Economic Forecast: Diversity & inclusion needs follow-through
PHOTO/GRANT WELKER
Employees at UMass Memorial Health Care and UMass Medical School held a Black Lives Matter protest in June.
When Minneapolis police killed George Floyd in May, his death lit a match. Protests erupted around the country, and calls to hold police accountable for how they interact with and harm people of color took center stage, seconded only by the coronavirus pandemic. Calls for change quickly mushroomed and bled into every sector, from entertainment to corporate leadership and everything in between. This push will continue into 2021.
Businesses will have to implement those promises
Half of the 30 largest companies in Central Massachusetts either have a diversity, equity and inclusion officer or are in the process of hiring one. These positions received tremendous attention after Floyd’s killing, as many companies pledged to do better with regard to diversifying their workforce and paying active attention to combating institutional racism. Change, however, rarely comes easy, and these companies – whether they recently added a DEI officer position or not – are going to be tested this year, including their willingness to change their cultures and business practices. It’s one thing to say you want to diversify and play an active role in anti-racism, it’s an entirely different thing to accept those commitments often requiring upending systems.
Calls for accountability
It is all but guaranteed the anniversary of Floyd’s death will be marked with solemnity, reflection and with evaluation, particularly of how businesses and corporations have followed through with their anti-racism goals and statements. If your business promised to make changes in the wake of a renewed Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, expect they will be scrutinized come May 2021, if not sooner. In the internet age, everyone has proverbial receipts, and sweeping well-meaning statements under the rug will undoubtedly face scrutiny. This will serve as a checkpoint for the relative health and application of DEI efforts, in Massachusetts and beyond.
Colleges will face increased pressure
It’s a tale as old as time, college students pressuring their administrations to move their cultural needle toward social progress, but as with just about everything else this year, student activism took a different tone. Students, many of whom got different versions of what they expected when they paid for school because of the coronavirus pandemic, pushed their teachers to implement syllabi more reflective of the diversity in their classrooms and communities, and asked school administrators to pay more meaningful attention to the needs of their students of color. In 2021, this pressure will continue. And in the age of social media, which functions like a magnifying glass, it’s harder and harder for the powers that be to ignore those requests.
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