Book Review by Terri Schlichenmeyer, Northend Agent’s
You do it with your stocks.
Your entire investment portfolio, in fact, is diversified. As an investor and a businessperson, you know how important that is for your bottom line; you also know what a benefit diversity is in your customer base and your workforce, and how homogeneity isn’t necessarily a good thing in the long run. So now read more, and get ready to grow….
Start out by understanding how the banking and finance industries have worked against African Americans and other minorities by reading “The Racial Wealth Gap: A Brief History” by Mehrsa Baradaran (WW Norton, $24.00).
Did you know that, on average, a white household in America has around six times more wealth than a Black household has? This obviously affects African Americans, but it also affects businesses at large and the future of society in general. Baradaran shows how this inequality in everything financial has been in place for decades, how it has roots in Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement, and what can be done to fix these nefarious issues of poverty brought by financial disparity.
Along the same lines, reading “The Real Ones: How to Disrupt the Hidden Ways Racism Makes Us Less Authentic” by Maya Rupert (Dutton, $30.00), can help you learn to recognize the need for people of color to be true to themselves. A lack of authenticity, or a perceived need to change to fit in, can lead to problems, and Rupert explains why and how this is detrimental at work and in simple everyday getting-by.
Readers’ eyes will be opened wide here, because she also shares personal stories of learning to be inauthentic, how it affects everyday life, she offers behind-the-scenes peeks at politics, and she gives plenty of advice for open-minded business people.
And finally, just when you think you know a lot about a tool you use every day, along comes a book like “The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet” by Lisa Nakamura (University of Minnesota Press, $24.95).
Chances are, you’ve been online for at least a couple decades – so long, that you barely think about it when you successfully log in. Read this book, though, and you’ll learn a few surprising stories about the women behind your computer’s parts, the queer woman who launched an influential social media page, as well as women who worked in Silicon Valley, those who toiled behind-the-scenes in tech fields, and the women who otherwise contributed to the equipment you couldn’t do your job without. The story is a little on the technical side, so beware, but it’s also pretty astonishing.
If these books about diversity, racial gaps, and inequality in the workplace aren’t enough for you, then head to your favorite bookstore or library and ask for help. The staff there know how to figure out what you want, and they can put books directly in your hands. As for these three books, above, they’re interesting for work or for fun, and they make great all-staff reads. So go ahead, stock up.
