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Some observations on race in asset management from my initial conversation in the Diversity & Inclusion mini-series (out in August).
Having a conversation about race is uncomfortable and has been avoided for a long time. Many are afraid of saying the wrong thing and offending those we intend to support, present company included.
The recent wave of BLM is shifting the willingness to have a dialogue on all sides.
Black individuals have faced conscious and subconscious discrimination in asset management for a long time.
Conscious discrimination is just bad. It exists, it sucks, and it will still happen. Black people have to deal with it far too often.
Subconscious discrimination is perhaps more deep-seated and pernicious to careers.
It’s an example of what @AnnieDuke calls the Dr. Evil game in her upcoming book, How to Decide (which is awesome!). It describes how you might fall short of a goal by making a decision that is individually justifiable but in aggregate causes failure.
Eat a donut one day, get a sugar buzz, you feel good, and no big deal.
Eat one every day for a year, maybe not so good.
Eat one every day for a year, maybe not so good.
What’s happened with race in asset management is like eating a donut every day for a generation or more.
The podcast D&I mini-series will share examples of this across hiring, training, promotion, and leadership.
The problem is trickier in asset management because of the bottom-line nature of the industry. It's easy to write-off the challenge of connecting racial or gender diversity with outcomes.
D&I is correlated with cognitive diversity, a proven benefit to investment outcomes, but is not necessarily the same. Success in the asset management business is about more than just performance, and D&I practices will improve outcomes, just as it will in other sectors.
Fortunately, BLM is raising awareness and improving the dialogue. Stopping the pattern of eating that donut one day is the first step in a long process that over a decade or two, can move us in a better direction on D&I across asset management and corporate America.
with thanks to @shundrawn and Jacob Walthour for getting me this far.
