By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
The Truth Contributor
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. – Desmond Tutu
Almost overnight, the narrative surrounding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has actively transfigured a widely accepted policy of fairness in workplaces, government institutions and education into “a demon of reverse racism that prioritizes racial and gender quotas over merit.”
As a result, DEI has become a political flashpoint, placing the initiative increasingly under attack, facing scrutiny from political leaders, funding threats from federal agencies and silent retreats from corporations afraid of political backlash.
As external forces attempt to dismantle DEI efforts, Lucas County faces a critical decision: Will it continue its commitment to fairness, or will it be forced to adjust to political threats and financial pressure?
Neutrality is not an option in what has become the most polarizing issue in America. Therefore, institutional leaders must choose a side – either stand firm in their commitment to inclusion or abandon the work in the face of mounting pressure.
I caught up with Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken this week. Our conversation explores Lucas County’s historical commitment to inclusion, Gerken’s evolution on DEI, and the critical choices facing local governments today.
Perryman: How has your approach to diversity, equity and inclusion evolved under your leadership?
Gerken: We’ve always been about the work for the last 20 years. We started what they call DEI today, back when we started building the Huntington Arena. It would be the first major form of government here to legitimately say we will include minority contractors. We hit 15 percent minority inclusion. Nobody had achieved those numbers on a $100 million project before, so we were always about it. You can continually look at our processes and how much goods and services we spend on the minority and women’s communities even today. So, it started in 2007, and it’s been an evolving journey from concept to practice.
Perryman: Besides the arena project, are there any other specific initiatives?
Gerken: We have always kept an eye informally on whether our workforce looks like our community, and it did. Our leadership has included women in key decision-making roles my entire time here. We currently have both African American women and men serving in high-ranking positions. We didn’t quantify it before, but DEI makes you show your homework.
Perryman: Now that you’re starting to measure results or outcomes, what initiatives have been most impactful?
Gerken: It would be the creation in-house of a department to go out and do training amongst our employees. Do our 1200-1800 employees understand who they work for? We started to make sure our in-house language was in order, and with Crystal, Lee and Willie, we started doing purchasing and looked at economics, but we also looked at the workforce’s attitudes. Do people really understand what racism is? Do people really understand what inclusion is? The first couple of years focused on training our staff, and we’re still doing that.
Perryman: What metrics are you using to measure your progress?
Gerken: The measuring is rooted in and will emerge from our strategic planning process. It’s not well-measured right now.
Perryman: Regarding training, critics have said that many trainings are meaningless because you’re not going to change anybody’s mind; if they’re biased, they’ll always be biased. If so, to what benefit is the training?
Gerken: I’ll counter that by saying that some effort is better than no effort when giving exposure to any human brain other than their current thought. Any effort is better than no effort, and it’s work worth doing.
Perryman: How do you reconcile the goals of DEI with ensuring merit remains a key factor in hiring or promotion decisions?
Gerken: I’ve never understood that question, and I won’t get into that rationale that DEI excludes merit. That’s a false narrative; I’m not going to engage it.
Perryman: It is a false narrative, I agree.
Gerken: So, I don’t engage in false narratives to rationalize something wrong. I’m just not going to do that because it is a false narrative.
Perryman: Then, how do you, as Lucas County Commissioners, define merit?
Gerken: We put together an evaluation system that we’re implementing. It’s a long time coming. We perform internal evaluations where we sit down with employees, ask them to give goals and objectives for the year, work with them to set them and then measure whether they completed them. It’s not complicated. It’s just human.
We’re in the social services business. I don’t count how many widgets people make per hour. Do we have to be accountable and state how many clients we serve and how timely we serve them? Absolutely, but we’ve been accountable. If you look at our Job and Family Services programs over the last two years, we’ve won three major awards from the state for our timeliness of service, accuracy of service and wait times. The relevant measurement is whether people get services delivered to them when they need them and in the time that they need them. For that, we just won three major awards from the state in the last two years.
Perryman: And your DEI does that?
Gerken: Our system does that, and by recognizing that a system works better when it includes all people with all skill sets, it works better.
Perryman: What lessons have you learned from your African American employees that have shaped your approach to DEI?
Gerken: People want to be seen, heard, and valued for who they are as people. People want their needs met and have different social and emotional needs. It’s a matter of cultural competency. That’s what I’ve learned: to try to understand the experiences of others.
Perryman: What personal or professional insights have helped you better understand the barriers that African Americans and other minorities face?
Gerken: I’ve had the opportunity to have personal, working and professional relationships with people different from me. I was reared to listen and be empathetic, and when you shut up and listen, you learn a lot. I’ve learned from many good people in this community, starting with people like George Davis, yourself and, early in my career, Jack Ford. I can point to many mentors who have shaped my worldview because I was open, willing, and honest to listen.
Perryman: Finally, how would you respond if the Lucas County Commissioners were directly targeted or threatened to retreat from DEI?
Gerken: I’m not sure what they would come and tell us we can’t do. Do they want us not to include people? Do they want to have us not have a diverse workforce? We already do. Do they want us to fire people of color? Again, this is a false narrative that nobody’s sure what they will do. Right now, there are a lot of threats and bluster, and they are real threats, but Lucas County was about equity, inclusion and diversity before there was a term for it. So, whether there’s a term for it or not, we will continue to do the work before there was DEI because we were doing it anyway.
If the Trump administration wants to come to Lucas County, Ohio, and say there are too many people in high places who aren’t qualified, let them come. Our work says otherwise.
Perryman: Then, let me be more specific. What if the federal administration says you won’t get any funding if you continue to have a DEI policy or approach? Some institutions have felt the backlash and gone underground, while others have caved to it and gotten rid of it, like Wal-Mart and Target. How would Lucas County respond?
Gerken: Again, the county was about equity, inclusion and diversity before there was a term for it. The ability to have that system is what’s under attack right now. We have approximately $112 million in federal monies through Workforce Development and Jobs and Family Services that we’re reliant on. We must take seriously the threat that the federal people may scrutinize what words we use that say DEI.
I will respond by doing what will be best for the people who need our services. We will continue to do the work, and whatever we call it – a relabeling or a shuffle – I’ll do that. We can’t afford to lose $112 million.
So, the question should not be what are we going to do, but the better question is, what are we going to do to stop them from making this happen? We’re asking the wrong questions here. What are you going to do if they threaten you with DEI? We need to return to the offensive and say we have a good program. Why are you threatening us?
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@enterofhopebaptist.org