Be a Better Ally

How white men can help their marginalized colleagues advance

by

and

W. Brad Johnson

by

and

W. Brad Johnson

From the Magazine (November–December 2020)

Cecilia Castelli

Summary.

The Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements have forced people in positions of power—namely, the white men who dominate institutional leadership roles—to realize they must personally step up to make organizations more fair and inclusive. That means playing a truly active role in helping marginalized colleagues advance (instead of just delegating diversity efforts to human resources).

How can white men be effective allies to those employees? First, by taking responsibility for their own behaviors, educating themselves about racism and privilege, and getting and accepting feedback from people in underrepresented groups. They can also become confidants to and sponsors of women and people of color and insist on diverse hiring pools and practices. They can vigilantly watch out for bias at work, intervening decisively if they discover it. Last, they can work to build a community of other allies against racism and sexism.

In the United States and many other parts of the world, we’re finally engaging in substantive conversations about a once untouchable issue: white male privilege. The #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, as well as the systemic inequalities laid bare by the Covid-19 pandemic, have forced people in positions of power—that is, the white men who dominate leadership roles across public and private institutions—to realize that they must step up if there is to be any hope of making organizations more diverse, fair, and inclusive.

A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2020 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Tsedale M. Melaku (www.tsedalemelaku.com) is a sociologist; assistant professor of management at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College (CUNY); and author of You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism. Follow her on Twitter @TsedaleMelaku.
tsedalemelaku
Angie Beeman (angiebeeman.wixsite.com) is an associate professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, and the author of the forthcoming book Liberal White Supremacy: How Progressives Silence Racial and Class Oppression.
David G. Smith is an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He is the coauthor, with W. Brad Johnson, of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace and Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women.
W. Brad Johnson is a professor of psychology in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law at the United States Naval Academy and a faculty associate in the Graduate School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. He is the coauthor of Good Guys: How Men Can Be Better Allies for Women in the Workplace, Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women, The Elements of Mentoring, and other books on mentorship.

Be a Better Ally

Partner Center

Explore HBR

HBR Store

About HBR

Manage My Account

Follow HBR