By David Moff, CEO, The HR Group, Inc.

Diversity is an important consideration for all businesses.  The HR Group has partnered with many organizations, such as Mecklenburg County; NC Department of Environmental and Natural Resources; Davidson County; and Samet Corporation with their Diversity and Inclusion efforts.  Governor Perdue has even proclaimed September as NC Diversity Month (we have included the proclamation at the end of this article).

However, most of the Diversity and Inclusion work that The HR Group does generates little or no profit.  We have been holding quarterly Community Diversity forums for the past 3 years and contributed all proceeds to various local non-profit organizations.  On Sept 16, we will have our Second Diversity Leadership Conference at The Empire Room.

Why would a for-profit company do this?  Why does any business expend so much of its efforts promoting this whole idea of Diversity and Inclusion?  Part of understanding the answer to those questions is to understand the personal journey.  I think we will agree that much of our beliefs and belief systems are a combination of all of our life experiences.  We have all been shaped by our past.  Here are a few of my experiences that have shaped my personal passions.

At age 10, our next door neighbor sat in our cozy den and announced to my mother that I would go to Hell if I did not accept Jesus as my savior.  As a young impressionable Jewish kid, this seemed quite off the charts. I had lots of friends that did not believe this way. I knew them to be decent people and I did not think they were destined for Hell.

At age 12, on a trip to my grandfather’s beach house at Carolina Beach, we were refused Curb service at a local restaurant simply because there was a black woman in the car with the seven of us. It was a big family car with 3 in the front and 4 in the back!

At age 14, I was banned to the school hallway with Connie, my Catholic friend, as the New Testament Bible was being taught in the public school room in the small Eastern North Carolina where I was born and raised.

At age 16, when the Ku Klux Klan, marched down Main Street in their white sheets espousing the rhetoric that attacked anyone and everyone who was not exactly like them.

At age 17, when my friends tied up Jimmy on the playground monkey bars and pulled his pants down.  They called Jimmy a fag.  I don’t know if he was Gay or not but most of us thought he was a bit "sissy and queer."  What I did know was that Jimmy was a good student, always willing to pitch in on any project and that we sat together often at lunch.  I could not understand why my “friends” were doing this to my friend Jimmy.

At age 19, in college, my fraternity was the continuous attack of broken windows and fires in the yard simply because many in the fraternity were Jewish.  By the way, this was at UNC-Chapel Hill in the late 60's.

At age 24, I went to work in the Personnel office of a textile company. I was trained that the blacks were to be hired for the Warehouse and lower paying jobs, while the whites were to be hired for the higher paying jobs in the Weave room and Inspections departments.

At age 27, I was asked to join the local Status of Women Commission and began to learn the workplace challenges women were having in terms of opportunities and pay disparities.

At age 30, when we started hiring people on work release and parole to discover that many of them were really victims of their circumstances and when given the chance became productive members of the workforce.

At age 38, when my son entered and won a speech contest with the topic, Johnny is an Atheist and taught me that not everyone prays to a G-d like we did.

At age 40, as President of the local synagogue, I learned that there are so many ways to pray or not to pray, that we should be respectful of everyone’s right to find spirituality wherever that may be.

At age 42, when the VP of Sales said “women can’t do this job.” Ten years later the sales force was 25% female and sales were at a record pace.

At age 43, when my youngest son came out to us as Gay.  We loved him even more. He was the same person the day before and is a wonderful and brilliant attorney today.  How can anyone think he should be a second class citizen and not entitled to the same rights and privileges as anyone else—“All men [and women] are created equal”.

At age 55, when my now business partner, Patsy Wiggins, introduced me to her two deaf sons – both productive and contributing members of their workplaces. Plus Patsy and I have become model business partners, despite the fact that we come from diverse religious background – she a Southern Baptist and I, a Conservative Jew.  We have a deep respect for each other.

And today, we have two employees working with The HR Group that have had lifelong challenges.  One born with Spina bifada and the other with Cerebral Palsy and a pronounced stutter.  They are both adding great value to our company.

Patsy Wiggins and I both grew up in small Southern towns – she in South Carolina and I in North Carolina in the 50s and 60s. We witnessed first hand the discrimination and abuse of people who were considered different – race, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender, disabilities and more. We both learned that each and every individual is special and that we should all learn to find ways to respect, admire and find the best in each and every person.  We both shutter at the rhetoric of those individuals (politicians in particular) who demean and reject those that are not like them.

Far too often, diversity is thought of only in racial terms.  While this is a part of the discussion, it is only one part.  The discussion has to include anyone who has ever been marginalized or demeaned by other individuals or by a group of people.

The business case for diversity has plenty of data to support the business imperative.  However, we believe that the more we can do to educate and inform others about why Diversity and Inclusion is not only the right thing to do but also is the way that any human should treat another human, then the better we will leave this world when we are no longer here.

We invite you to join us in our journey.