DS News - Bank of America

104 facilitating diversity and inclusion ensures that vendors and other partners continue to have access to competent, qualified and talented individuals. In addition to the legal and professional responsibility, it makes good business sense to incorporate diversity and inclusion policies in the workplace. P&G released a statement that they were proud to bring back Tracy Norman and several studies present a strong business case for such initiatives. Companies who have implemented inclusion policies have seen improved productivity in the workplace, reduced employee turnover and absenteeism, enhanced corporate reputations, and an increased potential to recruit the best candidates. Google was on the forefront of these issues, becoming one of the first multinational corporations to release a report detailing its diversity. Global gender data indicates that Google employees are 70% male and 30% female. Google's ethnicity data refers to US employees only, and indicates 61% white, 30% Asian, 4% identifying as two or more races, 3% Hispanic, 2% black, and 1% other. Google also has employee resource groups for employees, including groups for Googlers of specific races, veterans, women in engineering, and LGBT employees. We serve a diverse population in the mortgage industry. e goal is to build a foundation in policies and, sometimes, legislation that will shape and provide the opportunity for an inclusive environment. Having a workplace that is reflective of the greater community and where people's differences are respected and valued is a competitive advantage. e aim is to adopt policies and practices that provide everyone with equal treatment and equal opportunities to succeed at work, while recognizing that individual differences may require accommodation in the workplace. In the case of Degraffenreid vs General Motors, five black women sued GM on the grounds of race and gender discrimination. e courts decided that black women could not prove gender discrimination because not all women were discriminated against, and they couldn't prove race discrimination because not all black people were discriminated against. e law is grounded in the principle that anti-discrimination law looks at race and gender separately. "Black women" was not recognized as a class which could suffer discrimination. e women were compounded into preset categories and not treated as individuals. THE THEORY OF DISCRIMINATION Let's go back to Tracey Norman's situation. e discrimination she experienced was attributed to her gender identity exclusively. However, could there have been other factors such as race and gender that influenced the prejudices against her? Can we think of each element or trait of a person as inextricably linked with all of the other elements in order to fully understand one's identity? Social identities and related systems of oppression overlap or intersect. e theory of "intersectionality" was introduced in 1989 by legal scholar and critical theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw, in a Stanford Law Review paper. She illustrated how black women's rights are marginalized by the influence of other dimensions of their identity, such as race and class. Intersectionality describes how different forms of discrimination can interact and overlap. Professor Crenshaw claimed that "racism as experienced by people of color who are of a particular gender - male - tend to determine the parameters of antiracist strategies, just as sexism as experienced by women who are of a particular race - white - tends to ground the women's movement." She suggests an intersectional approach can address the double- bind of those suffering at the sharp end of both racism and sexism. As a principle, intersectionality can be easy to understand. e difficulty lies in determining the applicability of current laws as well as identifying gaps in anti- discrimination laws. And intersectionality isn't just race or gender anymore. ere are more discriminations today than have been previously identified. In 2014, President Obama made official proclamation that the month of June is to become Lesbian, Gay, bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) pride month, as an annual anti-discrimination effort. However, since then we are increasingly seeing use of a fifth letter, Q , for queer, which is non-specific to sexual orientation or gender. Queer can mean many things. It could mean your aren't one of those letters (LGBT), but you could be all of those letters. Crenshaw has been leading the Critical Race eory (CRT) movement. In that regard, she founded the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) in 1996, an innovative think tank that works to dismantle structural inequality. It's through efforts like these that give substance to the development of diversity and inclusion policies. e Human Rights Campaign advocates for the LGBTQ community and was at the forefront of the fight for marriage equality that achieved a historic Supreme Court decision. Protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression vary state by state. ere are currently 19 states which prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, followed by 3 states which prohibit based on sexual orientation (not gender identity). On the flip side, same- sex couples now have the freedom to marry in all 50 states but flip again and 31 states have no explicit employment protections for transgender people.

• Cover