Image was taken from this website.
In a nation and society that has made tremendous progress towards promoting equality among men and women, black and white, religious and secular, we still see disadvantages and prejudice against certain racial groups when it comes to leadership.
In 2008, Barack Obama’s election into office was and is considered a groundbreaking achievement in our nation’s history. For the first time in the country’s history, an African American man, a man of color, was elected president of the United States of America. Around 2008 and since his election, our country has seen more diversity in our leaders and representatives in politics, companies, and more. However, there are those who argue that there still exists a prejudice against certain racial populations that limits their success in attaining leadership positions, or impacts the respect they receive.
The image below from a study shows one of the possible reasons for this apparent lack of diversity in some leadership positions.
The study points out that many chances and opportunities in life are heavily racialized in a sense that many things are highly determined by one’s race or ethnicity. For example, data showed that in 2010, black and Latino mortgage applicants were about 60% more likely than whites to be turned down for loans. While leadership development strategies aimed at racial justice may not in itself undo or completely correct this structural racism, this can provide more opportunities for individuals without this high-level access due to institutionalized power and privilege.
A 2014 review compared results of four studies that analyzed the impact race had on perceived and apparent leadership. The results show that across these four studies, there was evidence for a pro-white leadership bias that seemed to help explain the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities across various leadership positions. Additional studies revealed that simply “being White” has been and unfortunately is still often perceived to be an attribute of the business leader prototype, where participants assumed that business leaders should be/were White.
As times are ever changing and we live in an era where equality, equity, diversity and inclusion are incredibly important values and should be integrated in any and all situations, it is critical that, especially in leadership, individuals take a step back to realize and understand the simple foundational idea that has been established since the Civil Rights Movement. While it may seem that the simple solution is to simply “have more leaders of other races,” it is important that a lot of this issue is attributed to underlying factors such as wage, education, and other gaps in society that must be addressed. These gaps contribute to the lack of opportunities that can thereby contribute to the lack of diversity in leadership.