Working Mother – August 2019

SUBHA

BARRY

President,

Working

Mother Media

SUBHA SPEAKS OUT

Workingmother.com | August/September 2019 53

“Corporate culture must ensure

cliques don’t determine success.”

R

obert F. Smith, a successful investor,

philanthropist and business leader who

happens to be African American, recently

gave about $40 million to pay off the

student loans of the entire graduating class at More-

house, a historically black college in Atlanta. In his

commencement speech, he tied his gift to the impor-

tance of extending opportunity to those who need it.

His opportunity was Bus 13, the school bus that

brought him from his working-class black neighbor-

hood in northeast Denver to a high-performing,

predominantly white elementary school across town.

As a result, he’s a “community-made” man because

his opportunity came from the government and

village around him. One takeaway from his speech:

An excess of opportunity can overcome a lack of

ability and effort, but excess ability and effort cannot

overcome a lack of opportunity.

This got me thinking about my own Bus 13:

a scholarship from Houston’s Rice University, which

helped me come from India to the U.S. Combined

with parents who were willing to break with tradition

to let me go, as well as teachers, supportive friends

and host families in my new country, I became an

American success story.

As the economic gap widens in our country, the

role of a fair and just government is critical. All of the

philanthropy from American success stories—the

Warren Buffetts, Bill Gateses, Michael Bloombergs,

and so many others before them—have not stemmed

the tide. Sure, things would be far worse without

these generous donors. But politicians aren’t mak-

ing them better. That’s the prime culprit for the

prosperity disparity in our country. Elected officials

must systematically develop, establish, and hold

accountable programs that mitigate unfairness and

create opportunities.

What, then, are the Bus 13s we all can deploy? In

our communities, those Bus 13s would be enhanced

education, nutrition, healthcare and housing. In

disadvantaged communities, parents are able to

provide only partially for these, so the government

and social networks must make up the difference.

Corporations play an important role in creating

opportunities too. They do it by removing bias from

their recruitment processes so a capable, hardwork-

ing student from a socioeconomically disadvantaged

background, or someone who went to a tier-2 or

tier-3 school, will not be discarded because they are

not dressed and coiffed appropriately, or are missing

a perceived “pedigree.”

Once recruited, corporations can create mentor-

ship and sponsorship programs to help those who

didn’t get on their Bus 13s sooner catch up. Develop-

ment and promotion processes must prevent

unnecessary derailment and even the playing field.

Corporate culture must ensure that cliques and

good ol’ boy—or gal—networks don’t determine who

succeeds and who doesn’t. One innovative technique

some companies use to boost belonging: posting

video clips on their Intranet of employees sharing

personal stories of inclusion and exclusion. That

becomes those workers’ Bus 13.

Academic institutions—from elementary schools

to colleges and universities—can send out their own

set of Bus 13s by thoughtfully recruiting underserved,

undereducated and undersupported young people.

They can create a pipeline for corporate, nonprofit,

government and NGO hires. Rice University, my alma

mater, strategically recruits both underrepresented

minority students, specifically Hispanics and African

Americans, and socioeconomically disadvantaged

white students. That Bus 13 comes with tuition, room

and board, but also stipends to cover other necessi-

ties, such as travel. To truly produce opportunities,

we can’t miss the nuances and small gestures that

make it possible for people to get on the bus.

Making success a reality for all Americans and our

brothers and sisters around the world requires each

one of us to create opportunities. I’ve laid out what

the government, corporations and academia can do;

now it’s on us!

Opportunity

Trumps Ability

and Effort

Talent plus hard work can’t equal

success without opportunity.

GE

TT

Y^

/^
SO

RB

ET

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