How to Call Out Racial Injustice at Work - James R. Detert and Laura Morgan Roberts, HBR

This resource first appeared in issue #41 on 11 Sep 2020 and has tags Becoming A Manager: Diversity

At the beginning of the summer there were a flurry of articles on addressing racial or other systemic injustices in the workplace. Unfortunately those have died down a little bit. This HBR article discusses how to call out racial injustice at work - it could just as easily be used to address issues of gender inequality, or dealing with any systemic issues.

The steps Detert and Roberts suggest are:

Use allies and speak as a collective.
Channel your emotions (but don’t suppress them!)
Anticipate others’ negative reactions. (“If your request evokes a furrowed brow or a crossing of arms across the chest, start asking questions: `These seem like appropriate next steps to me, but perhaps they feel problematic to you. Can you help me understand what you’re thinking, and why these may not seem right to you?’”)
Frame what you say so that it’s compelling to your counterpart. (“We are evolving together” rather than “I am revolting against you.”)

And finally, and maybe most crucially,

Follow up. A single conversation isn’t going to be enough.

As managers in research computing, most of us are white, and many of us are white men, and so don’t really have to deal with steps one and two when we see issues - we can speak up when we see issues and our voices will be heard and taken seriously without having to have safety in numbers or modulating our emotions. Indeed, we have an obligation to do so. Even so, where applicable it would be best to connect with those most directly affected and make sure we’re advocating for the right things, and lending our voices to theirs.

As a bonus, this framework is a very useful one for raising any difficult topic with higher-ups in an organization.