ENCORE GOOD WORKS
When she attended college at Wright State University, in Dayton, McCorkle was one of a small percentage of Black students at the predominantly white research institution. The education she received in discrimination was swift, she recalls. In her sophomore year, in front of an entire psychology class, a white professor told McCorkle, “You don’t have the right to be here — you are the wrong color, you are the wrong gender and you are the wrong socio-economic background.” With a flip of a switch, it was then that she became committed to working for equity, she says. Equity is a huge part of McCorkle’s role at WMU. As the executive spearheading WMU’s diversity and inclusion efforts, McCorkle works to lead the university in its efforts to achieve diversity via inclusion, acceptance, respect and empowerment. This means understanding that each individual is unique and that people’s differences can make the contributions they have to offer valuable. At the same time, McCorkle notes that is her responsibility to represent the interests of a wide spectrum of people. “I am one of the only vice presidents of color (at WMU),” she says. “There are two other persons of color on the (university) cabinet — our president and the director of strategic communications. When I come into cabinet, I don’t get the luxury of just coming to cabinet as Candy the Black woman. I have to come in there as Candy the Hispanic male, Candy the blind person, Candy the LGBT person. I have to try to put the identities that are not in that room in that space so that when we are thinking about things, I am challenging people to think about how it looks for everyone.”
Equity recognizes individual needs Promoting a campus environment that offers equal opportunity and equity in an atmosphere free of discrimination, harassment or retaliation is the daily job of another WMU leader: Evelyn Winfield-
Thomas, the university’s executive director of institutional equity and special assistant to the president. Winfield-Thomas says that giving everyone the same thing does not always mean achieving equality or equity. Every person starts off with different characteristics, abilities and resources and therefore has different needs, she says. “You have to give people what they need to level the playing field,” she says. “We can work toward equity, but everyone and institutions have to be motivated to achieve this outcome. The goal is to create systems and structures that afford equitable access and opportunities for everyone. This is a
This story was written for the WMU journalism program’s Reporting a Word project, which was featured in August’s issue of Encore. Information about it and other stories from the project are available online at encorekalamazoo.com. stronger pathway toward equity and equal opportunity.” Winfield-Thomas’ office focuses on programs and policies to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are part of WMU’s campus culture. For example, before COVID-19 restrictions, the office was scheduled to launch a 30-hour training for employees about ways they can work to cultivate an inclusive, diverse workplace. Additionally, the office offers anti-bias training to members of search committees for faculty, staff, administrator and student leadership positions, to “increase awareness of various forms of individual, group and institutional implicit or unconscious biases that are barriers to diversity, equity and inclusiveness in hiring decisions and outcomes, according to the office’s website.
Views and evidence on inequity According to a 2016 Pew Research Center report, nearly six in 10 Americans said the U.S. needs to continue making changes in order for Black people to have equal rights with white people. Thirty percent said the country has already made enough changes. A 2019 report from Pew indicated a bleaker view among Black Americans: More than eight in 10 Black adults said the legacy of slavery affected the position of Black people in America, and about eight in 10 Blacks also said the U.S. hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to giving Black people equal rights with whites. Half of those surveyed said it was unlikely that the country would eventually achieve racial equality. Economic inequity is evident on the local level. In the Kalamazoo-Portage metropolitan area, the median wage for workers of color was $4 less than the median wage for white workers in 2015, according to the National Equity Atlas produced by both PolicyLink, a national research institute focusing on racial and economic equity, and the University of Southern California Program for Environmental and Regional Equity. The atlas calculated that in 2015 the region’s economy would have been $1.07 billion larger if there had been no racial gaps in income — meaning that people of color earned the same as their white counterparts. “Racial economic inclusion is good for families, good for communities, and good for the economy” because fewer families will be living in poverty, will contribute more to tax revenues and pay into Social Security, according to the organization’s website.
Consulting for change Working to bring equity in the community is at the heart of one Kalamazoo small business. Through her company, Change Agent Consulting, principal and lead consultant Demarra West works with organizations and individuals on a range of subject areas, from
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