The Practical Encyclopedia of Racial Equity in the Workplace
Resources for Every Stage of the Journey
A comprehensive leadership guide, The Practical Encyclopedia of Racial Equity in the Workplace is about organizational equity, reducing barriers, and fostering cultures of inclusion.
Thorough and ranging, Ann Curry-Stevens’s leadership resource The Practical Encyclopedia of Racial Equity in the Workplace is about effectuating positive organizational change.
The book collects practical tools for advancing racial equity in the business world. Intended as a resource for leaders, it is a thorough compendium of step-by-step ways to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion in organizations and to combat privilege and racism. Based on decades of practice in EDI in Canada, surveys, and academic research, it includes examples from across North America to support its claims. There are sample policies from Portland Public Schools and vision statements from the Oregon Educational Investment Board’s Oregon Equity Lens; these model how the book’s proposals might be put into practice.
Systematic in its organization, the book’s chapters address policies, implementation, and action plans, as well as plotting for contingencies, as where it explores what to do when diversity and equity policies are ignored. It addresses microaggressions, establishing employee resource groups, conducting self-assessments, and selecting benchmarks in turn. Indeed, each chapter follows a rigid formula, with numerical subchapters covering topics in detail, encompassing descriptions, goals, and benefits, among other concerns. Differential implications for white and nonwhite staff members are also covered. These topics are interspersed with assessments, terms of reference, and policy templates, with lists, bullet points, and charts used to explore topics further.
The prose is formal, professional, and matter of fact. Some of its language becomes unwieldy, though, as with “Do your own assessment of the causes of noncompliance” and “It is likely to diverge from the preferred helping approach of non-dominant cultures.” Further, it seems overdetailed at times, as when it ticks off points for grading rubrics. Still, its pointed questions are effectual, and it does an able job of showing how equity should be embraced in workplaces.
The book illustrates scenarios like using client satisfaction surveys to gather actionable intelligence well, and its methodical approaches to subjects like allyship, avoiding defensiveness, and working equality into job descriptions are revealing. Its planning guides, climate surveys, and organizational assessment tools make it a useful resource for improving work allocation, communication, and company cultures. It delivers on its promise of being a hands-on reference filled with actionable advice for improving any workplace.
A substantive leadership guidebook, The Practical Encyclopedia of Racial Equity in the Workplace models rooting out racism within organizations.
Reviewed by
Joseph S. Pete
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
