What does colorism look like in the workplace?
How can you learn to recognize colorism in business, in organizations, in schools, in sports, in government, or other institutions?
Today I’m sharing one of the most common and most obvious ways that colorism manifests in corporate culture.
Today’s live is part of a larger series based on my eBook Corporate Colorism: Why Business Leaders Must Upgrade Their Antiracist Strategies. You can easily catch up and keep up with this series on LinkedIn.
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Without being proactive in addressing colorism, companies and organizations run the risk of creating what I call: “monochromatic diversity.”
I’ve spoken in previous live streams about being a “word nerd” and how much I love living language that evolves to help us articulate our reality. I like to think my use of the term “monochromatic diversity” is part of that human legacy.
I don’t remember exactly when or how I learned the term “monochromatic,” but it’s most often applied to art and design when a color scheme consists of the same color or various shades and tints of the same color.
Monochromatic Diversity happens when a group is racially and ethnically diverse, yet all or most members of the group have the same or very similar skin tones.
In corporate and business structures, we often see instances of monochromatic diversity increase the higher up the organizational chart you go. So supervisors, managers, directors, department heads, principals, partners, executives or C-Suite.
Monochromatic Diversity typically occurs due to a combination of factors:
- During the hiring and promotion process, many people have positive bias in favor of those with lighter skin tones and negative bias against those with darker skin tones.
- The impact of colorism in the school-to-workforce pipeline bolsters opportunities for lighter skinned individuals while simultaneously creating more obstacles for those with darker skin.
- Standard practices for gathering demographic data prioritize racial and ethnic identity and obscure the intersection of skin tone.
Because companies, institutions, and organizations focus on what I call “check box” identities that can easily be selected on forms and surveys, they may very well perceive that their workplace is diverse. But that perception is limited to a narrow set of broad categories.
Our failure to address colorism as a society is a significant reason we’ve struggled to make greater strides toward racial justice because colorism means racial progress is not evenly distributed throughout an entire race.
It has primarily been and continues to be people with the lightest skin tones who’ve collectively seen the most gains over the years, while people within that race who have the darkest skin tones have not seen the same degree of progress, if any.
Thus, even if we solve racial and ethnic discrimination, unless we address colorism, the socioeconomic hierarchy will still look exactly the same as it does now.
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Homework: Identify instances of monochromatic diversity. Then identify the person most likely to create change and inform them about it. If that person is you, then you know what to do!
Affirmation: I am becoming more aware of colorism, and I practice speaking up about it.