UNBIAS

CHAPTER 12Leaders See Color

But I'm not racist.

It's a declaration I hear all too often, used as a signal that the policy we're discussing or the action being taken shouldn't be considered harmful because the individual who followed the policy or took the action isn't personally racist.

In one example, it was uttered by a CEO whom I had just informed that an employee, John, had been accused several times of using racial slurs and discriminatory jokes in the workplace. Regardless of those complaints, John was promoted to director of sales, sending the message that the company doesn't actually value all of its employees in the same way.

What this CEO failed to understand was that his inaction to address the complaints against John, and his decision to promote him despite them, communicates to his employees that he approves of John's behavior or, at the very least, that it's less important to him than John's ability to bolster the company's bottom line.

Choosing Anti‐Racism

We tend to think that not discriminating is enough. However, there's a vast difference between not being racist and being anti‐racist. Anti‐racism is the active process of identifying and eliminating racism by changing systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, and attitudes. “I'm not racist” is just semantics, but anti‐racism is taking action to force change.

Sometimes anti‐racism means jumping right in to flip company policies on their heads, but sometimes it's initiating uncomfortable ...