Intersection: For every dollar of white wealth in the US, Black families have 12 cents

DELIVERING ON DIVERSITY, GENDER EQUALITY, AND INCLUSION

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In this issue, we look at an effort to eliminate the racial wealth gap in the US, how racism affects health, who's writing all the algorithms, and what happened when TD Bank ran its first same-sex-couple ads in mainstream media.

THE ZEITGEIST

Staying accountable

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Getting to zero. Last week, a group of prominent American CEOs, nonprofit executives, and academic leaders launched NinetyToZero, an initiative aimed at eliminating the racial wealth gap through “deliberate, collective action.” The typical Black American family has just one-eighth the wealth of a white family, according to the US Federal Reserve—and the gap has remained about the same for the past several decades. McKinsey research shows that this wealth disparity will cost the US economy between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion in GDP output each year—and that collective action by stakeholders across sectors is the most promising way to promote racial equity. Among the leaders of the new initiative is Dr. Michelle Williams, dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The key to narrowing the racial health gap,” said Dean Williams, “is to narrow the racial wealth gap.”

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Naming it. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has declared racism “a serious public-health threat.” In a statement last week, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky noted that racism has led to stark health disparities in the US—and she committed to taking steps to address those disparities, including investing more in communities of color and tracking progress through a new web portal. This McKinsey infographic shows some of the many ways that racism affects health.

THE FACTS

95 years

That's about how long it will take, at the current rate, for Black employees to reach talent parity across all levels in the US private sector. If companies improved their promotion, attrition, and external-hiring rates, talent parity could be achieved in 25 years instead. Black employees encounter a broken rung from entry-level jobs to managerial positions, and they are leaving companies more often than their white counterparts. Black workers are also concentrated in the South and underrepresented in the cities and counties with the fastest job growth. Companies can boost the representation of Black talent by going where the talent is: locating hubs, branches, second headquarters, and factories in places where Black people live. A series of such moves by a number of companies could help transform private-sector hiring.

THE VIEW

“How do we stop bias? By making sure that women are not only consumers but producers of AI. We need more female intelligence in artificial intelligence—in the data, in algorithms, and in the sector.”
- Gabriela Ramos

Gabriela Ramos is a leader at UNESCO and a former member of the Mexican government. Ramos warns that the underrepresentation of women in AI is “a real danger.” According to research by the World Economic Forum, women make up about one-fifth of AI professionals around the world. Diversifying the field is key to tackling bias in AI. And as computer scientist Joy Buolamwini, founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, has pointed out in testimony to the US Congress, algorithmic bias can be intersectional—involving both racial and gender discrimination, for example. Buolamwini says that as a Black woman studying algorithmic bias, she has learned firsthand “the importance of having people who are impacted by AI harms and bias working in the field.” Meanwhile, most companies that use AI don't have algorithmic bias top of mind. Only one-quarter of respondents in a recent McKinsey survey said their company recognized equity and fairness as relevant AI risks—and less than 15 percent said their organization was taking steps to mitigate those risks.

THE TAKEAWAY

Today is the International Day of Pink. Around the world, people are speaking out against bullying, discrimination, and violence toward LGBTQ+ people—including those who identify as intersex, asexual, or Two-Spirit—and they're wearing pink shirts to show their solidarity. The Day of Pink started in 2007, when hundreds of students at a high school in Canada showed up wearing pink to support a new student who had been bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Now the campaign is international, with events at schools and workplaces.

Companies have played an important role in the progress of LGBTQ+ rights in recent decades. TD Bank executive Al Ramsay recalls the response when, in 2008, the bank ran ads featuring same-sex couples in mainstream media: “We had people coming at us, calling us a ‘devil bank'—and the beauty of that is we stood firm and told the bigots and homophobes, ‘This is nonnegotiable. Take your business elsewhere.' Other banks at the time stood back and watched, thinking, ‘Is TD going to sink or swim?' Now, in Toronto, everyone is fighting about who has the best rainbow during Pride. We moved the dial on the conversation.”

— Edited by Julia Arnous, an editor in McKinsey's Boston office

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