#GAReads | The Common Habit That Undermines Organizations’ Diversity Efforts

photo credit: Stewart MacLean, via Unsplash

“The Common Habit That Undermines Organizations’ Diversity Efforts”:

This anecdote, which might not seem especially newsworthy, was reported in the Wall Street Journal in November 2008, because that state senator had become president-elect of the United States.

Barack Obama had been on the receiving end of what I call an “unconscious demotion,” the unthinking habit of assuming that somebody holds a position lower in status or expertise than they actually do. In my research on language and bias, I’ve found that it’s usually women and people of color who are most often on the receiving end of these incidents while meeting new people.

This is far from a new phenomenon, and it’s usually written about as way of illustrating how unconscious bias works. But it’s worth thinking seriously about as a specific behavior–one that threatens to quietly chip away at organizations’ best efforts at improving diversity and inclusion.

Read Dr. Suzanne Wertheim’s full article at Fast Company here…