Workers like it when their employers talk about diversity and inclusion

  Many companies have made commitments toward diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in recent years, particularly since the murder of George Floyd sparked weeks of racial justice riots in 2020.

  But some of those efforts, such as hiring diversity leaders and creating policies to address racial inequality, have stalled or reversed at the same time as a growing conservative backlash is threatening to further undermine such initiatives.

Inclusion starts with better management – here’s what employees say about making diversity work

  Since the death of George Floyd in May, dozens of companies such as Apple, Estee Lauder, and Facebook have vowed to increase diversity and inclusion in their workplaces.

  The diversity part seems straightforward enough. But what’s meant by inclusion?

Even very young children can become prejudiced, but schools can do something about it

  Racism has negative consequences for children’s health. It harms the kids who experience it personally and those who witness it, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, an organization that represents 67,000 doctors who treat children.

Racial and gender diversity sorely lacking in America’s courts

  This month a group of African American voters sued Alabama under the Voting Rights Act, alleging that its system of at-large elections for the state’s three appellate courts discriminates against black voters. Since 1994, every black candidate for the state’s 19 appellate judgeships has lost to a white candidate. As ThinkProgress noted, “At-large elections have been a common tactic across the country” to minimize the political influence of voters of color. A similar lawsuit was recently filed in Texas. Around 40 percent of Texas’ population is Latino, yet only 5 of the 76 justices who have served on the Texas Supreme Court since 1945—a mere 6.6 percent—have been Latino.

Sam Fulwood III: Diversity is coming to a town near you

  Is there anyone yet unconvinced that the United States is changing demographically and evolving, seemingly right before our collective eyes, into a more diverse population of residents?

  If so, I challenge that unknowing and unseeing individual to spend an hour or two reading and then reflecting on “States of Change: The Demographic Evolution of the American Electorate, 1974–2060,” an impressive report issued Tuesday by a collaboration of my Center for American Progress colleagues, the American Enterprise Institute, and demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution.

Sam Fulwood III: Of bats, gloves, and an all-in nation

  Baseball season gets underway this week, bringing with it the springtime hopes that a favored team will remain active into fall’s World Series.

  I can’t escape the annual optimism that coincides with the first professional pitch of the year. What red-blooded American can resist feeling a sense of promise and potential that the start of a new baseball season represents? And, not to get all George Will up in here, but baseball truly is a metaphor for our national cultural life.