Racial Justice: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

 

Introduction

PRESSING FOR PROGRESS TOWARD RACIAL EQUITY

by Robert W. Livingston

When I discuss racism with leaders and managers, I like to ask them to imagine being fish in a stream. In that stream, a current exerts force on everything in the water, moving it downstream. That current is analogous to systemic racism. If you do nothing—just float—the current will carry you along with it, whether you’re aware of it or not. If you actively discriminate by swimming with the current, you will be propelled faster. In both cases, the current takes you in the same direction. From this perspective, racism has less to do with what’s in your heart or mind and more to do with how your actions or inactions amplify or enable the systemic dynamics already ...