“See It & Be It”: How “Diversity & Inclusion” Programs Undermine Success

Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, Chief Hispanic Marketing Strategist, Walton Isaacson
Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, Chief Hispanic Marketing Strategist, Walton Isaacson

The “See It & Be It” series was created to provide agency leaders with a place to tackle the complicated subjects of gender and diversity. This commentary, by Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, Chief Hispanic Marketing Strategist for Walton Isaacson, is a bold statement on why the phrase “Diversity & Inclusion” is holding all of us back.

It’s time to shine a light on our industry’s overuse of and overdependence on the phrase “diversity and inclusion,” a well intended phrase that is fast becoming meaningless, if not dangerous. There’s a reason the advertising industry’s diversity programs are not effective. By and large, these initiatives are solving for the wrong problem. They are inhibiting any real discussions about root problems like systemic racism and protecting, both consciously and unconsciously, an entrenched dominant cultural perspective. Without a shift in perspectives, one that challenges all of us to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, our industry will remain stuck in an endless loop of lip-service as we focus on matters of quantity and not empathy, on increased numbers, but not knowledge and certainly not nuance.

Kevin Roberts’s  recent comments about gender equity and the “f’ing debate” are fueled by a perception of progress that silos gender and race. From his dominant cultural perspective, the women with whom he may be most familiar—white, non-Hispanic, non-disabled, straight women—seem to have arrived. Mission accomplished. Only it’s not—not for women in general, but especially not for so-called “diverse” women in particular. It has been said familiarity breeds contempt, but in advertising, and corporate America at large, familiarity inspires comfort, confidence and camaraderie. Not creativity. We can keep trying to put a new spin on old behaviors or we can shift perspectives and take a page from Newton and Einstein: it’s time to adjust to ambiguity.

Read more of Newman-Carrasco’s views on Diversity & Inclusion in Advertising Age.