Who Pays for Diversity?

Why Programs Fail at Racial Equity and What to Do about It

Oneya Fennell Okuwobi

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9780520392243
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Social Sciences

How diversity initiatives harm employees of color by turning them into workplace commodities. Diversity programs are under attack. Should those interested in racial justice fight to keep them, or might there be another way forward? Who Pays for Diversity? reveals the costs that employees of color pay under current programs by having their racial identities commodified to benefit white people and institutions.Oneya Fennell Okuwobi proposes fresh and thoughtful ways to reorient these initiatives, move beyond tokenism, and authentically center marginalized employees. Drawing on accounts of employees from across the workplace spectrum, from corporations to churches to universities, Who Pays for Diversity? details how the optics of diversity programs undermine employees' competence while diminishing their well-being and workplace productivity. Okuwobi argues that diversity programs have been a costly detour on the path to racial justice, and getting back on track requires solutions that provide equity, dignity, and agency to all employees, instead of defending the status quo.

Table of contents

• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1. The Costs of Diversity
• 2. Commodities and Tokens
• 3. One of the Things about Bridges Is They Get Walked On
• 4. Honorary Whites and Collective Blacks: Degrees of Diversity
• 5. “I’m Improving It for Us”: Diversity Ideology for Employees of Color
• 6. Making Diversity the Only Option
• 7. Formal Diversity Practices
• 8. Dreaming Bigger: Toward Workplace Equity
• Appendix 1: Study Participants
• Appendix 2: Interview Guide
• Notes
• References
• Index