Racial Equality and Diversity

Posted by Kangyi He.

According to this current news story, the governor of California signed a law on corporate boardroom diversity. The news mainly presented that “hundreds of California-based corporations must have directors from racial or sexual minorities on their boards under a first-in-the-nation bill signed Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom(California governor signs corporate boardroom diversity law).”There is no doubt that there are two sides to any action. On the one hand, there will be strong supporters. On the other hand, there will also be some people opposed.

Firstly, such diverse business legislation has been enacted in previous years, but this year California will force some companies to hire female directors and promote racial equality and diversity. Supporters say the new business law goes a step further in racial equality, and that all corporate boards in California now better reflect equality, despite previous efforts at the leadership level to eliminate implicit bias. For businesses, racially diverse boards are more advantageous than those lacking diversity. This measure showed a fact that “by the end of 2021, the more than 660 public corporations with California headquarters must have at least one board director from an “underrepresented community,” according to the measure(California governor signs corporate boardroom diversity law).” It is meaningful and important for a company to have different opinions on its board of directors. According to the opinion of the only official opponent in the legislative analysis, “he objected that that bill, coupled with the existing diversity law, would make it more desirable for corporations to pick women who also are members of the underrepresented communities to simultaneously meet both sets of quotas, to the detriment of men or women who do not meet the qualifications in the new bill(California governor signs corporate boardroom diversity law).” In other words, this measure may damage other people’s rights.

In conclusion, the law in the business has played a win-win role. On the one hand, it has greatly promoted racial equality among corporate directors and endowed people of different races with more equal business status. Secondly, the diversification of the board of directors is conducive to the comprehensive development of corporate culture, decision-making, policy, operation, and leadership, injecting fresh ideas into enterprises and promoting the development of business.

Kangyi is an accounting major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2021.

Work Cited

“California governor signs corporate boardroom diversity law.” Fox Business, October 1. https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/california-governor-signs-corporate-boardroom-diversity-law