Multicultural Organization Development

When I look back at my notes from the last few classes, I realize that I did not fully understand what diversity meant. I only really thought of diversity through the lens of race, I did not realize how many other traits of diversity existed. I grew up in a mixed household, my mom is Hispanic (Puerto Rican), and my dad that I grew up with (non-biological) is Caucasian (Italian). My biological father is Hispanic (Puerto Rican) and is very culturally aware, but I did not grew up with him or even know him until I was already an adult. I have three younger brothers; the last two brothers and I have an 11- and 13-year age gape respectively from one another. I was raised in white neighborhoods, went to predominately white schools, and had predominantly all white friends growing up, which made it difficult for me to relate to people who look like me.

Before the course started, I was not sure how well I would be able to function with the late class hours, but I look forward to attending class every week now. The first class I felt included, heard, and sad hearing the perspectives of other people. Specifically, when it came to how one student felt they could not be themselves at work, I cannot imagine what that must feel like, and it made me wonder – do I work with people who feel this way? Am I being inclusive? Am I coaching my leaders to be inclusive, and am I asking the right questions? I learned from others that their company cultures were also struggling with how to implement effective diversity equity and inclusive practices. I learned from another student that she identified trauma as a trait of diversity, and that really stuck with me. I have experienced domestic violence trauma, and it has affected my life in many ways. I never would have thought of it as something that diversified me from others – but it does.

Davis wrote that diversity was “comparable to an iceberg…” and that “Scientists say that 90 percent of what makes up an iceberg is invisible or below the waterline, and only 10 percent is above it…people can only see about 10 percent of visible traits that make you diverse” (Davis, 2022). When reviewing the traits of diversity and the multiple dimensions of diversity, I saw multiple ways I was diverse from others around me, and how I could barely scratch the surface of understanding what makes someone else diverse, if all I do is look at them. Learning that “Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and belonging is having that voice be heard” helped me to further my thoughts on DEI practices in my personal life and at work.

I was born in Bronx, NY, but only lived there a brief time before my family moved to Hyde Park, NY which is in upstate New York – Duchess County. We lived there until I finished fifth grade, and unfortunately, we had to abandon our home because we could not afford to live there anymore. We drove to Florida to live with my dad’s sister and her family until we could get on our feet. This was the first time I can recall being treated differently, because of someone else’s bias. I was not biologically my dad’s child, and my cousins knew it. They treated me terribly and treated my brother, who was my dad’s biological child, like one of the family. No one addressed it from a lens of discrimination – it was “kids being kids.” I was glad when we finally moved after a couple of months into our own home. My family lived paycheck-to-paycheck, which made me appreciate the non-material things in life. My brother and I were close when we were little, and my family spent a lot of time just with each other. We were affectionate, always had dinner together every night, my mom always cooked, and when I think about it – she always did everything, including worked. My Mom was a nurse most of my life and my dad job hopped quite a bit. Looking back, I could see that while I do have fond memories of my family, I also have memories of trauma. My Dad was verbally and emotionally abusive to my mom and I, and physically abusive to my eldest younger brother. By the time we were looking to leave Florida and move back to New York (Staten Island), I was about 13 years old, my mom had given birth to two more children, and I can recall even more traumatic events that occurred in my home. The abuse did not get better until I was halfway through High School, and even then, it never went away. It did not stop until my parents’ divorce in 2019. This is baggage that I carry with me, to this day.

 Looking back on my childhood now, I was surrounded by people who did not look like me, did not have a similar home life to me, and who did not have similar financial situations, and because of that I struggled with being accepted and included within my own ethnic group. I had very few Hispanic acquaintances and no Hispanic friends, because I had heard things like “You act white” or “Why do you sound like a white girl?” I could not relate to the music, the language, the food, or the history. To me I did not see those hurtful comments as discriminatory, I just did not understand. When Dr. Greene told us the story of him being called a half-breed, my first thought was that it was terrible, and second, I can relate. I wonder if I had discussed diversity and discrimination more with my family and friends, or at work, I could have found common ground with others earlier.

My parents always pushed me to do well in school, I often heard comments from faculty about how “well spoken I was for my age,” and I knew going to college was a pre-requisite for my life as an adult, there was never any other option. This was the beginning of my own biases towards other people. I was biased against people whose parents paid their tuition and costs for school, because my family could not. I thought of these people are those who “had it easy,” I never considered anything else about them that might make them relatable to me. I was biased against those who did not go to college; I had watched my parents struggle financially because they took lower paying jobs due to not having degrees. I was taught it was a mistake not to go to school, and honestly believed I would not be able to make something of myself if I had not – until I met my now husband. My husband is one of the smartest men I know, he is intellectually stimulating, and my best friend, and he never went to college. After I met him, got to know him, and through our many hours of conversations while we dated, I realized how biased I had been and started look at other biases I had. I started to think about the impact my shadow was having. “From a Deloitte perspective, we define this [leadership shadow] as the shadow you cast on others through your behavior – what you say and do, what you measure and what you prioritize” (Dreyer, 2020).

            It was not until my first HR generalist role in manufacturing that I started to become more aware of what I know now are dimensions of diversity. In HR, my role is to ensure the company is practicing ethically and to ensure employees have the resources they need to do their jobs well, in short to ensure equity is occurring. My mentor, Lakeysha, was different from me, she was slightly older, African American, tall, beautiful, and incredibly brilliant. Lakeysha was a mentor through and through, offering me career advice and guidance professionally and personally. I learned what I now know was how important my shadow was. How everything you do and do not do – especially in a leadership position creates perception, and perception for employees, and communities is reality. There was a situation in which I was running a staffing meeting, and it was with all the leaders in our plant, and the Plant Manager told me I should be less chatty when it came to employees. It was humiliating and uncalled for, but I did not have the courage to address it myself in such an open forum. I asked Lakeysha about addressing it later, and she told me that I should have the courage to address it and that if I did not – it would come with time. She taught me to never let someone address me in such a way, and that sometimes men in manufacturing, intentionally put pressure on you to see how you will react, to see if you will cry or break. I found it shocking, but eye-opening. As a generationally younger woman, in a male dominated industry, I had to learn that men were still old fashioned, that my degree, arduous work, and dedication were not enough. I had to work to earn the respect and trust of my male colleagues. It was not fair, but it was reality. So, I opened my mouth more, spoke up and backed up my ideas with data, and became more confident. I became more aware of how my shadow was affecting other people who looked like me but did not have the privilege of an education like I did and worked on our manufacturing floor. I did my best to open doors, afford everyone I met with opportunity and treated people the way they wanted to be treated. Fast forward 2.5 years later, I am working with a new plant director, who is a change agent, an inclusive business partner, and he was leaving our organization. I cried when he told me, of all the leaders I had grown the most since his time at our organization. I appreciated that my efforts were not going unseen, despite not knowing at the time, I still had more growing to do.

            In my next career move as an HR Manager, I faced even more adversity with generational and gender bias. The director of operations accused me of not being a team player, when I did not disclose who had come forward with a complaint of discrimination and tried to intimidate me because I was a woman in my role. The plant manager at this same company told me that I should be reporting to him, and that I should stop acting like my opinions matter as much as I thought and reminded me that he had 30+ years of experience in the industry; I felt this was directly linked to the fact that I was younger than him and therefore I had less experience than him. These experiences along with the lack of communication and progress to move forward, caused me to move on. The experiences I had at this organization taught me what kind of leader I did not want to be.

            As a result of all my experiences, including the experience of being a mom to a neurodivergent child, there are a few things I plan to do differently. Something I have been working on recently is listening more and thinking about the whole person before I pass any judgement, intentional or otherwise. Trauma is invisible, it was for me, no one really knew what happened in my home. I do not know what happens in the homes or lives of my classmates, co-workers, employees, or people in my community. I have been listening to what the person is saying to me, verbally and non-verbally, and being curious in a respectful manner by asking questions to better understand people. I will also continue to work on my emotional intelligence, and empathy. My son is considered non-verbal as he does not have conversational speech because of his Autism, so I practice non-verbal language with him. I am working on understanding what someone’s face, and body is saying as well as their words – if they have them. I have 1:1 coaching with my leaders, and one thing I will do is send them topics in advance for us to cover in our sessions, to be more inclusive of their thoughts and ideas. One of my classmates does this with interviews and it is a great tool. In my community, I focus my volunteering efforts on groups that are disproportionately affected due to age, neurodiversity, and socioeconomic class. During the spring and summer, I volunteer at Leg Up Farm which is a facility here in York, PA that provides therapy to child with disabilities and special needs. During the winter, I work with my job to volunteer time and or money to nursing homes, and programs like ‘Adopt-A-Family’ for the holiday season. Something else I plan to do differently would be to look for more ways I can be inclusive, and equitable in both the volunteering efforts I partake in and offer through my job.

References

Davis, S. (2022). Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion for Dummies. For Dummies®, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Dreyer, M. (2020, August 14). Being inclusive and casting a long, powerful leadership shadow – diversity & inclusion blog: Deloitte Australia. Deloitte. Retrieved June 11, 2022, from https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/blog/diversity-inclusion-blog/2020/being-inclusive-casting-long-powerful-leadership-shadow.html