Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business
by Pamela Newkirk

An award-winning journalist shows how workplace diversity initiatives have turned into a profoundly misguided industry—and have done little to bring equality to America’s major industries and institutions.

Diversity has become the new buzzword, championed by elite institutions from academia to Hollywood to corporate America. In an effort to ensure their organizations represent the racial and ethnic makeup of the country, industry and foundation leaders have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to commission studies, launch training sessions, and hire consultants and diversity czars. But is it working?

In Diversity, Inc., award-winning journalist Pamela Newkirk shines a bright light on the diversity industry, asking the tough questions about what has worked-and why progress has been so slow. As she argues, despite decades of hand wringing, costly initiatives, and uncomfortable conversations, organizations have, apart from a few exceptions, fallen far short of their goals. Newkirk highlights the rare success stories, sharing valuable lessons about how other industries can match those gains.

Diversity, Inc. incisively shows the vast gap between our rhetoric of inclusivity and our achievements. If we are to deliver on the promise of true equality, we need to abandon ineffective, costly measures and do what it takes to challenge enduring racial attitudes.