Written by a white female magazine journalist:

Years ago I worked at a nonprofit organization.  I was told (by my boss) to hire a black woman to handle PR because our organization wasn’t diverse enough.  So our search committee did outreach and found one.  When I called her references, they asked me incredulously, “You’re going to hire Marilyn to be a PR person?”

We hired her even though she didn’t have great writing skills.  We gave her no additional training, and her supervisor didn’t even give her honest feedback. And guess what?  Marilyn didn’t really work out.  My boss said, “I think we’re going to have to fire Marilyn.”  I said sarcastically, "Why?  She’s still qualified. We hired Marilyn because she was black.  She’s still black.”  Fortunately, Marilyn extracted herself from a difficult situation by leaving us for a more appropriate job.

Questions for the reader: What are your thoughts? Were those
at the top of this organization committed to diversity?

View Commentary to African American Vignette #10

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