One year after the death of George Floyd, a new report from diversity, equity and inclusion strategy firm Paradigm finds that many Americans are not only more aware of racial injustice in the United States, but they also want to see their own company take action against it.
Of the more than 2,000 adults surveyed by The Harris Poll on behalf of Paradigm, it was found that 69% of Americans believe racial injustice is a problem in the U.S. and 60% now think racial injustice is a bigger problem than they thought it was a year ago. Additionally, 68% said they believe you should be able to discuss racial justice issues at work, and 54% said they would even consider leaving an organization if it did not speak out directly against racial injustice.
“What we’ve seen is that following the murder of George Floyd and the protests and all of the kind of conversations that were happening, there was overall an increased level of consciousness of the ways in which racial injustice really permeate our society and our world,” social psychologist and Paradigm’s Managing Director Evelyn Carter tells CNBC Make It. “That was known by folks, mostly folks of color and also some white folks, for a long time but talked about behind closed doors or whispered about.”
Now, a year after the death of Floyd — a 46-year-old Black man who died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for about nine minutes — Carter says she’s happy that many of “those conversations are happening out in the open more.”
“That is huge and very exciting because it means there’s opportunity to take those conversations and drive action,” she adds.
Below, Carter and Mandy Price, co-founder of the diversity, equity and inclusion tech platform Kanarys, offer tips for how company leaders can foster healthy conversations about racial injustice at work.
Jacqueline Albury, right, holds up her fist while joining others as they take a knee in a counter Black Lives Matter Protest as BLM protestors gathered in response to a Blue Lives Matter rally in West Roxbury in Boston on June 17, 2020.
