9 Things Never to Say to White Collegues

Diversity in the Workplace is always fun. This article goes over some stereotypes about the workplace that have never occurred to me.

Here's number 2:

2. "You're not diverse"



Diversity includes white people. It is incorrect and insulting to use the word "diverse" to refer to people other than white heterosexual men with no ADA-defined disabilities. All people are included in the concept of "diversity." As a result, properly executed diversity management benefits all people in an organization.



Also, too often, non-white people assume whites don't come from a diverse background or have any experience with different cultures. Some white people also make this mistake. But Peacock points out that while his skin might be "white," his background is diverse, even more so than many people from traditionally underrepresented groups.



"I come from a family with two different histories, from different sides of the world," says Peacock, who is from England and whose mother was originally from Iran. "I am more multicultural than a lot of people who have never stepped outside of this country. By saying [you're not diverse], all you're doing is switching people off."



Peacock adds that in today's society, being exclusionary by any standard should not be tolerated. It is also not the best method of building networks. "Anything that is exclusionary you have to avoid," says Peacock. "The reason Sen. [Barack] Obama is so successful is … because he's getting the white vote. Why is he getting this? Because for the first time, someone is talking about how all of us will achieve this American dream, and the important word is 'all' of us."



Furthermore, Visconti makes the point that in today's America, many white people have a personal involvement with traditionally underrepresented groups. "Twenty-two percent of American households have a biracial component," says Visconti. "Practically every family has an LGBT component, and many people have a non-visible disability and/or will develop an ADA-defined disability in their lifetime."



Moreover, Visconti affirms that to assume a white person cannot have a true, heartfelt connection with diversity is historically wrong.



"Benjamin Franklin was the president of the Anti-Slavery Society, William Lloyd Garrison founded the abolitionist newspaper 'The Liberator' and was a mentor to Frederick Douglass, and Lyndon Johnson had a profound change of mind and became an advocate of civil-rights and anti-poverty legislations. Many white people have been and still are at the forefront of societal change to eliminate oppression and increase equity," says Visconti.

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However, this is more of an issue of language than Visconti makes it out to be — measuring the company's "percentage of diversity" is misleading, and calling a single person diverse or not diverse is just bizarre. The assumption that white people can't be included in diversity at all is a bad one, but we're not sure how often people actually make it.

An interesting read, fo sho!