Rossetta, thanks for posting this. As a minority in the nonprofit world I too believe that diversity in nonprofits is very important. However, I would not direct my ire at the Nonprofit Times but instead our colleagues. As you point out it is our peers who did not nominate a diverse group of nonprofit leaders to begin with. After that point I also believe things like this should be decided purely on skill and competence and less on the need for diversity. In other words, leaders should be judged based truly on their abilities on an equal playing field and if the result turns out to be all white, all black, all asian, all men or all women, etc., than so be it. Just so long as all were considered equally and at the beginning. Diversity should never be done for diversity’s sake because that would defeat the purpose of showing that people are equal and should be treated that way regardless of race or gender. I hope that my point for diversity and equality is clear. Thanks again for bringing this up for discussion.

Rosetta — I’m one of the people who responded about the title. I wasn’t angry, but confused. The word “only” had me wondering if we were looking at the same website since by definition that meant no people of color at all. I even double checked the link to make sure I wasn’t on the wrong page.

Title aside, it indeed is too limited a list in the ways you mention, and it sounds like it’s the same old problem of limited vision and limited networks, and, unfortunately, limited effort. WomenWhoTech and others have been writing about a similar problem with underrepresentation of women at a recent tech conference (and a really sexist presentation), for which they got “we tried but couldn’t find women” type replies from some organizers.

We do need to challenge each other to do better. And those of us who are white need to take responsibility for that outreach, not leaving it to people of color to raise the issue all the time. In this particular case, we are talking about a HUGE sector that has tons of people of color in leadership, so the lack of racial and ethnic diversity is striking.

Thanks for your recent “20 Nonprofit & Philanthropy Blogs Written by People of Color” posting, which was helpful. I retweeted that. Just the other day I found organizations and bloggers of color on Twitter to follow so I can learn more about who’s who and what’s important to them. Great thing about Twitter is that familiar organizations and people will lead you to unfamiliar ones. (Though some well respected organizations are still not on Twitter!) Little things like that can be surprisingly helpful, especially once you get Tweets about issues or perspectives you hadn’t considered. That’s where the payoff comes in.

Rosetta,

I am a regular reader of your blog and I’m not necessarily advocating for or against your posts. However, I think we have to be very careful about the assumptions we make about individuals based on name and photo.

I’ll willingly use myself as an example. I am a first generation American. My mother came from Cuba after the revolution. My maiden name is Flanagan as my father is Irish and I have an Irish first name. I don’t ‘look’ Cuban or Hispanic and in fact the entire Cuban side of my family is predominantly blond haired, blue eyed, except for myself. My family sacrificed a lot to come to this country. I have been subject to incredibly hateful comments from people who do not know I am Cuban. I have seen it from both sides.

If you saw my name and face on this list, you may have assumed that I am ‘white’ based on my name and looks. However, I carry the legacy of my family’s sacrifice proudly and as even more motivation to be successful. My heritage runs deeply and my family deserves the recognition of having come as far as they have not despite their background but because of their background. Because I do not look a certain way does not discredit that fact and should not negate the sacrifices my family has made.

I use this as an example as we certainly are not the only family of mixed backgrounds and incredible sacrifice.

The danger in all of the recent discussions about nonprofit leadership and diversity is the assumption that we can guess what the composition of a group is based on names and looks.

I appreciate your post. I just think we all need to dig a little deeper before assuming we know.

Thanks for your thoughtful post — this year there are more technology leaders, women, and “younger” (under 40) on the list, but I agree with you on the points you raised about diversity ….

As a casual observer of this space, I must be missing something. The census bureau reports that the “Black or African American” population is 12.4% of the American total. The number that made this list is 16% of the total. To the casual observer, that doesn’t seem to be unfair or warrant outrage. There are usually nuances to this type of list, but to infer that African Americans are left out or treated unfairly seems to be disingenuous.

I’m glad that Jillian Vukusich spoke up about how it’s not always easy to identify someone as a person of color by a glance or a name. I’d meant to mention that myself. This has come up with coworkers of many backgrounds who aren’t white, but are often mistaken for it. (And a friend who is half-Chinese, half-French Canadian jokes that she’s never sure if her mixed looks qualify her as what Canadians call “visible minority.” Ha!)

Also, names really are tricky for the reasons Jillian gave and others: marriage; adoption; common names like Lee (sometime Asian, sometimes not); African or Caribbean immigrants with English or French names; Spanish names can be European or Filipino, not Latino; Asians from former Soviet countries often have Russian names; and so on.

In relation to that, job hunters: if you’re a person of color, please mention it in your cover letter, especially if you don’t have a resume that says things like “African American Student Union president.” Same goes for other “diversity” elements that aren’t readily apparent on paper, like if you’re a woman with a traditionally masculine or non-gender specific name. I sometimes mention my blue collar background, for example, and say why it matters. We who hire hate trying to guess at someone’s background, both because we could be off and because it just feels wrong to go with “Well, Sharnisha Jackson sorta sounds like she could be African-American.”

To follow up on my original posting, I wanted to share organizations and bloggers I’m following on Twitter that are/represent people of color:

http://twitter.com/NCLR – National Council of La Raza
http://twitter.com/indiancountry – Nations’ Leading American Indian News Source
http://twitter.com/NCAI1944 – National Congress of American Indians
http://twitter.com/indianz – Indian Country
http://twitter.com/RayLevesque – Twitter Commentator on many things including tribal economic development (and has some of the best one-liners on Twitter)
http://twitter.com/The_NAACP
http://twitter.com/citizensofcolor
http://twitter.com/MALDEF
http://twitter.com/ethnicmajority
And of course: http://twitter.com/rosettathurman

Having a strangely hard time finding Asian and Pacific Islander orgs. Suggestions welcome. Thanks!

Wilbur – by US Census estimates (as of 7/1/08), the nonwhite population is approximately 34% of the US. I’d say that 16% isn’t where we need to be (or should want to be). We need double that or more!

Tracy – try http://twitter.com/AsiansinAmerica they’re a good organization to follow.

I understand and appreciate the dialogue about the outward signs of ethnicity. However, we, as a nation must be conscious of our decisions – especially for honors and glory such as these. The emerging workforce needs role models and affirmations that they are welcome to lead in our society – our future depends on it!

Rosetta -

Thanks for including me in the post. Of course I agree that diversity is important. I can’t say that I know what the answer is in terms of this (or any other) list. In fact, I tend to think that there isn’t a right answer. Rather, I’m just glad that there are people like you and Allison Kapin and Michelle Murrain, and many many others who keep rebooting the conversation. The best thing we can do is to KEEP talking about it.

API’s that tweet
http://twitter.com/apiequalityla
http://twitter.com/PhilTing
http://twitter.com/apiahf
http://twitter.com/ACMHS
http://twitter.com/Engageher – Mabel Yee at Engage Her
http://twitter.com/AWFoundation Asian Week Foundation

http://twitter.com/CPEHN – The California Pan-Ethnic Health Network (CPEHN)
-Nelson

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful comments – I will be posting them in a follow-up post.

@Jillian – Thanks for raising the point about not knowing the race or ethnicity of someone by looking at their name or photo. This is an important piece to remember, and of course my and others’ knowledge will be a bit imperfect on this front. We often do need to dig a little deeper.

@John – Thanks for taking the time to reach out to Paul at the NP Times. The more voices there are in this conversation, the better the process will be the next time (hopefully). It lets them know that the rest of the nonprofit sector is watching, and we will continue to hold them accountable on this issue.

@Tracy, Ian, Nelson – Thanks for posting names of nonprofit folks of color on Twitter – I am working on a mega-list and these are awesome additions!

@Holly – I don’t think that there is an “answer” per se to this particular issue. I do think that this kind of dialogue is extremely important by both whites and people of color. As long as our nonprofit community claims to promote racial and other types of diversity; inclusion; and justice, these conversations will need to be sustained.

@Matt – Thanks for your comments and for this observation:

“But ultimately, this list is about power and influence — not color. There’s no reason to automatically assume a white person is more or less able or willing to represent people of color to the best of his or her ability.”

Please understand that I do not think that a person of color would necessarily serve or represent communities of color better than a white person would. That is certainly not the issue I am raising here., My problem with lists like these is that they fail to recognize enough leaders of color in the nonprofit community who are ALSO leading with power and influence. How are we defining that when the vast majority of folks that are recognized are white people? As our recent presidential race and the confirmation of the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice proves, America is not yet at a place where leaders are judged solely on the content of their character and track record. So while I agree that recognition should NOT be based on color, we should all be cognizant of who is and is not being recognized. It could very well be that for whatever reason, we are leaving some groups out.

I’m beginning to wonder “how racist are you?”
“whites only” – seriously – to an article that is clearly NOT “whites only” ?
– “promoting next generation leadership for social change” –
- i don’t see you promoting much at all besides resentment towards “white” people with racially inflammatory titles like the one you have here…. If you are truly trying to promote leadership, then i think you might be doing some research and development of ideas and a theory or 2 of WHY and HOW you can become an effective leader, and reasons why your intended demographic is not achieving those things… – instead some glazed articles which you portray as being kept down by white people….
you do nobody any favors by promoting animosity…

with all due respect Stacy – when an “individual of color” makes a post and titles it “whites only” – and is referring to an article that is clearly NOT “whites only” – Then the focus of the article is clearly based in the authors feelings towards “white” people, and the “whites only” issue that they perceive. This, along with other posts that the author has, leads one to wonder about the authors feelings (of animosity, disdain or whatever else) towards “whites” or people with no color.

I agree, there are lot’s of serious problems that need to be addressed, and as long as we are all human, there always will be. But don’t address as serious problem with the foundations being built out of another serious problem.