The industry has mixed feelings on the progress we’ve achieved for the AAPI community.
In many ways, we are so thankful to have “found each other” in the past two years. In other ways, we continue to be deeply frustrated with the snail’s pace in career advancement, continued racism and lack of empathy as the ongoing target of hate crimes.
2020 was a turning point for all of us in so many ways. The uprising for social justice, the spa shootings in Atlanta and the rise of hate crimes against Asians were, unfortunately, the catalysts we needed to lose our hard-working, heads-down patience with the world.
The comfort we found in our camaraderie created pathways for change. The formation of Asians in Advertising, amplifying the hard work of Gold House and the Stop AAPI Hate campaign are great examples of what we did and can do as a community to support and elevate each other.
But we need more than the energy we create amongst ourselves to rise up and influence change broadly.
There has been little improvement for Asians in corporate America. According to Reuters, in the U.S. we represent 12% of the professional workforce and about 30% of the tech workforce. Yet only 4.4% of Fortune 1000 companies have Asian American directors. According to SHRM, 29 CEOs of S&P 500 companies are of Asian descent, and only four of those are female.
Because Asian Americans are not considered an underrepresented minority, DE&I programs have not been directed toward management diversity, but rather cultural inclusion — missing the moment to cultivate leaders.
Bias and stereotypes continue to stop us in our tracks. We still face the same cliches from primary school: “We are good at math; we all want to be doctors or lawyers; we are hard working, but not vocal enough to be leaders or take risks.”
“There is [still] the perception that AAPIs are not creative,” Kay Hsu, VP of creative at Clinique and former global head of creative shop for Instagram, told me. “There isn’t enough creative representation for AAPIs in leadership roles.”
In order to change that perception, companies need to break through their existing biases, she added. It’s important to push for training and for leadership specifically to understand biases that exist against our community.
“They can’t correct what they don’t understand,” she added. “Don’t assume the work speaks for itself. You need to advocate for yourself.”
But we must also break through our own self-bias. Many of our cultures teach us to be modest, conservative and follow the path provided for us. We all have “don’t rock the boat” ringing in our ears. But the truth is, to succeed, we need to ask for what we want, take risks and create space for ourselves.
“We are taught to assimilate so hard,” Bernice Chao, head of integrated creative at Zambezi and co-founder of Asians in Advertising, said to me. “We take on additional projects only to find out that someone else got the opportunity because you didn’t say no [to doing the grunt work], and others did.”
“It’s time to talk about our struggles,” she continued. “We need to have a ‘visibility mindset’ and not wait for someone else to [create the space] for you. “
In 2020, I co-founded Courage to Rise with Van Tran, VP, experience and digital innovation at Credera, to bring to light the Eastern and Western challenges that Asians face in corporate culture. Risk-taking, charisma and creativity have all been part of the conversation in effort to myth-bust the barriers we face. But talking amongst ourselves will only get us so far.
“We need to be given space to succeed in our industry,” said Ashish Prashar, global chief marketing officer of R/GA. “We work twice as hard to be considered for the same opportunities as others. People’s actions and behaviors undermine us … Believe us when we say that someone is being racist [towards us] because we deal with it on a daily basis.”
While generational change is our goal, there is no time to waste. Leaders need to create space for us by understanding our cultural challenges, including us in succession plans, investing in us with career coaches and opening the door for us with other senior leaders — just to name the things done for others. At the bare minimum, ask us to participate.
And AAPI community, remind yourself every day that we ARE enough.
Cathy Butler is CEO of Organic.
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