And Then There Were None: Blacks In The Boardroom....

Continuing the fine American tradition of a small, white, wealthy minority being vastly overrepresented in large institutions, the Alliance for Board Diversity released a study that shows how things have gotten worse when it comes to the whitewashing of corporate America, not better.

“While research points decisively to the benefits of a diverse boardroom – including enhanced financial performance – white men continue to dominate corporate boards and have, in fact, increased their presence since 2004. Woman and minorities are still vastly underrepresented,” the ABD said.

So not only have diversity efforts stalled in America’s biggest board rooms, they’ve been altogether reversed. How did this happen? We had such great momentum for a while there. Remember affirmative action? Unfortunately, I am compelled to lay the blame on us, the black community. We know that people never voluntarily give up (or share) power; change has to be forced. If we stop fighting to loosen the ruling class’ grip on things like seats in the board room, then what do we expect? For them to just give us the jobs?

This is not to imply that there is a lack of qualified candidates of color or that we aren’t setting our aims high enough. Instead, I’m saying that we have collectively become unforgivably lax in our fight for justice and inclusion. Do we still care enough to demand our presence in the board room? Was the removal of the “white only” signs enough to appease us? I propose using our collective voice to go after things like institutionalized segregation, especially in meaningful places like the board room, instead of using what muscle we do have to be the “n-word police.” You know?