to only collect data from Fortune 500 companies and we’re not going to wait until next year to update it. It’s alive, if you’ll excuse a clichéd line, and we want to hear from you. Send us your data, questions, criticisms and ideas.

I’m going to borrow a sign off from one of my favorite podcasts, Another Round: Drink some water, take your meds and call your person.

On Point

Director Xavier Burgin Has All The Links For Diversity Filmmaker ProgramsThere’s been no shortage of criticism aimed at the entertainment industry’s lack of people from underrepresented groups, both in front of and behind the camera. Luckily, Burgin has his fellow directors of color covered with a list of programs that can help them launch their careers. The University of South Carolina film school alum is a Sundance Lab Fellow, has a short film (“On Time”) now airing on HBO and is a mentee of Ryan Murphy’s through the Glee and American Horror Story director’s diversity foundation.Twitter

Video: Janet Mock Surprises Fans While They’re Talking About How She Inspires Them

Come for the sweet, sweet feels as Mock, an author, TV host and trans activist, surprises her fans; stay for her message. “You know that being different and being seen as ‘other’ in this country is not an isolating experience,” she says. “It can also be an experience that brings folk together.”

“BuzzFeed”

Gentrification In NYC Caused A 30% Decline In Black Business Ownership Over 5 Years

Defenders of gentrification will tell you it brings investment dollars to the communities it affects. But there’s another side to that storyline: Black business owners lose their foothold. The New York City Comptroller says black-owned businesses have declined by 30%, writes reporter Cora Lewis.

“BuzzFeed”

Tracy K. Smith Named New U.S. Poet Laureate

Good things happen when you grow up in a home filled with books. Poet Tracy K. Smith spoke to the Post from her office at Princeton University. “When we’re talking about the feelings that poems alert us to and affirm, we’re speaking as our realest selves,” Smith said. “To imagine bringing the tone of that conversation into different parts of the country and having conversations with people I can’t come into contact with every day, that feels like a really wonderful opportunity.” There's an excerpt from her poem "Sci-Fi," from her Pulitzer-price winning Life on Mars below.

The Washington Post

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Podcast Describes Its Interview With Roxane Gay By Using… Fat Jokes? C’mon, now.

As you know from the video I shared yesterday, Roxane Gay’s new book, Hunger, was released this week. The host of an Australian podcast had a hard time getting Gay to come in for an interview, but eventually got a chance to sit down with her. Then the teaser that accompanied the podcast posited she must be difficult to book because she can’t fit in a lift (elevator) or manage to take enough steps to travel to bookings.

There will be no edges, but curves. / Clean lines pointing only forward. / History, with its hard spine & dog-eared / Corners, will be replaced with nuance, / Just like the dinosaurs gave way / To mounds and mounds of ice. Tracy K. Smith