editor’s letter
DIVERSITYINC
FREE
THE LINE IN THE SAND
SUBSCRIPTIONS
If your e-mail
address ends in
You can get a free
digital subscription
today. Visit
www.DiversityInc.com/
Freesubs
For several years, I taught
a class on media ethics at
Rutgers University and
ran workshops exploring ethical dilemmas. What I always told
my students is that beyond the
obvious ethical taboos (don’t steal,
don’t misrepresent yourself), there
are many gray areas. Each of us
needs to explore personally what
lines in the sand we have, what
would be a personal violation of
our own ethical codes—and then
stand by those, no matter what.
Those lines may change as you
change. As a child, I berated my father for jaywalking and refused to
cross the street with him because
it was “against the law” (yes, I was
a bit rigid). Today, I feel free to use
this same “unethical” behavior I
once found so objectionable.
But sometimes those ethical lines are so strong that you
know they will be part of you
forever. As a high-school student,
I kicked several popular sorority girls out of my house because
they wouldn’t consider my friend
Gwen, who was black, for membership. I’d do the same thing today, just a whole lot faster.
For companies, the decision
on which values are essential may
also change, as the leadership
and the culture of the company
evolves. But, like my high-school
episode, decisions based on core
values are not going to change
because they are ingrained in the
very fabric, the very essence, of
what these companies are.
In this issue, you’ll read our
lead story, “Absolute Values: 7
Essential Lessons Learned From
the Top 50,” which is based on a
roundtable we held here over two
days with 13 chief diversity officers from Top 5 0 companies. At
all of their companies, the values
of diversity and inclusiveness are
so much a part of their DNA that
they never would consider excluding any one group. As Geri Thomas
of Bank of America put it so well:
“This is a value of our company
and if this is a value that you cannot share, then perhaps you don’t
need to work here.”
The group Thomas was referencing, one that is excluded by
many businesses, is LGBT (
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender)
people. Afraid of a perceived backlash from customers or employees with certain religious views,
some companies back away from
including them in their recruitment efforts, in employee groups
and, most importantly, in offering
them the same benefits everyone
else gets. The Top 50 companies,
however, have drawn that line
in the sand, and this is one they
will never cross. EVERYONE is
included and, as Thomas says, if
you don’t get that, go find yourself
another company.
People often ask us what the
real difference is between the
Top 50 companies and the rest of
corporate America. As you’ll see
throughout this issue, the difference is their complete and total
inability to cross those moral
lines, to discriminate against any
one group over another.
Barbara Frankel
Senior Vice President,
Executive Editor
editor@DiversityInc.com
