Richmond protesters march against police brutality and systemic racism on June 3, 2020. (Photo by Jay Paul)
In fall 2014, I relocated from Atlanta to Richmond, where I became the first diversity lecturer-in-residence in the 177-year history of Virginia Commonwealth University. My role in the Office of the Senior Vice President of Health Sciences was to develop a health care diversity program that taught professional medical and health sciences students how to improve health outcomes through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices — the first program of its kind at an American public institution.
I was so excited about this opportunity, but as I arrived with the moving truck in the Museum District, my joy was met with disdain. As I greeted three neighbors on a bright, crisp morning, I was stunned by their responses. A stare from one. Silence from another. And then from one young woman, “So you’re moving in there?” she asked, pointing in disgust. The only response I could muster was, “Yes, I am. I just moved from Georgia to work at VCU!”
In my naivete, I thought my response would quell her apparent discomfort with my Blackness in an affluent neighborhood that sat less than 100 feet from the Confederate statues that were removed from Monument Avenue last summer. She said nothing, as if I didn’t exist, staring at me like I was a stray cat that found itself on the wrong street. I will never forget the fear that shot through my body. The deafening silence was a warning that I wasn’t welcome. I couldn’t stop myself from wondering whether I would awake to a burning cross on my lawn. Each of my new neighbors was white.
I accepted those stares as a challenge to develop more inclusive health care professionals. By the end of my two-year residency at VCU, 78% more of my students felt better equipped with diversity strategies to improve relationships with future patients and reported committing 56% fewer microaggressions. One hundred percent of my students felt that this health care diversity course should be required to attain a health science or medical degree.
Despite these results, health care has made little progress toward improving access, treatment or quality of care for historically marginalized groups. Seven years since my arrival at VCU, racial disparities in housing, education and health care still disproportionately impact racial minorities. In May 2020, Blacks and Hispanics comprised 64% of all COVID-19 deaths in Richmond. Their deaths were caused not by medical conspiracy theories, but by inequities that have plagued the health care system for more than 400 years.
Racism is like a cancer. It causes indescribable social, emotional and economic burdens that metastasize throughout every space we occupy. Racism determines who owns real estate, whose physical pain is treated seriously by medical professionals, who writes the laws and policies that govern diverse communities, and who has access to life-saving vaccinations — and who doesn’t.
America is caught in the eye of a colossal storm — the pandemic, protests against police brutality and a historic movement to end systemic racism. Linked-In reported that 84% of senior executive hires in the first 10 months of 2020 were chief diversity officers (CDOs). But DEI education has only minimally changed the behavior of the employees who need it most. CDOs are fleeing the companies they were hired to lead because many employers are not genuinely committed to confronting systemic issues. That’s because diversity doesn’t work.
Diversity doesn’t work if you think that posting “Black Lives Matter” banners will improve employee engagement and psychological safety or you think that one eight-hour training will make your organization DEI-compliant. Diversity education will have limited effectiveness if it overlooks diversity of thought or diversity-led innovation. Corporate diversity leaders such as Johnson & Johnson understand that their chief diversity officer must report to the CEO to create a more inclusive organizational culture in everything from hiring practices to scientific research.
For the last 16 years, I’ve taught DEI and social justice as separate topics. But I’ve realized that in order to dismantle systemic racism, justice is no longer optional. It must be moved to the forefront of diversity, equity and inclusion practices. This framework is known as JEDI — justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. We live in a country that protects the rights of the privileged few and knowingly accepts the suffering and oppression of others. Our laws were shaped by white men who legalized the enslavement of free people and, therefore, never truly meant to serve the needs of all.
When we lead with justice, we can trust that the system will work for everyone, every time, as we witnessed in the case against police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. From Emmett Till to Breonna Taylor, thousands of cases will never see justice prevail. When Chauvin was convicted of second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Minneapolis on April 20, 2021, it didn’t just change the future of police reform in Minnesota — it was an important step toward changing the entire system of justice in America.
Can you imagine how different America would be if we led with justice every time? If we had led with justice, George Floyd would still be with us. Confederate statues that were historic symbols of hatred never would have been erected on Monument Avenue. Marcus-David Peters would still be teaching biology at Essex High School in Tappahannock, instead of being gunned down by police, because a mental health professional would have intervened to manage his crisis.
Diversity alone doesn’t work. Diversity never would have changed the outcome of these injustices, because diversity can’t reform an entire system without sustainable action. What we really want is justice — not justice for some, but justice for all.
Dr. Yewande Austin is an international expert in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, and she’s the founder of One Change LLC, a capacity-building consultancy that has worked with clients in 30 countries. She formerly served as Gov. Ralph Northam’s special advisor to the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
