This week I was forwarded the list of Canada’s 50 Best Corporate Citizens (2011). It’s a list that Corporate Knights (“the Magazine for Clean Capitalism”) started about 10 years ago.

Who knew there was such a list? I was amazed!

I discovered  through Madelaine Drohan’s article in the report (entitled Big country, small steps) that corporate social responsibility can mean very different things;  from making sure child labour isn’t used in the supply chain, to building schools in Africa, to preventing high school drop outs right here at home.  Not bad, I thought. Good to know that there are large companies that are looking at more than profits. Hooray!

Further into the report, I came across a scorecard which tracks “the environmental, social and governance performance of the S&P/TSX60 Companies on the 2011 Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada.  I thought I would find some great stats about what these companies are doing internally as well, to match their social responsibility externally.

I was disappointed.

A few things stand out in particular among these stats about corporate citizens who are up to some great things:

• the number of female company directors in 2010 was 14.61% (UP from 14.49% in 2009, but still low)
• the number of company directors who were either visible minorities or aboriginal  in 2010 was 2.92% (DOWN from 4.06 in 2009)
• and the ratio of CEO salary to the lowest paid employees salary INCREASED by 8.70%

Sigh.

I’m not sure why I’m surprised. I often see companies making efforts in diversity and inclusion outside their walls (arguably where it looks good and they get kudos) before tackling any change inside. I guess I thought that with the corporate halo shining brightly for these 50 companies, that maybe, just maybe, they would be different.  I know it’s just a graph and I don’t have the whole story by far, but it suggests a lot.  

Would it be great if corporate social responsibility included creating an inclusive, welcoming workplace  that valued diversity and inclusion – with representation at all levels and smaller pay gaps (for example) to prove it?

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Copyright 2011 Annemarie Shrouder

I have spent the past 4 days with hundreds of Schulich MBA students. A colleague of mine was running the team building program for them, and I was in charge of the diversity session.

It was a great experience, and I couldn't help but notice the diversity (or in some cases, lack thereof) within the over 400 students (full and part time) that came through over the four days:

- culturally, the majority of students were of South Asian origin, followed by Asian

- about 80% of the students were male

- there was no one with a physical disability (that was evident, anyway)

- racially, the majority of the students were Brown (various shades of "people of colour"), followed by White and then Black

And here is where the numbers stood out the most for me. In a sea of different skin colours, the number of Black students was so low that I think I can actually remember the faces of each one. I think the final number was 9 (5 Black women and 4 Black men). That's about 2%.

Yikes!

It reminds me of town hall meetings about high secondary school drop out rates (also known as "push out" rates) for kids of colour in Toronto. But not all of the Black students were local, or even Canadian...

Things that make you go "hmm...."


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copyright 2011 Annemarie Shrouder
author, speaker & facilitator on issues of diversity & inclusion
www. beeing.ca

I was sent this video link today, and it's worth sharing.

It's called The Name Game. And it's about two people who meet for the first time and the conversation that ensues.

The topic of asking questions invariably comes up in a diversity workshop. Curiosity is a human condition. And we get to know each other by asking questions. I'm not a fan of political correctness, because it keeps the barriers up, rather than helping us to connect. However, we have to see more in this situation.
  
It's hard to explain to people who are White and "don't have an accent" that the types of questions Canadian immigrants (and probably US immigrants) and visible minorities get repeatedly are not just about wanting to know.  
  
Think about it: When was the last time you asked someone white "where are you from" or  someone without an accent "what's your background".  Or if you are White and don't have an accent, the last time someone asked these questions of you?
  
Interesting isn't it?
  
They happen because we are the "Other". Still. And with that comes the ingrained, often unconscious sense of entitlement by the questioner to be able to ask questions that they would not dream of asking someone who wasn't "different". Power dynamics in our society perpetuate this and keep us from examining it closely.

Questions are appropriate in context. When we are getting to know someone, when we are building a relationships (work, personal, intimate), but  like this video suggests, often these questions are asked when meeting someone for the first time.

If this happened to everyone, we wouldn't be having this conversation - maybe we'd be examining cultural social skills, I don't know. But it doesn't happen to everyone.  These types of questions happen to people who (incredulously, given our population) still look "different" and sound "different".

Still. Despite a growing visible minority population that will soon make visible minorities the visible majority (I wonder if we will change the term?), and the fact that we are all immigrants in North America, unless we are Aboriginal or First Nations People.
 
Watch the video.
   
Notice what comes up - the feelings, the discomfort, the justification.
And then think about it. Again.

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Annemarie
© Annemarie Shrouder 2010