Diversity and Straight White Men – 4 Key Thoughts

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This groups certainly does not look very diverse and is not indicative of today's diverse business environment.

This groups certainly does not look very diverse and is not indicative of today’s diverse business environment.

Diversity and Straight White Men – this topic indeed does deserve some discussion. How do straight white men fit into the diversity and inclusion discussion?

So often straight white men may feel left out or marginalized in diversity and inclusion discussions. Some may even feel that they are be targeted as “the diversity problem” or feel under appreciated or even discriminated against. I would like to offer 4 points for consideration, and have added links to two related online articles at the end.

1. You are diverse as a straight white man! Every single person in an organization is diverse and unique, and brings their own special mix of background and experience to the table. Though some people may view straight white men as a monolithic group, there is a huge mix of diversity including age, marital / family status, education, thought processes,economic upbringing, etc.

2. Accept your privilege. White men (and I am one of them) need to realize that we have been in control of most of the organizational leadership and processes in the US. It has been easier for us to progress into senior leadership within a system with the incumbent leadership looking like us. We now need to accept that with a wider pool of diverse candidates now getting their fair shot at leadership, we truly must be the best qualified to deserve that next promotion.

3. Realize that straight white men face their own diversity challenges. For example, as both parents are now take a stronger role in raising families, some managers may still excuse a woman when she needs to leave work early to pick up a sick child at school, but look down at a man with the same request as “less than” and questioning why his wife does not pick up the child. And there are also single fathers, men with responsibility for aging parents, etc., that need strong work-life balance practices without feeling that they are somehow “less manly.”

A white male business leader can be an active diversity ally by mentoring a diverse set of employees.

A white male business leader can be an active diversity ally by mentoring a diverse set of employees.

4. Be a strong active diversity ally. We need to reject any thoughts or discussion that white men are the cause of diversity issues. Instead, we can take the lead and be a major ally to promote diversity and inclusion as a critical strategic initiative within our organizations. We can mentor diverse candidates and help insure they have full access to the tools to help them get head and contribute their maximum to the organization. And we can network among our own peers and speak passionately about the value of diversity.

Yes, I know many people may disagree or not even like this blog, but dialogue on diversity items like this are important. In fact, here are two more in depth articles you can read on this subject, I may not agree with them and instead make my above 4 points, but it is always good to consider all aspects of a complex discussion:

I thank my business partner Marie-Louise Murville of Delight Me for sending me the Washington Post article, “Workplace diversity policies don’t help – and make white men feel threatened.”

And one I found via LinkedIn, “Diversity Talk Makes White Men Anxious, and Other Reasons Diversity Programs Fail.”

We must take action against the Huge Growth in Scam and Robo Telephone Calls

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Automated "robots" are placing billions of telephone calls per hour, disturbing American homes and businesses

Automated “robots” are placing billions of telephone calls per hour, disturbing American homes and businesses


I decided to designate January, 2016 as my “rant about something in my blog month,” but I will also offer solutions. I decided to provide a series of three such blogs planned in January, this one being my third.

Please also do read first two:
• My Issues with Corporate Procurement and Supplier Diversity Professionals
• The US Patent Process – a Huge Roadblock to American Entrepreneurship and Small Business.
These first two were totally serious, and this one I will close with a little humor.

One Labor Day, I wrote a special tongue-in-cheek Labor Day Blog titled, “The Largest Threat to the American Economy and Entrepreneurism,” about how the tremendous explosion of spam mail is destroying American business efficiency. Now I want to address something that is equally as bad, the huge proliferation of annoying “robo-calls” on the phone, many of them illegal scams.

I recently got a robocall which stated, “Urgent, you are being sued by the IRS (US Internal Revenue Service) and this is your final warning. Please call this number and provide your social security number for more information.” (Read more about this scam in this online AARP article.)

This is enough to scare many Americans –a threatening call from the government saying they were being sued. Of course it was a scam, but thousands of people may not realize it and end up being bilked of thousands of dollars. At best, these constant calls from credit card companies, time share sellers and political fundraisers are annoying, destroying our quality of live and being a major hit on productivity.

Imagine the huge boost to our economy in building prisons and hiring prison personnel if we could jail all these illegal robocall scammers.

Imagine the huge boost to our economy in building prisons and hiring prison personnel if we could jail all these illegal robocall scammers.


Seriously, Donald Trump and other politicians should stop talking about deporting hardworking Hispanics who fill construction, farming, cleaning and landscaping jobs that contribute to our economy, and instead propose ways to go after these useless parasites disrupting our lives and lock them up in jail for 20 years. Think of how much boost to the economy we can achieve in building prisons and hiring personnel to staff the facilities to keep this scum locked up. And also the productivity boost of not having to answer the phone every 15 minutes.

We all need to call our representatives and senators in Congress and demand they take immediate action on this drain to American productivity and quality of life NOW!