Favrot Lecture with Dr. Adia Wingfield: Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It

Mainstream, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has become increasingly controversial. Yet whether companies proclaim their support for diversity or run from the term, racial inequal­ity persists in many workplaces. Even when support for DEI was at its peak, Black workers were slower to be hired, earned less than their white colleagues, stalled out at midlevel positions, and rarely advanced to the top ranks of organizations. Why did these different outcomes persist even amidst robust corporate and cultural support for DEI? How will recent DEI rollbacks affect these disparities? In this presentation, Dr. Wingfield answers these ques­tions by documenting how quotidian workplace dynamics continue to thwart Black employees’ progress.