I want to share a cautionary tale about discrimination at a local business. Although it occurred here in Berkeley, it can happen at any business, of any size, anywhere, unless preventive action is taken.
Kamau Bell, a nationally known comedian who is African-American was standing outside of an upscale cafe showing a book on interracial families to his wife who is White and was sitting at an outdoor table with her friends who were also White. As he was engaged in conversation, a White employee inside the cafe, knocked on the window and told him to leave immediately.
The owner of the cafe, fired the employee, and blamed the incident on the fact that she had not been trained in ‘unconscious bias.” At no time did he take responsibility for what happened in his establishment, with his employee. A lot of people including Kamau Bell and me, disagreed with his decision to fire her.
Sometimes firing is warranted, and there is no excuse for the actions of this employee, but when you fire anyone and everyone who makes a comment as a result of ignorance, lack of training and information, and you don’t educate them and everyone else, it becomes like the game of “Whack-a-Mole,” where you hold a mallet and keep whacking plastic moles as their heads keep popping out of holes in a cabinet. As soon as you hit one, it goes back in the hole, and another one pops up. You fire one racist, and another one pops up. Without education, those people take their biases, wrong assumptions and racist ideas to the next job.
Don’t keep putting all blame on your employees, instead, look inside at your own assumptions, behaviors and the organizational culture you’ve created that might allow those wrong assumptions about other people to ferment.
I’ve been saying for years that organizations need to spend time and money on including hourly employees in any diversity and inclusion initiative (when there is one) and behavioral training because they represent you to the customer and reflect the customer service they learn in your organization.
Implicit or unconscious biases have almost become buzzwords of late and have been used to excuse different types of behavior. Understanding our own personal biases is very important, however it’s not THE answer. Ultimately,the key is in the culture, which is determined by the leaders in any organization. If inclusion rather than discrimination is important then it’s up to owners or leaders to make it happen.
Owners and business leaders are responsible for who they hire, how they hire and for building a welcoming culture for everyone and not just for the people who look like them.
While this incident occurred in Berkeley, incidents like this occur every day in other places, and in other businesses, and can lead to loss of business, reputation and even lawsuits.
The good news is that everyone can take actions to create great places to live and work and everyone can learn, even when we make mistakes.
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