Before you hire a person of color

Myron Pierce Aug. 5, 2020

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I get it. You want to hire a person of color. You've done an assessment of your organization and you realize you have to change.

I know.… All your peers are searching for just the right person. However, I want to caution you. If you move too quickly without doing the proper legwork, you could end up derailing the person you hire.

Are you convinced you need a person of color? You have to be able to answer this question with integrity. If you're not convinced, please do not hire a person of color.

You may end up playing into the cultural platitudes of tokenism and thus you could be rebuilding the very structures you want to dismantle. Paul the Apostle exhorted the Corinthian Church in embracing the truth about their situation – they needed one another.

Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:15-26, NIV)

Will your current culture oppose the very person you are seeking to hire?This is huge. You may have a vision for a diverse team, but if your culture isn't ready for it, you'll destroy the person you want to hire.

Your organization has norms and systems of belief. When you hire a person of color, you aren't just hiring them for their character, chemistry, and competence, you're also hiring the culture they carry.

Cultures tend to clash when you force them together. This isn't bad in and of itself, but if your organization isn't flexible or willing to welcome the new person's differences, they could feel immense pressure to assimilate.

I'm sure that's not what you're aiming for. So, you must prepare your organization for such a change.

How much power will they have? If you hire a person of color and give them responsibility without authority, you'll demoralize them. In the end, they'll be publicly shamed by the very culture you invited them into.

Instead, clarify how much power they'll have, and the boundaries they need to observe.

Far too often, I see leaders rush to try and hire a person of color so that they don't appear to be homogenous and behind the times. This, in my opinion, is putting the cart before the horse.

What matters at the end of the day is asking yourself, "Am I willing to share power in order to achieve my plans?"

If you can't answer these questions with clarity, then please DO NOT go out and hire a person of color. In the end, that person will leave devastated, and on top of that, it will discourage your organization from making future progress in this area.

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Myron is the most unlikely leader in his region. At the age 18 he stood before a judge while facing 200 years in prison due to his life of gang banging, drugs and crime. However, he has now authored several books, launched a host of churches and a few businesses. He is now the Lead Pastor of Mission Church, a grassroots inner city mission with a dream to saturate every inner city with diverse Hope filled churches. He and his wife, Kristin, live in the heart of North Omaha with their three sons and daughter.

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