Diversity, Inc.: The Fight for Racial Equality in the Workplace

In the near future, white Americans will no longer constitute a national majority. Despite this, elite institutions such as Hollywood, corporate America, and academia are disproportionately white. In an effort to "diversify," industry and foundation leaders have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to commission studies and training sessions; hire consultants and create diversity programs to address the glaring paucity of people of color among their ranks. But is it working? In Diversity, Inc., award-winning journalist Pamela Newkirk explores these three industries, showing how the vast majority of their diversity efforts are all optics. For example, between 2014 and 2016, Google spent $265 million dollars on some of the most common tactics for diversifying the workforce, but their percentage of black employees remains stubbornly at 2%. In showing why these efforts are failing, Newkirk more importantly shows us what we can do to actually better achieve these worthy goals.

About the Author :
Pamela Newkirk is a New York University professor of journalism and award-winning journalist who has written extensively about diversity in the news media and art world. Her first book, Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media (NYU Press) examined the tumultuous entry of African American journalists into mainstream journalism. The book, based on archival research and interviews with more than one hundred journalists across the country, won a National Press Club Award for media criticism and continues to be widely adopted by colleges and universities. Her most recent book, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga (HarperCollins) uncovered the story of the young African who in 1906 was exhibited in the Bronx Zoo monkey house. The book, based almost exclusively on archival research, was included on a number of Best of 2015 lists, including NPR's, the San Francisco Chronicle's and the Boston Globe's and won an NAACP Image Award for literature and the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation Legacy Award. The book has also been optioned for film and stage by producer Scott Rudin. Newkirk's articles and reviews are regularly published in major media, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Review :
"A gripping, sobering analysis of why US institutions and corporations have made such slow progress towards any meaningful racial diversity.... A must-read."--Financial Times "A must-read.... a well-sourced and succinctly written report that addresses the overall lack of progress in three key sectors: academia, corporate America, and the Hollywood entertainment establishment...The book is valuable for many reasons, not the least of which is the context Newkirk provides."--Fortune "By reminding readers of the stories of people like Ingram and Roberts, dedicated employees who endured unthinkable humiliation - the 'uncivil' ways in which they were treated, simply because of their race - Diversity, Inc. may do more to help advance the cause of workplace inclusion than any canned bias-training program ever could."--Washington Post "In Diversity, Inc., journalist Pamela Newkirk interrogates a shameful reality.... Newkirk's well-researched facts and figures paint a picture of stagnation that's hard to deny. Diversity, Inc. is a damning look at American organizations and a reminder that our workplaces are far from reflective of our country."--Time, "Must-Read Books of 2019" "Pamela Newkirk has written the far-reaching and crisply worded book I had been waiting to read. Cheap diversity statements and costly diversity consultants are not working and Newkirk explains precisely why. Institutions can do better and Diversity, Inc., explains precisely how."--Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist