Here & Now

Rep. Stubbs on the State’s Diversity and Inclusion Efforts

Zac Schultz:

Earlier this week, Governor Tony Evers signed an executive order relating to diversity, equity and inclusion in state government. Among other things, the order creates a governor’s advisory council and requires state employees to attend equity and inclusion training. Joining us now to talk about this effort is Democratic Representative Sheila Stubbs. Thanks for joining us today.

Sheila Stubbs:

Oh my goodness. Thank you for having me and covering a really important topic.

Zac Schultz:

What do you want these diversity, equity, inclusion efforts to focus on at the state level?

Sheila Stubbs:

To focus on systemic racism that exists. We know that there are practices, there are trainings that must take place, and we know that when we begin to really take a deep dive and analyze our practices and analyze our policies, we will begin to address racism the way that it should and it’s going to focus on root causes. If we get to unemployment, housing, education, criminal justice reform work, we’ll begin to really start addressing the systematic racism that exists in our state.

Zac Schultz:

When you talk about systematic racism, you’re talking about the institution of state government as relates to the public or are you also talking about workplace culture within state government?

Sheila Stubbs:

I’m talking both. Workplace culture is critical. We need to diversify our employment. And in order to do that, we need to be intentional with our work. We need to set goals. We really need to create an equity plan. That plan gives us a chance to look at every state agency, look at the work that they’re doing and to allow us to have equity specialists who will say, you know what, this is the policy that we need to do. Or here’s the training that’s necessary to move us to the next place. We need to be realistic within our goal-setting. Are we going to achieve what we set out to do, which is a new practice, which is a new policy, which is a new effort.

Zac Schultz:

So what kind of training do you envision for state employees?

Sheila Stubbs:

Implicit bias trainings. Explicit bias trainings. I think that’s critical when you begin to talk about you. It starts within you. I think it’s really important to talk about diversity as something that we want in this state. The governor has made that very clear. Our lieutenant governor has made it clear. I made it clear. Other policymakers are saying we want people of color to not just live here, not to just live, but we want them to thrive in all aspects of their life. So that’s one of the areas that’s really key for this work.

Zac Schultz:

For people that haven’t dealt with these topics before, talking about systematic racism and institutional privilege can be really tough for a lot of overwhelmingly white workforce to address at first. How do you keep them open to talking about this?

Sheila Stubbs:

First and foremost, I think the training is the very first step. To mandate that we have our staff participate in these trainings. It’s a first step. As we begin to think about we have to say there are just some people in this state that are not being treated fair. And when you talk about equity, it’s on everyone to be able to see the same plan filled with multiple opportunities. We oftentimes say everything is fair. But is it really fair? Is that really what it’s about? I’ll give you a perfect example. We’ll look at a baseball game and there are three individuals watching this game. There is a fence. Each person is at a different height level. That fence prevents all us from seeing this game from the same perspective. But if we lower the fence, if we remove the fence, if we put pillars and allow all of us to see the same viewpoint, that’s what equity does. It says let’s look at it from the same viewpoint. It’s looking at work with an analytical aspect. It’s actually doing a deep dive and saying it exists. I think the first step is to say, does it exist. Oh, yes. It exists. I think when we begin to meet people there, they’ll begin to say you know what? We do have a problem. Why haven’t we diversified our employment? What is the reason? What are the barriers? Where are the obstacles? Why do we have oppression? How do we move people from that place of oppression to a place of opportunity for all in this state?

Zac Schultz:

So part of the governor’s executive order talks about collecting data and then using that data. What kind of information do you want to gather and how would you use it?

Sheila Stubbs:

Let’s look at unemployment. Why are so many African-Americans unemployed in this state? How do we say we want to make sure that more than African-Americans are getting an opportunity? What about other people of color? And I think taking the data and beginning to say we notice within our departments we don’t have a lot of diversity for people hired. How are we going to reach a pool that we have really never truly engaged? What prevents us from really reaching out for employment opportunities? Let’s look at our incarceration. Why do we have more people of color, African-Americans, incarcerated in this state than the population? Why is that? What are our policies? This really drives at policy. And once we begin to write a policy that is fair for everyone, we’ll begin to change those numbers. I can say firsthand I’ve been a champion at the local level. And so happened to create an office of equity and inclusion and saying it is intentional. That’s what we expect to get with that data and then begin to say what are we missing? What can we do better? Let’s make sure we do these equity plans every year versus when we think they should be done.

Zac Schultz:

All right. Representative Stubbs, thanks for your time today.

Sheila Stubbs:

Thank you, sir.