DIVERSITY & INCLUSION ( D & I )
The previous presidential administration saw to it that the US Supreme Court took a hard turn to the right , thereby making it poised to upend decades of social progression . The fight over women ’ s reproductive rights – which lit up newspaper headlines last spring – is one of the bi-products of this shift . An issue on the docket for this spring that ’ s already getting headlines is affirmative action .
The term ‘ affirmative action ’ was first used during the Kennedy Administration and , over the years , it became a beacon – first in America and later in other parts of the developed world – for those who would like to see a more equitable society . The idea is that you give an advantage in hiring ( or school acceptance ) to those either from an economically disadvantaged or who come from marginalised racial or religious backgrounds that , historically , have experienced discrimination . If you set quotas of inclusion , the theory goes , eventually , the disadvantaged groups will catch up and we will be living in a society of parity .
Objectors to this method say that it gives an undue advantage to minorities and runs the risk of being superficial , rewarding people for their background circumstances and not the actual substance of their talent . This is the objection currently working its way through the Supreme Court : both Harvard and the University of North Carolina are being sued by Students for Fair Admissions , an anti-affirmative action organisation . The suit claims that , by preferring Black , Hispanic and Native American students , the universities were discriminating against white and Asian students . With the right wing in control of the court , the decision is expected to go against affirmative action protocol .
This , though , is the world of education . How about the real world ? Federal employers in the United States must abide by affirmative action laws , but in the private sector , hiring policies are left to the discretion of the employer , raising the question : how does one maintain a diverse workplace ?
Lisa Maynard-Atem is the Marketing and Inclusion Director at Acacia Training , an education provider out of the United Kingdom . In her work there , she is tasked with ensuring that the workplace is diverse and inclusive . She is also on the Board of
74 March 2023