Going Beyond the "Diversity Pipeline" and Dealing with Stereotype Threat

In short my research suggests that advertising39s race problem presents a unique set of challenges for Black interns hoping to break into a predominantly white industry On the one hand Black interns are often expected to offer their unique insight into their own demographic for the benefit of their white colleagues On the other and at the same time these interns must constantly selfmonitor their behavior because unlike whites they are seen to represent and be represented by all other BlacksThis is called stereotype threat and means that in order to succeed Black employees must often code switch in order to negotiate their white colleagues39 racial stereotypes about Blacks Sensing white surveillance Blacks often avoid even appearing to prefer the company of people who look like them because the mere recognition of Black racial affiliation threatens to further exacerbate existing Black marginalization inside agencies Moreover these pressures make Black interns wary of seeking out help from other more established Black employees and thus place them at a career development disadvantage visamp224vis whites who have no qualms about requesting mentorship from other whitesAnd while internships might seem like a logical mechanism for expanding the socalled quotpipelinequot of underrepresented talent the structural impediments of unpaid internships nepotism and other practices that favor those already in power would make quotobstacle coursequot a more fitting analogy So I would like to recommend three alternatives to internships that could help diversify the advertising industry and help close the Blackamp8211white labor gapFirst agencies should raise entrylevel salaries to better attract talented working class andor firstgeneration college students of color Otherwise the WASPy homogeneity of the Mad Men era will continue to reproduce its hold on advertising by hoarding opportunities for the wealthy and wellconnected who have families able to subsidize exciting but unpaid or low salaried opportunitiesSecond agencies should start recognizing code switching as a valuable skill for marketing across demographic targets since employees of color can offer valuable ethnographic perspectives on the tastes and dispositions of a majority white culture which they39ve learned to recognize and find ways to survive within This would help agencies avoid hiring Blacks merely for their quotBlack perspectivequot as this isolates them from peers pigeonholes their identity along a single axis and ultimately limits their contributions and truncates their careersThird to mitigate stereotype threat and avoid antiaffirmative action backlash against interns of color agencies should provide incentives for crossracial mentoring and explain the purpose of MAIP in the context of contemporary not just historical race inequality and discrimination within advertising Furthermore these efforts should be led by white management not delegated to HR practitioners of color and coupled with placing a moratorium on management39s widespread practice of trading internship slots as favors to their own friends families or important clients This kind of cronyism disproportionately benefits whites and undermines HR departments who should instead be empowered to make all internship or entrylevel hires without interference either from management or mostly white teams who tend to refer and hire people like themselves based on vague subjective notions of quotfitquot and quotchemistryquotAnd yet even if all these changes were to be implemented massive structural racial inequalities within advertising will likely remain and require even more dramatic reformsFor instance in 2014 Lenny Henry a Black actor and comedian was invited by the British Academy of Film and Television to deliver the annual BAFTA Television Lecture Henry used the occasion to voice his frustration with the stubborn persistence and expansion of white power and race discrimination within the creative industries and call for quotas to correct the underrepresentation of Black Asian and minority ethnic BAME employeesHenry proposed bold legislation that would set aside quotringfence moneyquot specifically dedicated to projects where the participation of selfdeclared BAME people meet by cost at least two of the following three quotas a 50 of any production crew b 30 of senior production company owners executives or senior personnel and c 50 of onscreen talentGiven the apparent inability of the US advertising industry to correct its own internal diversity problems quotringfence moneyquot carrots and quotabased sticks from without may be the only way to address the sector39s persistent reproduction of white labor For instance if influential agency clients such as Proctor ampamp Gamble were to insist that at least a certain percentage of their ad dollars would be dedicated to supporting their own compliance to supply chain diversity commitments their advertising agencies would have a strong incentive to follow suitDiversity equity and inclusion in advertising remain elusive Internships alone won39t get us there Henry is right it39s time to crunch numbers and get down to businessClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Going Beyond the "Diversity Pipeline" and Dealing with Stereotype Threat

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Christopher Boulton

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Going Beyond the "Diversity Pipeline" and Dealing with Stereotype Threat

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