Welcome to the DEI Digest, a roundup of some of the top headlines about diversity, equity and inclusion for the week of June 20-24, 2022.
1. Private Industry and Juneteenth: Georgia State, as a public institution, state offices, and the federal government were all closed Monday, June 20, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday, with employees getting the day off as a paid holiday -- much like July 4 or Labor Day. But what about private industry? A new report indicates that 30 percent of private employers are offering Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
Via Changing America at The Hill: https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/3527688-growing-number-of-businesses-are-giving-employees-day-off-for-juneteenth/
2. Racism in the Metaverse: The tech industry has a less-than-spectacular past on issues involving diversity, equity and inclusion. If this continues into the metaverse - a concept of a virtual world championed largely by mostly white and male tech CEOs, racist online abuse might become much more hateful, damaging, and brutal, according to Jeff Nelson, a chief technology officer and co-founder of Blavity. Blavity is an online media company geared toward Black millennial creators.
3. Issa Rae's Challenge at Cannes: Actor, creator and mogul Issa Rae participated in a panel discussion at the Cannes Lions advertising festival - challenging the entertainment industry to move beyond paying lip service to countering bias and increasing diversity. The Hollywood Reporter quoted her as saying: “For me it’s about making the changes on my end. Now I have the mandate of making sure my sets are 60 percent diverse, and that comes from realizing my own power."
Via Hollywood Reporter: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/issa-rae-challenges-industry-to-meet-diversity-mandates-1235169824/
4. Are DEI Efforts at Some Businesses Backfiring? Oriane Georgeac at the Yale School of Management and Aneeta Rattan at the London Business School have new research that indicates that a certain "business case" for diversity efforts, framed in a particular way, at businesses may have an opposite effect and potentially repel underrepresented minorities from applying for positions at these companies. Read more at the links below, including the research itself, and news coverage from Forbes.
Research at PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35679195/
(Citation: Georgeac OAM, Rattan A. The business case for diversity backfires: Detrimental effects of organizations' instrumental diversity rhetoric for underrepresented group members' sense of belonging. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2022 Jun 9. doi: 10.1037/pspi0000394. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35679195.)
5. Diversifying the Leadership of Regional Federal Reserve Banks: With Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell scheduled to appear before Congress this week, a group of U.S. senators led by U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.) urged the chair and the Fed's governing body to be more proactive in diversifying the selection of the heads of the regional Federal Reserve banks. The co-signers of the letter included Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Catherine Cortez Masto (N.V.), Ben Ray Lujan (N.M.), Bernie Sanders (Vt.), Richard Durbin (Ill.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.).
Via Bloomberg: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-22/senators-ask-powell-to-alter-fed-pick-process-to-boost-diversity
— Compiled by Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost