Pamela Newkirk & James McBride

Fort Greene Store:
Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 PM
Book Launch: Pamela Newkirk presents Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Business
In conversation with James McBride

In Diversity, Inc., award-winning journalist Pamela Newkirk shows how workplace diversity initiatives have turned into a profoundly misguided industry—and have done little to bring equality to America’s major industries and institutions. Newkirk explores the elite—and majority white—industries of Hollywood, corporate America, and academia, showing how the vast majority of their diversity efforts are all optics. In an effort to “diversify,” industry and foundation leaders have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to commission studies and training sessions, hire consultants, and create diversity programs to address the glaring paucity of people of color among their ranks—to no avail. In showing why these efforts are failing, Newkirk shows us what we can do to better achieve these worthy goals. Joining Newkirk in conversation to celebrate the book’s launch is James McBride, the award-winning author of The Color of Water and The Good Lord Bird.