Name: Young, Black, and Left Out Of Corporate America
Uploaded: 2016-01-21
Duration: 5 min 12 s
Description: Big business has a diversity problem.

[ MUSIC ] For much of corporate America, racial diversity continues to be a challenge, especially in the executive ranks. There have been only 15 black CEO's in the history of the Fortune 500, five of them are currently in the role. Everyone realizes now that for the first time ever You know, births in the United States. There's more people of color being born than whites. Institutions of all kinds, whether it's companies, educational institutions, non- profits, are now all really beginning to grab Grapple with this challenge of a lot of the people that they're serving are people of color. David Sutphen is a managing partner at Brunswick Group in D. C. One of his jobs is to consult companies on how to diversify their workforce. If you're looking at making a hiring decision, and you're looking at your entire leadership team, and you have no diversity, I would argue That the bigger risk is to not bring somebody in who's diverse. Because at the end of the day, what that means is, you're gonna end up in a situation where you're not gonna have enough different inputs to help you tackle complex problems. According to former US Deputy Secretary of Education, Jim Shelton, early intervention in elementary school hallways is the key to filling the black talent pipeline. Once you dig into the data, pretty quickly, you'll be able to see that there are student populations that are not being treated fairly, that are not getting the kind of education they deserve, and many among those are African- Americans. They're under- performing because they're being treated unfairly, they're being over- disciplined, they're being over- expelled They are receiving the least experienced and least qualified teachers. A 2014 UCLA study found that black boys, as young as ten years old, were viewed as older than and not as innocent as white boys the same age. When you're talking about African American children in the public school systems, you also talking about often, not always, but often, children that are living in poverty and other things that are impacting their lives And people are unprepared to deal with them. In 2014, Sheldon was tasked with setting up My Brother's Keeper, a nonprofit initiative launched by President Obama to address the opportunity and achievement gaps faced in particular by boys and young men of color. And by almost every measure, the group that is facing some of the most severe challenges in the 21st century, in this country, Are boys and young men of color. But new issues arise once young black men move beyond the classroom and into the corporate world. Many black men we interviewed spoke of having to constantly balance their image in the work place. They feel they have to appear focused at the office, but not too aggressive. Hungry but not threatening. Talented but not too talented. Nearly all had experienced conversations shutting down or being shut out when matters of race were brought up. A new generation of young black men are finding that corporate life isn't for them. I was a scientist at Washington University in St. Louis at the medical school for about seven years, and so There I was like, I was one of two American black men, there were some black men from other countries. You always represent the entire race. I use to get the question a lot that begins with, what do black people think about, fill in the blank. And I'm like well, I can tell you what I think, but I don't really represent everybody. You realize, we're not like a monolithic group, right? [ UNKNOWN ] teamed up with fellow St. Louis native, Damon Davis. And together they built an independent music collective. When I first got out of college I got a job as a computer tech. And I hated every second of it. But I was laid off. And it is the best thing that has ever happened to me, because I decided to never go back and work for anyone else, ever again. But self- employment hasn't shielded the pair from racial biases. In fact, at times, it's exposed more bias. Sometimes the language escapes me Or the just the sheer knowledge of protocol. And how you can't say this right here and you can't do- and just like the etiquette of doing business with people who were raised round people who always had resources. And for generations and generations. Now, I'm from East St. Louis, we didn't have that. Now, just because I didn't have The vernacular usually. Then I think I'm looked upon as though I'm stupid or slow, or I'm a stereotype that they think that they've run into before. And just getting into the room lets you know that I must be doing something right. I hope that this discussion will kind of create a bit of a platform or an opportunity to find a way To tell the stories of some of these amazing African- American men. Because I know, if I was a 12, 13- year- old African American kid, or a kid of color, trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up, I would be amazed, probably a little bit surprised, and excited to see The success in the pathways that some of these guys have charted. [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]