Structural Racism is Alive and Well According to Time Warner Inc. CEO Richard Parsons

The CEO of Time Warner Inc., Richard Parsons is a crusader of workplace diversity. Especially when it comes to his own company Time Warner which operates one of the largest subscriber television services on the planet. Not to mention partnering with internet service provider AOL for several years, Time Warner inc is truly on the forefront of corporate powerhouses that are seeking to employ and empower minorities and women throughout their organization. Recently when Mr. Parsons was interviewed he on CNN, he acknowledged that diversity in corporate America and in the workplace in general has made some considerable advances, that "structural racism is alive and well."

Institutional racism (or structural racism or systemic racism is a theoretical form of racism that occurs in institutions such as public bodies and corporations, including universities. The term was coined by black nationalist, pan-Africanist and honorary prime minister of the Black Panther Party Stokely Carmichael. In the late 1960s, he defined the term as "the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin".^[1](2007 Wikipedia)

When used in the context of employment and diversity hiring practices it can be taken to mean that the way in which the handlers for a diversity recruiting program have structured their recruiting efforts and hiring trends that there is really little or no minority representation within the organization. This can be due in part to HR managers and diversity officers not looking in the right places to find the qualified minority prospects who are undoubtedly out there.

National efforts to increase workplace diversity do appear to be gaining ground in the fight to deter structural racism in the corporate world. However quite often it can be found "rearing it's ugly head". Poor diversity recruiting would be responsible for much of this. For an HR recruiter in this day and age to report that he cannot seem to find any qualified minority candidates to fill entry level and mid level vacancies means that they are not seeking candidates in the right places, or that they are not casting their net over a very wide segment of the population.

There are numerous diversity recruiting initiatives that, while they may mean well, do not manage to accomplish the multi colored pallette of employees that they are said to be seeking. human resources personnel and diversity recruiters are not allowed to just say that they would like a candidate of ethnic origins to fill a certain position, this is forbidden by law and as many agree affirmative action initiatives which have been reversed were, this would also be unfair to non minority candidates who are also qualified for the same position.

Many recruiters in their search for minority candidates turn to networking in an effort to recruit young, educated, and qualified people for the entry and mid level positions which are the diversity pipeline for a business. They are seeking young energetic people, entering your organization as fresh out of training or college as possible to grow within and with your organization. These are the people who will also bring more diversity employment candidates to the table for your business. Not just friends and family members of your employees, but when it is clear that your business is seeking, hiring, and promoting minority candidates within the organization word will get around among the educational and minority employment initiative communities and organizations. Then hiring qualified minority candidates will become easier for the human resource and diversity management because this will attract the minority candidates to you.

Many HR people when they are seeking fresh young candidates they will network in the old and comfortable channels that have yielded results for them in the past. Often this means networking with people from their Alma Mater, which if this is a predominately white college, is probably not going to net a lot of minority applicants. This is when the report that HR cannot find any qualified minority applicants will most often arise. One of the answers for this has been a shift to hiring more minority HR people who are more likely to network more within the minority communities, colleges, and organizations. If you're going to build a good, strong, and colorful workforce for your business or corporation, qualified minority candidates are out there. HR people often just need to be able to "think outside of the box" to find them and bring them into your organization.