HAATBP | Melissa Orr
I attended Here Are All The Black People on October 30th 2019 hosted by The One Club for Creativity. The first conference was called Beyond The Business Case for Diversity led by CEO of Vayner Media, Gary Vaynerchuck and included a panel of four Vayner staff members: Lawrence Edmonson (SVP of Technology), Brittney King (Integrated Project Manager), Rick Sentine (Senior Account Executive) and Claude Silver, (Chief Heart Officer). This group discussed the hiring process at Vayner Media and their own personal experiences as a people of color in the ad industry.
Gary Vaynerchuck began by stating that his company thrives on diversity in the hiring process and that diversity is part of their company culture because he’s made inclusivity a priority. Vaynerchuck asked speakers why each person feels that the ad industry is one of the most under-represented industries for black people, what the state of the industry is like now, and where they see it going.
Brittney King said she felt that lack of education and visual representation around the industry translates into less interest and exposure to it by people of color. At the same time, she said that conferences such as this one are part of the solution to exposing newcomers and helping them to understand what it has to offer. She also said that American culture has historically leaned on black culture to lead American art, music and entertainment but that people are only now realizing the monetary opportunity in leveraging black culture in advertising. With this in mind, she asked
How can we take our culture and distill it in a way that can be sold to the masses but it’s still authentic?
The next panelist, Rick Sentine said that he’s seen improvements over the last nine years and that it used to be a much bigger deal to see another person of color in the industry. He also mentioned that there is value in having people of color bring their own personal growth experience and awareness to the industry in a way that’s authentic and not cheesy.
Claude Silver who has been in the industry for two decades responded to the question by saying that we still have a lot of work to do. He broke down the numbers and explained that despite talk of improving, only about 3% of the ad industry has African American CMO’s or people of color in leadership positions.
Vaynerchuck pinpointed a problem of inclusion as it relates to a bigger business culture/problem. He said that when he first brought in an HR team he expected enthusiasm and support, but found that people were skeptical because Human Resource agents are known for firing people to appease the business side, not for actually supporting their employees. I found this to be a perfect example of how exclusion can be baked into our work culture. If there is a stigma against the very support system which is intended to help employees when there are racial issues among many others, the problem of race becomes even more systematic.
My takeaway from this part of the conference was that when we start to examine the many ways that business interests can take precedence over human interests, we understand how racial inequality is perpetuated by a system that doesn’t support its workers in general. Also, in an evolving workplace that has great potential markets for and by people of color, many people seem concerned about the question of authenticity. It seems there is a fear among people of color that attempts to finally represent their diversity may feel unnatural or forced, perhaps because after such long-term systematic discrimination, a sudden change of attitude can raise eyebrows about real intentions.
The next conference by R/GA titled Not So FAQ’s, Challenging the Conventional Rules of Marketing was about the agency’s role in breaking conventions from a digital perspective. Speakers Carl Desir, Kayla Watson, Brandon Lee Heard and Marcela Madera drew similarities between breaking the status quo in work and culture.
The speakers asserted that social media is now basically traditional media and that teams are more collaborative than ever because of the integrated digital platforms being utilized. This emphasizes the importance of equality among workers and the role that communication has in fostering a fair workplace. They also talked about how understanding the client is key to success. Because when you really research your client, you are able to restructure the expression of the business problem.
The last thing that one speaker touched upon was the fact that recruiters need to keep an open mind in order to break the status quo. A person of color may be at a disadvantage because they haven’t had opportunity and previous experience in this industry. Kayla Watson encouraged people to embrace their prior work experience as valuable. Customer service for example, is a hugely important part of a job in which you are client-facing. As someone who’s had a non-traditional work background for advertising, I appreciated her validating other types of work as useful and pointing out to recruiters that it takes an open mind to break the cycle of inequality.
The last conference, I’m The Only Blank At Work consisted of four panelists who spoke about navigating racial and sexual/gender identity at work. James Kinney, Director of Giant Spoon covered the importance of feeling comfortable enough to “bring your whole self to work.” He asserted that
When people feel comfortable, whoever they’re comfortable with, the work gets done in a better manner.
This statement and the testimonies from everyone thus far had me thinking about how everyone has a professional identity to navigate. Being the only (blank) adds another layer of pressure to figuring out that identity because it’s not something you can simply hide, nor would you want to. However, there seems to be a silent elephant in the room that the majority may never even consider. Awareness on the part of the majority is key for making progress. Being in the minority at work can make a person feel vulnerable in a way that the majority may never even consider.
On the other hand, companies need to tread carefully about their message of inclusion. Producer of mixed company podcast, Kai Deveraux made a compelling distinction between tokenism and symbolism. She said that “Being a token means that someone gets to use you for their benefit,” while you don’t gain any benefit from it. A symbol, however, comes from a place of empowerment in which the subject stands as a sign of progress and aims to change the cultural mindset.
Overall, HAATBP was an enlightening conversation about the fear, success, pride and inhibition that minority groups have in the ad industry. The main takeaways for me were that people are excited but wary of the potential for exploitation or inauthentic messaging as the ad industry becomes more diverse. This new territory could threaten to exacerbate or diminish the bigger picture of equality. Acceptance and equality is a fine balance of being treated fairly without ignoring the depth and celebrated differences in perspective. The second takeaway was that the race issue is a business issue as well. If businesses don’t value human beings first and foremost, they will certainly never solve the greater overtones of racism.
Lastly, It’s the duty of everyone in the company to understand their own personal roles in fostering equality, including the person in question. Whether it’s the coworker who doesn’t say anything when they overhear a racial slur, management that neglects to acknowledge the work of a person in a minority group, or the non-binary employee who doesn’t speak up about their proper pronoun, everyone must work together to make diversity and inclusion a functional reality. At the same time, racial identity is extremely personal and in order to avoid backfire, the ad industry has to be very careful about the types of messaging they disseminate as they become more inclusive. People don’t want to feel like diversity is finally being implemented simply because it’s a monetary opportunity, they want to know that it’s an authentic symbol of progress.
