DARK SIDE CASE: Black Employees (Should) Matter

Abstract

This teaching case portrays a dilemma faced by Daniel, a young Brazilian black journalist who works for Globo Group, the country’s largest and dominant media conglomerate. He has been able to build a successful career start at GloboNews channel, which he – and his family – considered to be a dream job. It is a regular working day in early November 2019. Daniel looks at his appointments on the computer calendar and notices that the Brazilian national black awareness day – celebrated on November 20th – is approaching. This event has been a great advance in the Brazilian social agenda. At a glance, Daniel remembers that the country has the world’s largest population of black people outside Africa, and that blacks represent the majority of the Brazilian population. It is the result of a grievous time of more than 300 years of slavery, and almost 5 million people forcibly brought to the country. For an idea of the magnitude of this number, around 380 thousand enslaved people were taken to the USA during its slavery period, ten times less than the number received by Brazil. In this reflective moment, he finally realizes that the organization he proudly chose to work for, and that portrays “diversity” as a core value, has so few black workers, and almost none in leadership positions. Moreover, no one seemed to care much about it. What should Daniel do?