When Is It Ok to Talk About Racism In Leadership?

I can recall early in my professional career, during one of my first meetings with an executive where I brought up the subject of diversity within the leadership ranks. The conversation quickly and almost mistakenly migrated to an admission by the VP of a lack of organizational diversity among the management ranks that was even more pronounced beyond the Director-level. At this point, the conversation took a natural route to the probable cause(s) where racism was suggested as the leader. As dogmatic as racism has become in almost every facet of our society, here I was carrying on conversation with another minority, who happened to be a VP of a Fortune 500 company and whose temperament began to drastically change, from an executive mentor to that of a defense lawyer. The earlier zeal that was felt for me as a potential understudy subsided, leaving me with a cold shoulder of quick and very calculated responses. Realizing the error in judgement, I back-tracked attempting to salvage as much as I could from the opportunity. Although, now I was faced with a unwillingness to participate further in this initial session where an overwhelming fear appeared as the culprit. I gathered much from his subsequent statements and newly etched demeanor. He continued to demonstrate a willingness to mentor and we actually had a few more scheduled meetings where I participated half-heartedly. However, I began to realize (especially growing up in Alabama) that acceptance of or assimilation into a system of behaviors that numerically-negotiates the leadership respresentation of my likeness, was not for me. Forgoing any additional meetings, I knew the potential damage but I knew that I could handle it. I walked away but not before formulating a few questions.

When is it ok to talk about racism, especially if we attempt to counter the historically effects with measures to improve diversity? Knowing that Corporate America is a microcosm of society, can we genuinely assume that tremendous strides are being made? How much does the competition for wage (high-wage) contribute to the scaling and significant difference in demographic representation of minorities in executive leadership roles? How well can I depend on fellow minorities to participate in any movement to produce change or are the costs too high considering their position? If we eliminate threats of retribution, can we establish a platform to initiate change?