1998 - 1999 Broadcast Season
Broadcast Program Transcripts

Black Issues Forum #1423

Holloway:
Good evening and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I'm Jay Holloway, your host. Tonight we're in Charlotte. It's not a Town Hall Meeting, but it is the North Carolina Race Initiative, Governor Hunt's Race Initiative. And tonight we're in Charlotte on a business and education conference, where several leaders from the business and education community are meeting to encourage honest and open dialogue about race relations being improved here in North Carolina, and encouraging open and available opportunities for all people.

Governor James Hunt:
. Folks, we are in a city that has been noted for its bold ideas and for its bold action. Bold ideas have lifted up North Carolina throughout our history. They will be needed to carry us forward into the 21st century. But being bold is nothing new for us. We have not been afraid to think big in this state. We have not been afraid to reach high, to reach for the best. Let me say to you today, why can't we be the first state to realize the true American dream of equality and opportunity for all of our citizens? Why can't we do that? [APPLAUSE] This conference and this initiative is a critical part of the larger challenge of preparing North Carolinians to live in the next century. That is a century that we will spend in a world that's very different. But that's going to be a century in which we're even more involved in the global economy. I think all of us in this room today have done our best to pursue this vision of opportunities for people, equality of opportunity. We literally want every child to start to school healthy and ready to learn, we want them to get an excellent education and graduate, ready to go out and compete with the rest of the world. We want to be a place where businesses can operate here and have the best people here, and be able to compete with all the world, which is where we must compete today. I want to suggest to you, and I would hope this conference would sort of focus on not just creating communities in which we quote, "tolerate" each other. We can go far beyond that in North Carolina, folks. That is not good enough for us. We don't want to just be a state in which we deal with flare-ups when we have church burnings, or God forbid, African-American men dragged to their death! You have to deal with crises. But I want us to be focusing on how we can be our best! What can we do? What is our role? What is business's leadership? What is higher education's leadership in trying to create communities and relationships and opportunities? How can businesses ensure that their employees have the diversity training that is needed to better serve customers to work together as teams, to change attitudes, and to make their businesses the best they can be? What can colleges and universities do? What are you doing? What could you do with regard to those wonderful graduates you're sending out? I hope what we will do here today, and I hope you'll stick with this and I hope you'll work at it. What I think we can do, and I hope we will do, is first of all to be honest about where we are, and to reflect on that as you're in small groups and as we're discussing things here today. Second, that we will listen for ideas about how people are doing things in different businesses and communities, and how we can do it better. That we will come up with ideas that we will then take back to our colleges and universities, to our businesses, to our chambers of commerce, and many of them are represented here today. And that we will leave here really motivated and determined that we're going to change things in this state and make them the best we can make them. [APPLAUSE]

Male Voice:
Thank you for doing, and what we have learned from it. There was a time in the mid-80s when Nortel and most Fortune 500 companies viewed diversity as just a matter good corporate citizenship and social responsibility. We created grassroots programs at our various locations. In fact, in North Carolina for example, we began a race awareness training course, attended by 6,000 employees at all levels. We've worked to promote equal opportunity, employment, and embedded diversity principles in our code of business conduct. But by and large, diversity was viewed as a moral issue, and certainly a local issue specific to the business unit, the location, or the country. Senior management had supported diversity and its related policies and projects around the company for a long time, but there'd been very little direct, openly communicated supported at the executive level. The critical turning point for us was actually very recent. It came in 1995 when we convened a senior management forum in Nashville, Tennessee. And it was the first time the issue received the full attention at the executive level, and the results, ladies and gentlemen, were very revealing. We brought together leading edge thinkers and leaders on diversity in global organizations. They sparked a radical shift in our thinking about what diversity means in the workforce. It was no longer just a matter of meeting federal guidelines or being a good corporate citizen. There was in fact also a strong business case for diversity, which would allow us to increase our shareholder value while motivating our employees. This business case is predicated on three factors. One, ensuring and leveraging diversity is vital for creating global teams. Two, pulling diverse people together creates value for our customers. And three, here in the US, we've found that minority and women-owned enterprises in specific cases are our best suppliers, outsourcing vendors, and resellers. Nortel Networks has 80,000 employees of 55 national origins, and we speak 15 native languages. We work in 150 countries and territories. Our workforce is a cross-section of the world's major cultures. Research by Townes and Perrin shows that diverse teams are much better at complex problem solving. Each individual brings a different perspective, and that mix creates the most innovative solutions. We need the critical thinking that a complete range of diverse personalities, backgrounds, experiences, and a thinking style that can bring to bear on a problem. I call it our collective imagination. As Nortel Networks has evolved from an equipment maker to a solutions builder, we depend on the collective imagination and the collective dream more than ever. And frankly, a commitment to diversity is critical for attaining talent at Nortel Networks. We have to create an environment where people enjoy their working hours and are motivated to stay and advance their careers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of African-Americans in the workforce will increase 14% from 1996 to 2006. The Hispanic population will grow by 35%, the Asian population by 41%, compared to just 9% for the white workforce. Any corporation that wants to attract the best and brightest talent will respect these figures and establish a culture that embraces diversity in all its manifestations. The second key influence in the business case for diversity is the customer. Our customers see diversity as a business differentiator, and they in turn compete and serve many diverse customer segments. Our customers have told us that suppliers who are leaders on race and gender issues are seen as much better business partners. As a customer-dedicated organization, we have much to gain by matching their diversity initiatives and exceeding those of our competitors. The third key factor in the business case for diversity is the value of minority and women-owned enterprises as business partners. This has been a winning situation for us in the U.S. For one, minority vendors have pulled through hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Where we used to have 5% of Pacific Bell's interoffice transport sales, we now have 100% of that market, thanks to our partners in minority- and women-owned enterprises. Our minority- and women-owned businesses and value-added resellers brought in $100 million in revenue to Nortel Networks last year. And because they are smaller companies, and generally more agile, they do a great job. Clearly the business case is compelling. So what is Nortel Networks doing to make diversity part of the way we do business? We have had diversity initiatives underway for two decades, mostly in the U.S., but also in the U.K. and Europe. In North Carolina, for example, we have loaned one of our executives to help run the Computer Science department at St. Augustine's College for a year. We hold an annual Diversity Day celebration at the Raleigh Civic Center, and host our employees for over a half-day of seminars. And over the past two years we've had as speakers, Coretta Scott King and Maya Angelou. Throughout the year we bring in outside diversity consultants to run training sessions. Though not mandatory, employees are encouraged to attend as part of career development programs that are used to determine job advancement, promotions, and salary increases. Now in addition to various local activities, we are formulating a comprehensive global framework that will support four main goals. First, to be viewed as an employer of choice by the broadest pool of qualified candidates. To be a trusted partner to our customers. To be a respected corporate citizen in all our communities. To be a global leader in attracting the best talent. To reach these goals, we are coordinating activities to expand diversity in the workforce. In the last 20 years we've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't, and I'll share five lessons that we've learned. One, is that demographics are not enough. Two, executive level support is critical. Diversity must be seen as a core value that is embraced throughout the corporation. Three, traditional sourcing won't do the job. Traditional recruitment channels are great for reaching majority, but not necessarily for reaching a diverse pool of candidates. Four, communicate your success. Today many people outside Nortel Networks know more about our diversity initiatives than our own employees. We're changing that. We're now implementing a detailed internal communications program that has two objectives. The first one is educating our communicators to be diversity-aware, and two, communicating the successes of our initiatives both internally and externally. And finally, provide top-level support. Any corporate initiative works best when backed with forceful, visible leadership from the CEO's office, coupled with accountability from senior management.

Holloway:
Linking the common economic interests of the business and education communities, President Molly Broad next established a strong case for continued affirmative outreach in universities.

Molley Broad:
It is true that whether we are individuals or as members of a community, citizens of a state or the nation, we want to participate in a prosperous economy, and all of that is going to depend upon the skill and the knowledge of the citizens of this state and of this country. What I would like to do this morning is to provide you with some evidence, some strong analytical evidence of the benefits and the beneficial effects of affirmative outreach in universities. And to provide you with the evidence that I hope will stimulate the discussion over the course of the day. North Carolina ranks 11th in the United States in total population, but we rank 4th in the United States in the rate of growth of school enrollment. In addition to the rate of growth in our schools, we will see a transformation of the racial and ethnic composition of our students, with increasing percentages of those students who are African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American. We have a strong commitment within the University of North Carolina to being a solid, trustworthy and committed partner with Mike Ward, with Martin Lancaster, and with the business community in achieving equality and improvement in our education. If you have a high school degree, you're going to earn a third more over your lifetime. If you hold a bachelor's degree, you're going to earn twice as much. If you hold a master's degree or an advanced degree, the numbers continue to increase. And as you track the data coming from the Bureau of the Census, what you learn is that these gaps are growing, and the message is, the more education you have, the higher will be your income and that of your family. We heard it from Clarence, but what we hear from all employers is what they are looking for in the employees that they recruit is to find individuals who can compete globally, and they must be able to think critically, both verbally and in writing. That they are comfortable working in terms, both within an area of specialty and cross-functionally. That they must be proficient in the uses of information technology and they must be able to work effectively in an environment of diversity. This is what we learned from a survey that employers, asking them about university education for their workforce. So here is what the college going rate looks like for the University of North Carolina by race. The pink line at the top is the percentage of North Carolina high school graduates who are going on to the University of North Carolina who are white, and the blue line is the percentage coming to the University of North Carolina who are African-American. And as you can see, the gap is closing, but it has not been completely closed as of yet. For the first time, in a new report entitled "The Shape of the River," we have deep analytical evidence of the beneficial effects of programs of affirmative outreach. "The Shape of the River" was written by Bill Bowen and Derrick Bock, the immediately retired presidents of Princeton and Harvard, respectively, and a two-year study funded by the Mellon Foundation to gather extensive information about students in 28 colleges and universities across the country that are among the most selective colleges. In North Carolina, it includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It looks at 30 years of evidence, and utilizes extensive survey information and analysis to really test the consequences of race-sensitive admissions to these 28 colleges and universities. And it provides a kind of analytical grounding for a topic that, frankly, has been so riven with emotion that we have not been able to look and to evaluate objectively and analytically the results of our efforts. We believe this report presents exactly the kind of information that will be presented to the courts and that we believe will bolster the arguments and support for continuation and expansion of our programs of affirmative outreach. If admission to these universities was based only on SAT score, you would have seen a decline in the number of African-American students admitted to these colleges and universities. But let's shift now from entrance to these universities to what have been the results at the end of their experience. And what you can see here, the four columns on the left show the rates of graduation of students in these colleges, black, white, Hispanic and Asian. And as you can see, much of the difference that may have existed at the entrance has been closed and students from all races are graduating at very high rates. Well my goal was to give you some analytical evidence, and I hope that I have given you what you will need to stimulate the conversations in the small groups.

Holloway:
The morning session also included a panel discussion, moderated by Linda Belans. The panelists included Rick Davis of the Rocky Mount Chamber of Commerce, Jack Duray of Nortel Networks, and Ben Ruffin, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, RJ Reynolds and Chair of the UNC Board of Governors.

Davis:
Most Chambers of Commerce, and I know there are a lot of Chambers represented here in the room today, have a disproportionate portion of the community pie, and we get involved in so many things and that's our charge and our mission and our challenge, and we take the broad scope. And we determined several years ago that there is no dimension, there is no factor, feature, or characteristic within our community, whether it's economic development, education, justice, recreation, housing, whatever it might be-at some point in time, there is going to be the factor of race or race relations, or racism, or discrimination that's going to enter into the picture. And we decided if we are to grow and prosper and mature as a community, then we had better look at that piece of the dimension, where does race fit in with virtually every other factor in our community.

Male Voice:
I like to tell people that I'm a recovering racist. Let you marinate in that comment for just a minute. I'm not the product of a racist home, but the course and its teachings and learnings that I've had in my own life caused me to reflect and do the deprogramming; I still go through it every day. Now let's not liken it too much to alcoholism or drug abuse, but you have to work at this every day. You just don't go to a two-day course and you're fixed. I think our company has realized that, and one of the things, innovations I think that we've done is that we have continuing dialogue and conversation.

Belans:
How did you go from getting, being way outside the system to getting inside the system, and then leading it?

Male Voice:
One of the things that I've had the pleasure and the privilege of doing, I've seen it from the outside, and now I've had a chance to get a peek from the inside. And I know, you can tell when a person comes into an organization almost, how far that person's going. Because folks start, that person goes to the training programs, that person goes to the conferences, that person is invited in on meetings, that person is put on a track, and is tracked right through. While other people sit back and they can't even get a front seat in the cafeteria. So it's very important that if we really are serious about this, and we ought to be serious about it because it is not a problem just of the Hispanic or the black community, it's not a problem in the white community. It's a problem of the total community. We've got to tighten up on some of these policies that we have from the past and try to build our communities and make our communities more open and more responsive to the needs. It's going to help us with recruiting, it's going to help us with developing our communities and bringing companies in that are going to provide jobs for us.

Belans:
There are two schools of thought that I have discovered in research about race relations. One is that we have to do what we're hearing from the Chamber of Commerce and from Nortel, that we have to talk about our stuff. We have to get down to it and talk about how we feel. Am I racist? How do I feel about sitting next to you? Can we eat at the same table? All the basic fundamentals, and discover things about us that we didn't know. The other school of thought is, let's not do that. If we can focus on a task together, that's all we need to do. All the other stuff will surface and we can deal with it. What about that?

Male Voice:
I'd much rather deal with a klansman standing here in uniform. I know exactly what I am dealing with. Open racism is easy. You know what to do. It is the person who smiles at you the whole time and you don't know what they're doing under the table. My experience has been that a lot of times when you focus on task, these issues come up and blockages come in the way, that you have to have the skill set necessary to recognize it as well as then deal with it.

Male Voice:
If you fail to use but one methodology whether it is just talk or whether it is just task, I think you have set yourselves up for a long and arduous trip on the road. I think you have to employ both and I think you have to measure and gauge what you are trying to get or what you are trying to accomplish. And that will therefore determine which methodology will be best.

Male Voice:
I have seen people talk for 2 hours and they pat each other on the back and say we had a great conversation. But they haven't done a darn thing. Let's do it just like many corporations to date, the CEO says "Alright, fine. We've talked about it and now let me tell you what I am going to do. You don't have any women or minorities in your department. I am going to put that on your evaluation sheet. And that's part of your bonus for next year." That is more than talk, that is concrete. And we have to do concrete things that are going to make the changes.

Holloway:
You have been watching highlights from the North Carolina Initiative on Race Business and Education Conference hosted by Governor Hunt. This event was held in Charlotte in February 1999. And it brought together leaders in government, business, and higher education. They talked about solutions toward achieving racial equality for all North Carolinians. Be sure to join us next week for more highlights from the conference including remarks from CEO of Bank America- Nations Bank, Hugh McCall. And more from Ben Ruffin, Chair of the UNC Board of Governors. For more information on this program or to send your comments, contact us here at the addresses on your screen or numbers. Or you may also reach us by email or visit the website. For Black Issues Forum, I am jay Holloway. You have a blessed evening and a good night.