The Changing Conversation: Racism, Colorism and Classism
Where: New York, New York
When: December 2, 2011
Event Home
Date:
December 2, 2011
Time:
8:00am - 3:00pm
Location:
Ernst & Young Headquarters
5 Times Square
New York, New York
For PowerPoint from this Best Practice Session, click below. You must have your Member ID and Password to access the information.
People of color are still grossly underrepresented at top levels of organizations and many have encountered growing racial disparities in income, healthcare, and education. In the Global Marketplace, local governments are more frequently enforcing quotas to address gender, race, and other concerns, and with trends pointing toward a new compliance, some companies are looking for ways to address persistent racial disparities in their business.
At the same time in certain societies where race has been a longstanding diversity topic, there is growing fatigue and resistance about continuing to address race. Racial minorities increasingly feel that the unfinished business around racial discrimination and exclusion is overshadowed by other diversity dimensions that have been added to the inclusion agenda.
This Best Practice Session allows the important opportunity to refocus practitioners’ attention on persistent, unresolved racial issues; but to do so in fresh ways that lead to new strategies.
Bring top-of-mind issues to the table, and work with diversity experts and colleagues to strengthen core competencies, improve your strategies for handling issues around race, and identify opportunities to engage management and talent in the important topic of race and its impact in the workplace.
Presentations:
Pre-read - A Message from Diversity Best Practices' President, Andrés Tapia
Best Practice Session PowerPoint PresentationAgenda
Agenda*
8:00 – 9:00 am Breakfast/Registration
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome Remarks
Perika J. Sampson / Managing Consultant / Diversity Best Practices
Andrés Tapia / President / Diversity Best Practices
Billie Williamson / Americas Inclusiveness Officer / Ernst & Young
9:15 – 9:30 Core Competency Focus for Diversity Practitioners: Strategic Savviness
An introduction to the core competency focus for the day dispels some of the myths and deepens the understanding about strategic savviness, highlighting the importance for diversity practitioners.
Perika J. Sampson / Managing Consultant / Diversity Best Practices
9:30 – 10:15 Keynote: Does Race Matter? - The Pervasiveness of Racial Barriers and Global Colorism
With an ever-expanding definition of diversity that now encompasses multiple dimensions; are we in danger of sidestepping the topic of race, and minimizing its importance and impact? The topic of race in fact, opens the door to examine various complex dimensions and critical questions. How will increasingly multiracial societies impact our definitions of traditional categories and diversity issues? Are we moving towards a post-racial world, where the topic of race no longer matters, or is that is even possible? And how can we address the discrimination and disparities that persist related to colorism – the biased treatment of individuals based on their skin color and other identifiable racial features – that plays out both inter- and intra-racially across the globe?
An expert explores the new dimensions of race, the pervasiveness of racial barriers and colorism, and the resulting impact on thinking, trends and attitudes in the global workplace.
Katherine Phillips / Paul Calello Professor of Leadership / Columbia University Business School
10:15 – 10:30 Networking Break
10:30 – 11:30 Critical Issues Panel: The New Dimensions of Race
Academic and Corporate Thought Leaders explore how diversity practitioners can strategically improve recruitment, engagement and leadership development opportunities for minorities and people of color by embracing the current realities of race. What are the new dimensions of race, and how does the shift in focus change the conversation within organizations?
Moderator:
Perika J. Sampson / Managing Consultant / Diversity Best Practices
Panel:
Louise Covert / Principal / Analogies Consulting
Ronald E. Hall, Ph.D. / Professor / Michigan State University
Kam S. Wong / Associate Director, Workforce Diversity and Compliance Programs / City University of New York
11:30 – 12:30 Think Tank Sessions:
Race Matters: Integrating the Complexities of Race into Diversity Strategies
Breakout sessions draw on strategic savviness to identify opportunities where diversity leaders can initiate fresh thinking around the complexities of race. How can you effectively shape your strategy for approaching the topic of race, and help to shrink the disparities that still exist around recruiting, hiring, developing and advancing people of color? Co-facilitators in each group explore the tough issues around the new race conversation, and challenge participants to think strategically about integrating the new dimensions of race into diversity efforts.
Lead Facilitator:
Perika J. Sampson / Managing Consultant / Diversity Best Practices
Breakout Groups:
Race in America – What happens when we all admit we are ‘raced’ and how does the topic of race play out between and within communities? How does the increase in multiracial population change the race dynamics and conversation? As whites become a minority group in certain cities and states, what does this do to their racial self-perception? What are the racial issues within communities of color? In an era where a growing number of people claim that we are in a post racial society, how can diversity leaders strategically address this attitude in the face of persistent racial disparities?
Facilitator:
Larry Durham / Manager, Diversity & Inclusion / Duke Energy
Thought Leader:
Eric Hutcherson / Managing Director, HR Leader, US & Canada Division / Marsh, Inc.
Race and Global Colorism – As companies go global with their diversity and inclusion strategies they often face significant pushback that race is not an issue in different societies like it is in the US. And yet income disparity, lack of advancement opportunities, and race seem to go hand in hand. How best to address these issues without being perceived as simply exporting a US centric view of race and diversity? What is colorism and how can this help break through some of the strategic dilemmas?
Facilitator:
Ana Martinez / Manager, Global Diversity & Inclusion / IBM
The New Compliance – In a new reality where the US government has revitalized and strengthened the EEOC in addressing discrimination claims and where European governments are implementing quotas for women representation in the Boardroom, and a growing number of regulations and policies are being implemented in Latin America and Asia aimed at protecting traditionally marginalized groups, suddenly the much maligned concept of compliance has gained new life. Given these new realities, how can diversity practitioners fashion new strategies and conversations around affirmative action, quotas, supplier diversity, and other forms of compliance?
Facilitator:
Fred Jenkins / Consultant / Diversity Best Practices
12:30 – 1:00 Think Tank Report Back/Action Plans
Presenters from each of the Think Tank discussion groups will share critical highlights and action plans with the general session. This report back segment will reinforce the focus on strategic savviness.
Facilitator:
Perika J. Sampson / Managing Consultant / Diversity Best Practices
1:00 – 1:45 Networking Luncheon
2:00 – 3:00 Key Findings Report Out and Closing Remarks
CEOs and Diversity and Inclusion Practitioners
Facilitator:
Andrés Tapia / President / Diversity Best Practices
***Agenda subject to change
Registration
Please contact Client Services Director, Meghan Donnelly, to register:
donnelly@diversitybestpractices.com
202.463.3782 (o)
Speakers
Associate Director, Workforce Diversity and Compliance Programs, City University of New York
Sponsors
Hotel & Travel
Nearby hotels include:
The Westin NY at Times Square
270 West 43rd Street New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-201-2700 Fax: 212-201-2701
W New York - Times Square
1567 Broadway · New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212) 930-7400
Sheraton NY Hotel and Towers
811 7th Ave On 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
Phone: (212) 581-1000
