I agree, all these things you mention are racist. They were wrong then and anything like them is still wrong now. However, at Medtronic we are drawing those lines again, just in different places, separating people into categories, some to be favored and some to be suppressed based solely on a characteristic they had no control over - their skin color. It is fostering an "us versus them" mentality where blacks and whites view each other with suspicion.
But I say we should be moving in a direction where we do not lump each other into large classes such as black or white or any other color. Rather, we should view each other as members of one human race with skin tones on a continuum from dark brown to light tan. In other words, what counts is character and experience. Is there work to do to combat racism? Absolutely. And we should start by resisting our tendency to lump people into general classes based solely on their skin color. These arbitrary categories do not help create unity among the employees.
Instead of focusing on meeting certain race quotas, I believe we should focus on meeting the needs of our customers and patients. For example, consider Ukraine and Zelensky. Ukraine has its share of racism and problems, just like other countries. But they have a love of freedom that they have rallied around, and they are accomplishing what almost everyone thought was impossible. The differences between people tend to get set aside when there is a clear mission to work towards. Without an emphasis on that mission, divisions and infighting tend to crop up.
