INDIVIDUAL FEATURE 7.3
Frank McCloskey, Vice-President of Diversity, 2000–2010, Georgia Power Frank McCloskey, former vice president of diversity at Georgia Power, is a White, hetero- sexual, Christian male who was a three-year letterman in football at Georgia Tech. He is one example of how White men can authentically be committed to fairness, equality, and inclusion. In a thirty-eight-year career spent primarily in operations, McCloskey became Georgia Power’s first vice president of diversity in 2000, a position he held until retiring in 2010. He was charged with developing a long-term management and organizational culture change strategy affecting diversity and inclusion.87 Recognized by the Society for Human Resource Management as one of the 100 Global Diversity Thought Leaders, McCloskey has received the Willie O’Ree National Hockey League “Black Ice” Diversity Award, the Rainbow Push Coalition Keep Hope Alive Equal Opportunity Award, and the American Institute for Managing Diversity 25th Anniversary Diversity Leader Award. He is past chair of the Atlanta Urban League, Leadership Atlanta, and the Korea–Southeast U.S. Chamber of Commerce and currently serves on the Anti-Defamation League Board of Directors. McCloskey believes corporations must require leadership and work environments to be better than what is currently modeled in society. In this time of global competition, U.S. corporations must take the lead to close the educational and poverty gap across racial and ethnic lines. This is necessary in order to build a future talent pipeline and sustain corporate business models. McCloskey also feels that the myth of “post racial” America, the unabated political divisiveness, and the at times irrational fear and fervor of many often well-intended people have combined to dramatically set back race relations and social justice. McCloskey believes we are at either a “break” or “breakthrough” point in our country’s history. “Whites have the moral responsibility and power to change the current state and the direction we are heading. Our country can only expand and remain mighty if all of our citizens are free from injustice, educated, and fully participating in and benefiting from wealth creation.”
Questions to Consider
- McCloskey believes that corporations must “take the lead to close the educational and poverty gap across racial and ethnic lines” to build a future talent pipeline and sustain corporate business models. Do you agree that the racial and ethnic disparities in educational attainment discussed in this book may negatively affect corporations? If so, in what specific ways might corporations get involved with alleviating such disparities? Why might individual investors support corporations’ involvement in such efforts?
- What is the relationship between a country’s success and the ability of all its citizens to be free from injustice, educated, and participating in and benefiting from wealth creation?
- McCloskey believes that change must first begin in one’s immediate circle of influence—the family—and recommends adults be careful not to unintentionally teach children subtle forms of bias and prejudice. To what kinds of unintentional forms of bias and prejudice are children introduced by well-meaning adults who believe themselves to be unprejudiced?