African American Coworker Interview

I interviewed an African American coworker, or as it happened, was more a discussion about the current state of the inclusion of minorities in America and more specifically the inclusion of African Americans in the workforce. The coworker I interviewed is in his early 30s, an 11 year military veteran, and is currently working on his second masters, which is an MBA. As mentioned previously, he is of African American decent and the only minority working in our office, which is made up of twenty two white males. He was raised by his grandmother from a young age after his father left him and his mother was unable to care for him. During his childhood, he lived in a predominately black neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh. He is a family man …show more content…
When I mentioned the lack of African American managers throughout the workforce he was stunned, but he became more astonished once he discovered the appalling numbers of minority CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies. When we discussed how the lack of leadership positions occupied by minorities would affect the future prospects for African American managers, there was a little hesitation to say that the lack of strong mentors had an overwhelming negative impact on the future development of African American leaders. As a child not having a father around had an impact on him and he had to look for mentors outside the home. Similarly, African Americans have few top level leaders to look at for guidance and inspiration. He was quick to point out that although some will use this as an excuse, he overcame similar circumstances by not having a father, however, he still believes that more black leaders are necessary for the overall inclusion of African Americans in the …show more content…
13). During my conversation with my coworker, he agreed fully with the statements, however, without African-American CEOs to look at for inspiration it becomes hard for African-American leaders emerge from a group of employees. There remains just four African-American CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies, meaning the opportunity for African-Americans to become inspired are nearly zero. The conversation between us showed that there are no easy solutions to the CEO issue as these are positions many years in the making and little is done to change the trajectory of these top positions, however, it was discussed how small steps taken near the bottom of a company’s hierarchy could lead to much better inclusion in the workforce by minorities. The simple step of hiring managers at the lowest levels, who employees can look to for leadership can impact a company’s diversity years in the future. The domino effect of starting small and gaining steam as more minorities come on board is what would be best going forward for the future prospect of top level minority leaders in Fortune 500 companies. He believed that lower level African American manager would give people applying for jobs a belief that they would be hired. The lack of diversity at the bottom of a company’s hierarchy can be just as