Use Your Social Network as a Tool for Social Justice

Majority group members and men have an immense source of power at their disposal to prevent and confront bias in the workplace — their social networks. Most people think about their immediate circle of friends as their audience. However, research in the study of social networks has shown they are wrong. Your ideas and behaviors ripple out from you, influencing your friends, friends of friends whom you may not even know, and friends of those friends as well. The implication is that you have enormous capacity to influence others to be anti-racist and to be anti-sexist in the workplace — those you know directly and individuals as much as three social steps away from you. But to make a real impact, you must move your conversations with colleagues, and what you share online, beyond value statements toward concrete anti-bias actions. Share your support for de-biasing your organization with your friends, tell them what actions you are taking to make your team fair and inclusive, and actively include more women and minorities in your informal networks.