Holding Myself and Other White Professionals Accountable: Let's be SMART

All of the opinions and the discussion herein reflect my own personal beliefs, not that of my employer's.

Today is July 4th: “Independence Day”. As we look to celebrate and take pride in our country's roots and iconic Americana (as best we can given social distancing restraints), let’s recall that most of us are citizens of the US for no other reason than that we just happened to be born here. Let’s also acknowledge what America’s roots were: racist, sexist, imperialistic, and classist. Ironically, the America that's memorialized in the typical 4th of July jubilation was hardly independent--rather, it was highly dependent on a Native American genocide, labor exploitation of many ethnic minorities and immigrant groups, and centuries of black slave labor (followed by continued systematic oppression of black people, including further labor exploitation in the form of our current prison system).

Rather than celebrate America’s roots or just customarily partake in the holiday without considering its origins, let’s evaluate America’s evolution and the "progress" it has made since those deplorable acts, as it's abundantly clear we need to continue to significantly push the envelope, for ourselves and others. America is still not the land of the free or an equal opportunity for anyone to "make it".

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: as a gay man--and a very flamboyant one at that who cannot "pass" as straight--I know a little bit about adversity. (Side note: I don't have an issue proclaiming this, not only because of my assertive personality, but because I'm lucky enough to live in New York. Keep in mind that up until three weeks ago roughly half of the country did not have adequate [and in 17 states, any] protections against firing employees either for sexual orientation or sexual identity.).

But as a cisgender, non-disabled, white man, I know a lot more about privilege. Even within the LGBTQ+ community, being a cis white gay man comes with a lot of privilege relative to intersectional groups, where LGBTQ+ persons of color and trans persons in particular suffer disproportionately.

My family isn’t wealthy. I went to public school. My mom didn't go to college. My dad was abusive and went to jail. My favorite holiday memories growing up are the ones where the cops weren't called (and even when they were, none of our white family feared they would put our lives at risk). My sister is estranged and my nieces have had to be raised by my mother (their grandmother). My brother passed away. No one taught me how to save money, let alone invest it. There's no familial property or money or investments to inherit.

But despite all these "hardships" and "lack of privilege", I’ve also gotten offered every job I've interviewed for. While to an extent I'd like to think it's due to my own ineffable charm, convincing self-advocacy, and hard work, it’s also because I’m white (and so was everyone offering me the jobs, both the recruiter and the hiring manager) and that interview process verifies my whiteness for the hiring company. You don't have to be a legacy Ivy League Vanderbilt with a trust fund to benefit from white privilege; it manifests in many forms and varying degrees.

I have genuinely lost sleep over the lack of diversity in the most senior ranking members of my company. Providing constructive criticism both inwardly and outwardly of the company is important, because I actually deeply care about the company--not only about dismantling institutionalized racism, but I want to continue to help The Walt Disney Company succeed and encouraging the company to play an active and meaningful role in this process, not a passive one, is paramount to its legacy and ensuring it falls on the right side of history, especially given that it hasn't always in the past.

I've lost even more sleep over the predominately white team I've built, for which I take full responsibility. The photo at the top of the article shows our team at the time (and an agency rep) in November 2019, when you can clearly see all of us are unambiguously white (with one member of the Hispanic community who identifies as both white and Hispanic). I love, appreciate, and am extremely proud of every single member of my team and I don't regret a single hire now that they all have their feet in the door--they are empathetic, diligent, quick to learn, and charismatic (so, team, if you're reading this, don't get the wrong impression, you are each a treasure!). And while I'm fair, compassionate, and do my best to mentor and develop each of them, I can also be very tough and demanding (they know my team motto: you don't all have to be Olympians, but you cannot be JV. Varsity only!). But, despite how awesome I think my team is, too much of the team looks and thinks the same, something I thought before George Floyd (and yet it's taken something catastrophic like that to get me to publicly write about it; I have a lot of self-improvement to do still).

My exposure to sexual orientation discrimination isn't limited to bullying and abuse growing up--my first job out of school was spent at an agency advising companies like Johnson & Johnson on LGBTQ+ inclusivity, particularly in their marketing and advertising. I grew up with a brother with cerebral palsy, so I have always been acutely aware of accessibility and try to not take for granted what a privilege it is to have full use of my body and senses. Having a brother who was different also helped me develop empathy for other groups of people who have no control over being the way they are, from gender to native nationality to skin color. I have always asked my recruiters to source diverse candidates and have repeatedly told them I am tired of seeing a sea of white applicants. I tell my team and agencies I will not look at influencer campaigns if the talent is all white. I question our ad creative when it's only white characters or actors.

But it’s not enough and I can be doing more. If recruiters turned up short, I didn't actively seek diverse candidates myself for open roles and I eventually succumbed to the thinking of "well, we need more help yesterday and there's just too much work to be done... let's go with one of the candidates sourced, because they are qualified, despite not being diverse." While pushing my team to achieve more diversity in our marketing efforts, I didn't set measurable goals for them about how much more diversity they should strive for nor deadlines as to when they should hit those milestones.

And if you're a white colleague or connection of mine on LinkedIn with hiring power who "doesn't see color" or doesn't think they have any unconscious biases when it comes to hiring--especially if you are cis, straight, non-disabled, and/or a man--then there is lot more you can (and, frankly, need to) be doing, too. Take a moment to critically self-reflect and hopefully join me in no longer being passive in this process to effect change.

Below is a chart a colleague shared with me last week that really drove the point home when it comes to hiring (survey data courtesy via Echelon Insights; visit their website if curious about methodology).

While there's a perception gap across the board, where white people in general think there's less inequality than black people, what's most striking is the delta is greatest regarding hiring decisions. These perception gaps are a common phenomenon for those in power and those with privilege--they tend to think there's less adversity and inequality than there actually is and/or they think that privilege only means another group is disadvantaged. Fewer recognize that it inherently means that they are recipients of advantages, many of which may frequently go unnoticed because the privilege has been normalized or the adversity has never been personally experienced. Further, as mentioned above in my own personal anecdotes, adversity and privilege aren't mutually exclusive; you can experience hardships in life or not have as much privilege as other white people, yet still benefit substantially from white privilege.

The hiring statement is worded such that it's private companies, but I think it's safe to extrapolate that there's a similar gap for publicly traded companies, like all of the ones I've worked for (Rakuten, Walmart, and now Disney).

Those companies, while all headquartered elsewhere (Tokyo, Bentonville, and Burbank, respectively), have major offices in the NYC area. New York City is one of the most diverse cities I can think of, with an eclectic population assembled since America's "founding" via various diasporas, home to a bustling and beautiful blend of backgrounds.

For those of you also in New York City: did you know that the majority of the city is not white?

(Chart courtesy of US Governmental Census)

Even when including whites who also identify as Hispanic/Latino, non-white (and multiracial) races make up more than 57% of New York City.

Do they make up 57% or more of your New York City company's workforce? Are one in four of your colleagues black? What about within your team? I doubt it.

And I suspect this applies across industries, as my LinkedIn network encompasses connections in retail, marketing, fashion, luxury, beauty, ecommerce, entertainment, finance, consulting, etc. Please don't tell me that black people just "magically under-index" across every single one of these industries and maybe just over-index in others. It's because they've never been institutionally set up to succeed in the proportions white people have and we continue to fail to level the playing field for everyone and allow for the hiring process to finally become an actual meritocracy.

And it's the same with my team (and by "my team" I just mean myself and all of those under me), all hired and based here out of NYC. I'm grateful that we're a line of business that is in growth mode, allowing me to continue to expand my team. Since that November 2019 photo, 70% of my team is white and 30% are not. While that it is obviously a marked improvement over 100% white from just a few months ago, it still falls significantly short of NYC's organic demographic makeup, particularly for black talent. And while I can point fingers, pass blame, make excuses, it really all does all fall on me. I'm the one who hired all of my direct reports and I'm the one who had to sign off on any of their hires.

As a people leader, here are my personal commitments moving forward:

1). I will refuse to accept homogeneous applicant pools for any open roles on my team. Going forward, in line with NYC demographics and what's legally permissible with regards to diversifying the hiring process, I will ensure 50%+ of the applicant pool we interview for any subsequent hires on my team are diverse candidates. It does not mean we will discriminate against white candidates or not look at their applications; but it does mean we'll have to work a little harder to source a more diverse, larger pool if we're only getting white applicants, a la the Rooney Rule. If the recruiter can't find candidates who are diverse and qualified, I will. This isn't about "affirmative action" (though let's be clear, plenty of white people have their own forms of affirmative action, like having gone to the same predominately white college as the hiring manager. I've also had to do plenty of interviews on behalf of senior white executives and colleagues that were predicated upon nepotism, not qualifications). This is about not being complicit with the status quo. If you are a white hiring manager I think you have a moral obligation (as I do) to become active in this process.

2). I will prioritize and turn these diversity initiatives into SMART goals for myself and my team. It's too easy to allow diversity initiatives to fall to the wayside, get placed on the back burner due to day-to-day work/fire drills, or otherwise succumb to inertia. What % of our next influencer campaign will be comprised of nonwhite content creators? By what date will we have unconscious bias training completed? How are we going to critically examine our creative and marketing efforts moving forward to make sure we are responsibly depicting America and our customer base, because representation matters? These are the questions we'll not only continue to ask ourselves, but that we'll set measurable KPI's for and timelines to achieve those KPI's.

3). I will hold myself, as a privileged person in a position of leadership, highly accountable and transparent in the progress I commit to make. I have the power to bring about a lot of change and I am going to commit to doing so. I am also going to commit to holding my director-level peers, my boss, my boss's boss, our HR team, and our company at large accountable for clear, measurable progress, too. While it is at-will employment, companies cannot make unilateral demands or provide one-way feedback/criticism of employees; as employees, we all deserve a conversation, we can expect improvement of our organizations, we can tell them so, and I will continue vocalizing my point-of-view upwards to ensure that diversity initiatives continue to penetrate the upper echelons of any company that employs me.

4). I will use my privilege and position of influence to hold other white people accountable. Not just my direct colleagues. Not just my friends and family. But a wider audience, starting with any of you who may be reading this. What are you doing to fix this problem? When are you starting? How are you measuring it?

I'm not the authority on this topic by any means. But I am willing to be vulnerable, honest, self-improve, and tackle this topic with actionable passion that leads to results. Let's give everyone what they deserve: an actual equal chance to succeed.