While there have been numerous studies, reports and articles written about corporate discrimination, discrimination in the nonprofit arena is rarely discussed. Maybe it's because nonprofits are supposed to be bastions of do-gooders and "woke" liberals, so the idea that they would allow any type of workplace discrimination is inconceivable.
So imagine my surprise at seeing the results of the nation-wide Nonprofits, Race and Leadership Survey showing that blacks face enormous discrimination when pursuing nonprofit leadership opportunities. After working in a range of business organizations and living in both the North and the South, I can say that the difference between the corporate and nonprofit hiring discrimination faced by blacks in my generation, is very similar to the difference between the Northern and Southern racism faced by parents and grandparents.
In the North, whites are unconcerned about black prosperity, but they're very uncomfortable with black proximity. In the South, whites are comfortable living and being in close proximity to blacks, but resent seeing them achieve any measure of prosperity. This is why, prior to the Civil Rights Act forcing communities to protect the rights of their black citizens, Northern white racists would burn down a black person's house because it was next door to theirs, while Southern white racists would burn it down because it was bigger than theirs.
While most corporate discrimination involves not letting black candidates in the door (there's that proximity thing), nonprofit discrimination involves letting them in, but not letting them climb the ladder or have a corner office (and there's your prosperity angle).
After serving on the boards of two New Orleans charter schools and a New Orleans-based nonprofit that trains teachers, I've had numerous opportunities to see "prosperity discrimination" at work within the city's education reform-related organizations and institutions. At both charter schools and charter management organizations, the upper ranks are filled with young whites, many plucked from the classroom or an office cubicle with little more than a few years of education or general business experience. Conversely, the few blacks in leadership roles often have advanced degrees, along with a decade or more of relevant experience. It's as if the funders, influencers and decision-makers behind the reform movement believe that whites are supposed to be in charge of it and that few, if any, blacks are capable of implementing it.
Ironically, education reform is not the only area where I've gotten an upfront and personal view of "prosperity discrimination" in nonprofit organizations. Working in real development and finance has allowed me to see the juxtaposition of both "proximity" and "prosperity" racism up close, and feel the sting of it on more than one occasion.
Unlike most industries, real estate is divided into a profit-driven side and a social impact side. On the profit-driven side, you have companies and firms that focus on commercial real estate and market-rate housing. On the social impact side, you have community development and affordable housing organizations, most of which operate like or are structured as nonprofits. While the challenges faced by blacks pursing career opportunities in profit-driven real estate development and finance are well known, the challenges they face trying to advance on the community-focused, social impact side are lesser known but just as great...despite the fact that the "communities" in question, are often black ones.
At many affordable housing/community development and finance organizations, it is not uncommon for black employees to be given lesser titles than whites with similar management roles, or to see them relegated to lower organizational profiles than their tenure and experience would suggest. Conversely, it's not uncommon to see recent white college or urban planning masters program graduates, with only an internship on their resumes, placed in mid-career positions with one or more direct reports, and mid-career white professionals with very little relevant experience brought on board as directors or VPs.
In the case of one organization that I'm familiar with, black employees who'd repeatedly exceeded performance expectations were denied raises and promotions, while the CEO insisted on keeping one or more white employees on the payroll simply because they "needed the money".
As the report has proven—and experience has shown me—whites in nonprofit organizations don't mind working WITH blacks, they just don't like or think they should be working FOR them. I just hope that some of the organizations working to provide blacks with equal access to educational and housing of opportunities, will start giving more blacks a chance to lead them in doing it.
There's no lie in this post...
ReplyDeleteMy career path in the 9 years I lived in NOLA were similar to what the author writes about in her post. I had every career title in real estate development but the one that is synonymous with my capabilities, leadership, prior work experience, and education... Before I moved to the area, I even had one nonprofit executive said that I didn't have enough finance experience (but I was a corporate finance analyst at 22 years old on Wall Street) in a role at the end of my tenure where I manage to develop more than 500 rental and homeownership units... ��
It's WELL OVER DUE that some goodly non-profits and woke "liberals" stop acting like all is well because they are doing "good" work and I'm not as bad as the corporate bosses. In many ways, they are worse in how they under promote their POC employees and play on our sentiments of each one teach one and reaching back into our communities... Or they use the "you are so good in this position" while adding more responsibilities with no compensation and little to no job title change... String them along with the hopes they won't leave... Or become intimidated by your knowledge and leadership capacity which often lead to strife and dissension unless the POC employee lets his or her fire and passion subsides which usually result in the POC slowing dying inside....