Community Survey on Racial Justice
Individuals and companies are taking a wide variety of actions to support racial and social justice and at the same time, they are in need of more understanding and guidance.
In June 2020, following the unjust death of George Floyd and the following protests demanding racial justice, we began hearing from our community about meaningful action they were taking within their companies and initiatives their companies are supporting. We also heard about challenging and frustrating things, centering largely around inaction at companies or by leadership. We are grateful to those in our community who reached out to share their frustrations, concerns about speaking up and doing the right thing, and actions they are still taking even at potential risk to their careers.
As Ceresa is a diverse community built to support each other and the next generation of leaders, we wanted to better understand and learn from a larger set of people in our community about what they were doing to support racial and social justice, what struggles they were facing, and what they were seeing as effective.
What we heard….
This community promotes greater racial equity and social justice in many ways and it’s important to them that the companies they work for are anti-racist (scoring 8.4/10 in importance), while it’s slightly less important for the companies they buy from to be anti-racist (scoring 7.3/10 in importance).
Top actions being taken by individuals include education, committing to diverse hiring and speaking up against microaggressions. And the companies where they work are also focused on recruiting & hiring practices, hiring diverse leaders and using their platform to advocate for change.
There continues to be a need for guidance and support on how to talk about race, understanding bias and company best practices. At the company level, there’s still opportunity for changing the existing promotion & review practices to be more inclusive of underrepresented populations.
Individual Action
Reading or workshops/training to educate myself (74%)
Committing to diversity in hiring that I am responsible for (70%)
Speaking up when I see microaggressions (67%)
We found there are a wide variety of actions being taken by individuals to promote greater racial equity and social justice. Out of the 14 actions we inquired about, 10 of the actions were being taken by 40% or more of respondents. The most common actions are:
“While I have volunteered to mentor under-represented startup founders, waiting to be matched I am also engaging in conversations with friends and family exploring our own unconscious bias and ways we can grow”
Individual Challenges
Concerned they would do it wrong or offend someone (63%)
Alienating friends or colleagues (33%)
Don’t know where to start (32%)
When asked about challenges or concerns they had in taking action, the overall number of responses was on the low end which signals that many in our community believe there are few obstacles in their way in making change. With that said, almost two-thirds call out a concern about doing it in the wrong way or offending someone.
“I have been facing challenges head on and none of the above sway me from creating change.”
Company Actions
Review of recruiting/hiring policies and procedures (75%)
Using their platform and voice to advocate for change (65%)
Hiring more diverse leaders (59%)
As for what companies are doing – the majority of efforts are focused on increasing diversity by evolving how a company hires, who they hire and using their platforms to advocate for change. While these are important efforts, there should be just as much, if not more, focus on internal promotions so that underrepresented groups can advance in their careers. Only 39% of companies were reported to be reviewing promotion or performance review approach.
Need for Support
When asked what additional support was needed, we saw a very strong response from our community. The strong response confirms a desire to make things better with more personal understanding and guidance.
Examples of things I can do to help (65%)
Coaching on how to have courageous conversations about race (62%)
Information on what changes my company could consider, e.g. best practices (57%)
Materials to help me address and push back on concerns from other people (57%)
Help understanding my own bias (52%)
“What we really need is to, at every level, understand that we have power and responsibility to make things better. This understanding is important as we address the ills of racism - but it is key and fundamental for all similar struggles to allow humans to thrive.”
Survey conducted in June 2020, among Ceresa participants, Mentors and business contacts; 79 respondents