What are the greatest challenges you see to advancing the cause of diversity in the workplace?
Our greatest challenges lie in education. People learn to accept differences and appreciate them from a young age. Because of housing patterns and changes in student assignment, we have seen most of our schools resegregate, which does not give many of our youth the chance to learn about others. We need to make better progress in providing a quality education to all, including our minority students, and decreasing the drop-out rate. We should place greater emphasis on foreign languages, which provide keys to cultural understanding and global competency. We need to build trust and advance beyond the fear of competition to a position of collaboration with respect to work, housing and other economic issues. Many biases stem from misinformation, not from facts, and offer obstacles to diversity in the workplace.
