Can we talk about diversity in the work place?

[Deleted]

What field are you in? Do you care about lack of diversity? Are you actively doing anything about it? Thoughts?

The lack of blacks and Hispanics in medicine is bothering me more and more. My med school was fairly large but only had 5 black males and 2 hispanic males. The hospital I did my intern year in NYC was somewhat diverse but still not a lot of minority physicians. And the hospital I'm at now there are virtually zero. I finally met one black male physician but haven't seen any other black females. It's just a reminder about the overall larger issues with poverty and education.

In all my residency interviews, all the program directors were white men, except for 1. I wish there were more minorities in leadership roles.

I've reached out to a few contacts about mentoring young minorities in science/health, so hopefully get that ball rolling soon.

It just seems as I get older I'm more hyper aware about being the only brown face in the room. Plus, I've kind of dealt with a more senior resident who has said some questionable unconscious bias statements and I wish I had someone in the field to bounce those incidents off of for more discussion.

[sarabi]

I'm in marketing, specifically customer intelligence. I work in the food industry for a large company.

I think my field and industry, and probably my company in general are fairly diverse. When I go to conferences, there are several other women of color and some larger conferences even have affinity groups for women of color. My team is ALL people of color, though I am the only black person.

Diversity in leadership in my company and industry pretty much suck though. Seriously lacking in diversity in the Senior Director and above roles. I asked one of the few African American vps at my company to be a mentor for me and it's been such a positive experience. I've heard that there is an industry association for African Americans and am looking into what they do.

[nsuhomer]

I'm mostly a SAHP, but I teach and attend occasional yoga classes. I have never in my life walked into a class with a black yoga teacher, and have only met one. I can count on one hand the number of black students in a class I've taught or attended. And I did the bulk of my teaching in NYC back in the day.

The older I get the more aware I become of all the realms where minorities are still non existent or ignored.

[05heel]

I'm a scientist in big pharma. The lack of diversity here is staggering. I probably know every black man on a first name basis, even if they're not in my department. Not too difficult when there are fewer than ten. There are a decent number of black women in my department, but I'm probably the highest ranking one, which is a damn shame considering I'm only 36. All of the black women I've worked with have been my admins. I'm very involved in the minority outreach program with my alma mater, but I need to get more involved in the program at work.

As I've moved up, I've become increasingly conscious of being the only brown face in the room. In years past, I could attribute some of the attitudes I received to being the youngest or most inexperienced, but now that I'm in a director position and actually know what the hell I'm talking about, I can't honestly say that's the case.

[skwcm80]

I'm in Financial services, specifically retirement planning. Our team has 2 POC (both women), and there are more brown faces when we have our big regional meetings. Certainly better than when I started in the industry 10 years ago, but it's not close to being enough.

[05heel]

Actually, I shouldn't say that my field isn't diverse. I'm focusing specifically on black people, but there are a decent number of people of varied races/ethnicities. My immediate group looks like a Benetton ad, but as we all know that doesn't always been a whole lot.

[redwino]

The general field of public education is fairly diverse in my area although less so at the top district level. Some districts are better than others. My district has a very high Hispanic population but there aren't many Hispanic teachers and fewer than 5 principals. It's problematic but it's changing slowly.

My specific field within education is lily white. I usually don't say my actual position because I feel it's identifiable info since there's so few black people in my field. I think about leaving my job frequently but I know the only thing waiting for me elsewhere is another department full of white women. At least here, I can find some support with other school staff. I haven't done much to recruit others because I'm burnt out and honestly feel that education is a huge cluster fuck right now. I wouldn't recommend anyone enter the field. But I have suggested that students look into my field if they're already interested in education or psychology.

[andwhat]

I work for the Feds. At lower levels there is a lot of diversity. But when you move up it is sad. This agency has been around since the early 1800s and in the last 5-7 years we have had many "firsts" First black woman of xxx position. It is mostly white males. The sad thing is that while I like seeing the glass being shattered, I think those white males specifically chose black women who do not have the best reputation. So then they could say, see we did this and look what happened. My one mentor is very qualified and smart. But she hasn't been able to move up. I think this is directly related to her being smart. She will speak her mind, but from what I have seen she does it in a very professional manner. And still they don't like it. The ones who have moved up are seen by most as idiots. And they don't seem to care about mentoring at all. It is all about them. Which that is their right, but sad to see.

There has been only 1 black male to make it to the top levels and no other minorities. It is very sad.

05heel I didn't know you were a scientist. That is what I went to school for but shifted directions. Many times I wish I had stayed on that course.

[05heel]

Aug 31, 2016 10:25:27 GMT -5 andwhat said:

I work for the Feds. At lower levels there is a lot of diversity. But when you move up it is sad. This agency has been around since the early 1800s and in the last 5-7 years we have had many "firsts" First black woman of xxx position. It is mostly white males. The sad thing is that while I like seeing the glass being shattered, I think those white males specifically chose black women who do not have the best reputation. So then they could say, see we did this and look what happened. My one mentor is very qualified and smart. But she hasn't been able to move up. I think this is directly related to her being smart. She will speak her mind, but from what I have seen she does it in a very professional manner. And still they don't like it. The ones who have moved up are seen by most as idiots. And they don't seem to care about mentoring at all. It is all about them. Which that is their right, but sad to see.

There has been only 1 black male to make it to the top levels and no other minorities. It is very sad.

05heel I didn't know you were a scientist. That is what I went to school for but shifted directions. Many times I wish I had stayed on that course.

It's never too late!  Although, there are a lot of science paths that I actively steer people away from, including the one I took.  I have my dream job now though, so I guess it all worked out.

[meshaliuknits]

I'm in training at big pharma (waves to 05heel). There is totally a lack of diversity once you get out of the manufacturing groups (they're actually pretty good). I wasn't the only PoC in the training group only for about six months before they split us. The local group does have some other PoC now. Mine does not. Someone on our team said our group was really diverse. I looked at them like ^o) . Diverse in location and national origin, yes. But pretty homogeneous in basically every other way.

There's a really stark lack once you hit the upper management (VP/director), but it's fairly rare for a lot of those gigs to go to people who aren't German, so it's also unsurprising. Those levels are non-diverse in a lot of ways.

I'm a member of AAHA here at work. We do a lot of work with the community schools and are involved in mentoring programs. It won't fix the existing diversity, but hopefully it will help the future workforce.

[CrazyLucky]

I'm an engineer in chemicals. I am the only female in my group, although there is some racial diversity. We are near a Native American population and there is a high percentage of Native Americans here. Anyway, they are trying to hire two new engineers. I talked to the hiring manager and mentioned that I thought diversity was lacking and it would be nice to get some younger people and some women. He was all, "Oh, I totally agree! I think diversity is really important! Thank you for bringing it up." They're conducting interviews this week. So far, all old white men.
I am often the only woman in a meeting. I don't think it bothered me as much when I was younger as it does now. There's no real reason for this company to be so male.

Ah! I'm sorry! I always go to "most recent posts" and click on what looks interesting. I just now realized this was directed at WOC. I can delete if necessary.

[sunshine608]

I'm in higher Ed in Atlanta so it's very diverse at least until the dean/director level then it just gets less so. It defibty sheltered me when I moved to Louisiana and now that I'm back and working at an school that is almost 70% black it's a big topic. In the last two search committees I've been on, white males have commented on the need for having people that look like them in positions. Of course these position are low to mid level but at least the awareness is there. One white male director even said he was surprised they hired him because of that.

[aqualuv]

I'm in HR for local government. In my area, right outside of DC, is pretty diverse as a whole. Which is why I enjoy living here and why I'm not sure we could ever move. I'd need to find another diverse place to feel comfortable. But back to my organization, it's pretty diverse. On my direct team, there are 3 of us that are black out of 5 women. We could have more diversity in the division chief roles. I'm not in a position where I could impact the diversity outside of referring and recommending people of color for roles.

[carfar]

I'm currently a dietetic intern. It's a super white, super female profession. Even in my generally diverse area. I joined the national organization. Of black in dietetics and nutrition sub interest group of the academy of nutrition and dietetics and hope to get involved.

[auberge]

I've worked in three private independent schools and have been the only aa twice and now I'm one of two. It's depressing.

At all threes schools, I've started a diversity education committee and although I feel like it's good work it still makes me feel alone regularly.

[bekiwi]

I'm a professor. I'm the only Black professor in my department and 1.25% of the professors are Black in the entire university. Numbers for other faculty of color are similarly dismal. It's all too much. I am part of a task force, addressing issue for the Black campus community, but I've decided to take a step back in terms of working with any other diversity iniatives because (1) I've been working on issues of diversity in higher education throughout my educational career and I'm exhausted of dealing with the same issues over and over (2) It won't get me tenure and thus not valued (2) It's an unspoken expectation that faculty of color will do this while white faculty don't have the same sets of expectations (3) I do a ton of informal mentoring and advising with students of color. Once I get tenure, I will do much more hands-on work dealing with under-representation of people of color in academia but I have little institutional power at this point and I'm tired.

[borinquen57]

I was a teacher, SAHM mom now but looking into going back to it or a new field during separation/divorce. I've been in three schools and all three had lots of Latina/o teachers but not many Black teachers at all. In fact, at my first school in a mostly-Latino neighborhood, I was the only Black teacher. Me being a Black Latina caused lots of shock at first. 😒

[thejackpot]

I am a SAHM now but a teacher by trade. The county I taught in is always saying they are interested in diversity so there are peaks of a more diverse workforce. There is still miles to go though. We do have diversity in many county level leadership roles so that is promising. At my school, I was one of seven Black teachers but blacks were the largest minority group. My friends at work were definitely other POC. It was a big improvement to when I started and the Koc would come by and peak to say hi to me because it was a big deal I was there.

[smile]

Hi new board. I work in land for an O&G company. There is definitely a lack of people of color in my area. I don't think it's a field many minorities know about. I only ended up in the field because my company was actively recruiting law school graduates/new attorneys for that department.

My company is in the same building as a small O&G company that has a black CEO and every time I see him in the elevator I want to talk and ask him about his journey in this industry.

[kicks]

I'm so happy to see new people posting! And thanks for sharing your experiences.

[wesleycrusher4ever]

I'm a social worker. When I worked in the clinical field it was not diverse at all and mostly white females. I now work at social services (primarily child welfare) and our agency is very diverse from field workers to upper management. I can tell how much better service our clients receive because our agency has such a variety of beliefs and perspectives. The main reason I left the clinical field was because I felt like I was slamming my head against the wall on a daily basis. It would be like, who cares what Beck or Freud said, this is what Shamika/Guadalupe/Min need and you aren't meeting that.

[gazpacho]

This thread has been more difficult for me to respond to as the diversity issues in my field have taken a toll. Currently, I am a professor at a large research university where I am 1 of 2 in my department. We have had multiple departures of minority faculty at our University, which isn't uncommon. I have been on several diversity initiatives--enough to realize that people do enough to not feel guilty. They aren't concerned with true equality or representing diverse perspectives. At any rate, I am leaving my current University to go to another large research University. I will be (wait for it), 1 out of 2 minority faculty. As I get older, the lack of representation bothers me. I think the number of folks who leave academe entirely is what is distressing and I will say that multiple Af-Am female faculty have died (at my University and others) who are far too young. I believe this environment, like so many others, takes a toll on our health...and that frightens me. I am embarking on a new self-care routine as I journey to the next places for this very reason.