Unlike many others in this group, I am not a classroom educator. I am a consultant in the consumer packaged goods industry. My profession and passion is to give manufacturers and retailers the tools needed to speak to the multi-cultural consumer in a culturally sensitive and respectful manner. To sharpen my skill set, I thought it a great idea to understand how educators handle diversity, why the imbalances exist here in America and how I can borrow some key learnings to help me better reach the executives in corporate America that I and my team serve.
Chapter 1 was an education for me from a legislative perspective. It gave me a broader understanding of how the laws passed since the 1920's have impacted the "color" of immigration even unto this day. Though laws have been nuanced over the years, it does not go without notice that the immigration population, both legal and illegal is vastly comprised of Hispanics. If the legislation was properly interpreted, applied and followed, the face of immigrants here in America would be much more diverse and "pigmented" than what we see here today.
The concept of assimilation versus acculturation creates a bit of a conundrum in the corporate America. Professionals that take on the look, feel and culture of the company they join. The majority of companies here are owned, operated and managed by white Americans. Assimilation is favored in this arena more than acculturation in traditional corporate companies. However, new cutting edge technologically driven companies, such as Google or Apple tend to favor acculturation over assimilation. It is a difficult process for immigrants, educators and professionals to walk the fine line between being, teaching and respecting American values and cultures while embracing, teaching and respecting foreign cultures in this defacto segregated America in which we live.
Question: How realistic or actionable is it to put in place policies and procedures that will yield a more balanced or representative demographic in teachers and executives? If 30% of your students are hispanic, perhaps 30% of your educators and administrators should also be hispanic. If 30% of your customer base is Chinese, perhaps 30% of the executives should also be Chinese.
Interesting question! I think that you are correct, that it should follow that demographic if we are to be equitable. The problems lies in getting the people with the skill set to do the job. We have to educate our little ones before that can happen. In a perfect world that would happen. As it is, we just have to keep working toward it.
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