Kenji Yoshino

Only 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are black. Only 4% are women. Years after companies have spent millions of dollars on initiatives meant to expand workplace inclusion, why has so little progress been made? Why are there still so few minorities in leadership positions? And what are the long-term consequences of not diversifying? In this powerful talk, Kenji Yoshino rethinks the conversation around workplace inclusion and outlines concrete solutions for change. Drawing on his breakthrough paper, “Uncovering,” he addresses the enduring challenges that historically underrepresented groups continue to face. Many workers “cover” at work—meaning they downplay certain aspects of their identity in order, they think, to better fit in and to meet expectations. What is the fall-out from this behavior? While more overt kinds of discrimination are gone, a glass-ceiling still exists for certain groups, and Yoshino paints a clear picture of how this situation hurts innovation, competitiveness, talent acquisition, and, of course, the bottom line. Simply put: companies that don’t diversify will be left behind in the new global economy. How can they adapt? Yoshino’s talk is a positive, brilliant, and crucial chapter in the ongoing war for talent.

Same-sex laws are changing. In June 2013, the Supreme Court passed two landmark victories for gay rights in America). The ramifications for individuals, schools, and even corporations will be major and far-reaching. In this talk, legal scholar and bestselling author Kenji Yoshino tackles this momentous and complex question from several angles—everything from corporate to legal to human and civil rights issues are explored with Yoshino’s trademark empathy. With sixteen years of experience writing on these issues, Yoshino is uniquely qualified to balance history against the present moment—and to draft a comprehensive portrait of America’s near future.

In a culture where racial minorities are pressed to “act white”, women are told to “play like men”, and gays are dissuaded from engaging in public displays of affection, it is difficult to believe that we are as “diverse” as we’d like to think. Drawing on his experience as a gay Asian American, Kenji Yoshino examines the prejudices embedded in both American life and in Civil Rights legislation- prejudices that hinder our ability to be our authentic selves. Key to his talk is the phenomenon of “covering,” where people downplay stigmatized traits in order to blend into the mainstream. Moving past conventional discussions of identity politics, Yoshino explains the dangers of a society that claims to support racial, gender, orientation, religious, and physical differences but still routinely denies equal treatment of these people when they refuse to downplay their differences. With a hopeful vision of the future, Yoshino, one of our best legal minds, proves how the ubiquity of “covering” provides an opportunity to redefine civil rights and lift this legislation into a higher, more universal register.