This is NPR's Life Kit. I'm Angelie Sastry.

Workplace Diversity. It's one of those phrases that's been thrown around a lot these days.

After the killing of George Floyd earlier this summer sparked protests against racial injustice nationwide.

It seemed like every company was putting out a statement condemning racism and committing to racial equity within their organizations.

But the numbers give us the real story.

A 2020 Mercer Report found that across industries in the US, black and Latino populations are underrepresented at every career level above support staff.

In 2019, there were only five black CEOs in the Fortune 500.

And while almost half of US companies have publicly committed to racial or ethnic equality efforts,

the Mercer Report finds only 13% of these companies offer programs specifically targeted toward women of color.

So what are companies getting wrong?

Michelle Silverthorn has an idea.

I spent a long time teaching diversity and inclusion, right?

So I spent a long time teaching about unconscious bias and all the barriers to success and telling people what strategies and working on those strategies and stuff.

And as I did that work, I realized that you were missing a huge part of the story.

Michelle is a founder and CEO of Inclusion Nation, an author of the book, Authentic Diversity, How to Change the Workplace for Good.

She travels across the country advising company leaders about issues that range from recruitment to hiring, to building inclusive spaces for employees of color and other marginalized identities.

A common issue she's found in a lot of company cultures, telling employees that if you assimilate, you'll be successful.

Well, if you just do this, right? If you lean in, right?

If you change your hair and your accent and your clothes and your tone of voice and your added, you change all of those things.

Then of course you're going to succeed in the workplace.

It's a lie!

It's just not true. Michelle and the data tell us about the cycle.

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