According to a study published this week, the number of African Americans who make up corporate America is quite faint compared to other demographics.
What We Know:
- The study is called Being Black In Corporate America: An Intersectional Exploration and was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
- The study showed that blacks represent less than 1 percent (0.8 percent) of Fortune 500 CEO’s and that only 3.2 percent of executives and senior manager-level employees are African American.
- Pooja Jain-Link, one of the top researchers on the study, revealed that black people make up 10 percent of college graduates and stated that “you would think there would be 50 black CEOs. But there are only four.” The four he is referring to is Lowe’s, TIAA, Merck & Co., and Tapestry.
- 58 percent of black people indicated that they’ve experienced racism on the job. The Midwest had the highest percentage at 79 percent and the Northeast the lowest at 44 percent. Many are overlooked for promotions and find it exhausting to be authentic on the job.
- Most black employees also feel that their white counterparts fail to notice or address the drastic difference in treatment or promotional opportunities.
- The video below was conducted by Cisco and it addresses diversity and the under-representation of Black Americans in the Corporate World.
The study does goes over solutions of how companies can gain understanding of black employees through interviews, focus groups and surveys. It also asks employers to “awaken” which challenges them to consider the culture they grew up in when connecting with others and more.
