Diversity Executive Editor's Page

More than 40 years after racism forced her family from their home, this past Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Sallie Sanders, a retired state employee, got the keys to a new house in Hamtramck, Mich. Sanders’ new home was built as part of a settlement in one of the longest-running cases of housing discrimination in the U.S. According to a Yahoo article http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100119/ap_on_bi_ge/us_michigan_housing_discrimination, Sanders’ former home, a rental, was razed when she was a teenager… Continue

In order to get a more complete idea of the immigrant population, for the first time ever, the Census Bureau will count indigenous immigrants in the 2010 census. According to a recent Yahoo article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100104/ap_on_re_us/us_census_indigenous_immigrants migrants, Native Americans from Mexico and Central America, often need more than one box because their ancestry may cover multiple Census categories. I’m not sure what to think here. On the one hand, it’s great we’re se… Continue

Image is everything in the workplace. No, really. Best-selling author and executive coach Marshall Goldsmith has said in more than one forum that executives have long memories: screw up once, well, once is all you need to experience devastating impact. Case in point, my friend told me a story about an ex-friend she met on the job. The ex, we’ll call her Mary, is known for, shall we say, uncouth behavior. My friend arranged for a few vendors to come to the office to give presentations. One repr… Continue

I ran across an article http://www.good.is/post/is-saying-sorry-better-than-prison/?gt1=48001 that asked “Is Saying Sorry Better Than Prison?” At first I thought it was a joke because the logical answer would be “of course,” but the headline achieved its goal; I read more. It discussed an unusual program for teenage criminals in Northern Ireland called Youth Conference. “Instead of sending kids who commit assault, theft, or ‘motoring offences’ to a prison, the government sends them to a meeting… Continue

The WorkLifeFit Inc. article "Stop Talking About Work+Life Flex Solely in the Context of Women…Really, Seriously, Once and for All" makes an excellent point: Women do not have the greatest need for flexibility in work and life. Men need it too. Why depends on the individual, but another important piece of the article came in the form of a chart that outlined the organizational benefits that can manifest from workplace flexibility. They include: working better/smarter; more effective talent manag… Continue