The Racism of the ‘Hard-to-Find’ Qualified Black Candidate Trope
Stereotypes and racial bias in hiring and promotion are damaging at personal, career, and organizational levels
Article/Op-Ed in Stanford Social Innovation Review
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June 1, 2021
This piece was Stanford Social Innovation Review’s most read article of 2021
Autumn McDonald wrote for Stanford Social Innovation Review on organizational racism in companies' hiring and promotional practices.
Many organizations endeavored to institute structural changes to racial equity efforts following the morbid booster shot effect of George Floyd’s murder on stagnant national conversations about race. Countless companies released statements, and some took actions that focused on anti-racism instead of mere inclusion. Yet, while attention to culture and new ideas can be modes of influence, organizations—whether dot org, dot gov or dot com—ultimately make their most significant changes through internal policy. Hiring and promotion policies determine an organization’s makeup. And this past year’s dramatic increase in remote work has demonstrated that institutions are not buildings or products—they are the talent: the talent that comes, the talent that stays, and the talent that leads. The importance of hiring and promotion in the workforce makes the problematic trope of the “hard-to-find” qualified Black candidate more than just a stereotypical cliché: its damaging effects are an enduring racist cog in the wheel of progress.