Diversity, and A Misguided Idea About It
The trend of representation expectations
“What’s right is not always popular, and what’s popular is not always right.”
The above quote is commonly attributed to Albert Einstein. Like many phrases attributed to famous figures, it’s debatable whether Einstein actually said it; the words themselves, however, couldn’t be more true. It can be saddening to watch others everywhere become attached to a popular cause that, for a number or reasons, is problematic. It’s easy to understand, for example, why representation based on race, gender and other superficial traits is so important to many of us. Even so, it’s unfortunate that our supposedly-enlightened society has made it into a sort of commandment that imparts condemnation upon those who sin against it.
Don’t get me wrong — I love diversity. For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by the variety that exists in humanity, and I always felt that it’d be boring if everyone I knew was just like me. Fortunately, I grew up personally knowing many people from different racial, ethnic, religious and political backgrounds. It more importantly served as a reminder of my goodwill towards all without exception, a value strongly emphasized in my education and religious upbringing. That said, when all was said and done, my friendship with them was about that alone. If everyone I knew was white, American, Christian and conservative-leaning, I would’ve probably lived with it.
I have always held firm to the belief that diversity should be allowed to happen organically. It is not an inherently bad thing if a business or any other entity is made up mostly — or even completely — of people in a particular social category. Otherwise, the NBA should be blamed for black players being overrepresented. The goal of diversity must not be representation. It must instead be the removal of any biases that prevent people from attaining what they earn. When the latter is achieved, the former will follow.
Unfortunately, the rhetoric we often hear about diversity focuses too directly on representation. There have been times when companies made statements that they seek to achieve (x) percent of women or non-whites in their workforce by (x) year. Facebook made this sort of statement last year when they published a report of all their efforts to support anyone who, for the most part, was not white, male and/or straight. Among other statistical achievements and goals, it listed the following:
Over the past two years, we set three goals to increase representation in our workforce over five years.
1. Double the number of women employees globally and double the number of Black and Hispanic employees in the US.
2. …By 2024, our goal is to have at least 50% of our workforce comprised of women globally, and underrepresented minorities, people with two or more ethnicities, people with disabilities and veterans in the US.
3. Increase the number of US-based leaders (Director-level employees and above) who are people of color by 30%.
This is a good example of the type of “equitable” initiative that ultimately is a huge mistake. If a company is hoping to increase its diversity by eliminating biases that may be present in its hiring, that’s one thing. To have statistical goals, however, means inevitably that “non-diverse” groups must expect that they will not be equally favored. Individual qualities are treated as secondary.
What I personally find even more dismaying is reading employee reviews that condemn their current or former workplaces for not being diverse enough by race or gender. It’s not difficult to find reviews on job searching sites that call out some major companies for having unsatisfactory levels of skin-deep diversity. Businesses are certainly liable to getting caught up in trends, good or bad, but one would hope that the worker would, on average, have the sense to look past them.
Interestingly, if you look on Comparably — an online database of businesses and brands — you’ll notice that one of the ways that they gauge employee satisfaction is by displaying separate ratings for men, women, and “diverse” employees, which is the specific word they use in terms of racial categories. As you might guess, “diverse” excludes white employees. It’s as if a white candidate hired to work in a business made up completely of, say, black or Asian people would actually bring less racial variety to that business.
In any case, if the demographics of a business do lean heavily one way or another, our first assumption should be that it’s for reasons other than intolerance or bias. The truth is that we, as Americans, live in a society that is not only extensively diverse but also highly accepting; racism and sexism, wherever they might occur in this country, are deeply frowned upon. There are certain groups of people who deserve a leg up in consideration for hiring, such as veterans and disabled people. With regards to race, gender, sexual orientation and other relatively superficial traits, we must not let ourselves get caught up believing that a focus on representation is the right way to address diversity, popular though it may be.