15. The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Stereotyping with Sheri Crosby Wheeler

“I was looking for something to aspire to, but I also knew – I don’t know why – it can’t be the situation where I can’t ascend to those things. What I see around me is not the true picture of the world. That’s what I just started to tell myself. Maybe there’s people here who think that’s the case, but I don’t believe it and I’m gonna set out to prove that’s not the case; that there are people like me who do things like own businesses, or they’re doctors, or lawyers or teachers even.” In Episode 15 of the ‘Why Care?’ podcast, I am joined by Sheri Crosby Wheeler, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion for Fossil Group, Inc. We discuss how stereotypes and expectations based on diversity characteristics can filter into young people's minds and be internalised to create and fuel self-fulfilling prophecies. We open the episode by discussing Sheri’s journey into becoming a DEI practitioner. Born in a small town in Texas, Sheri then spent a few years in Germany due to her military father’s station, before moving back to Texas to begin her education. Her small town in Texas had no Black professional role models for Sheri to look up to, so as soon as possible she moved to Atlanta to seek out professionals that looked like her. Following this discussion about a lack of role models, we talk about how Sheri had no Black teachers in her entire education until her postgraduate Law course, and how having no role models (or even an understanding of lived experience) during education can have an adverse effect on a young person. Sheri shares her personal story on how her teachers and guidance counsellors attempted to dissuade her from pursuing further education outside of Texas. She felt a weight of responsibility on her shoulders to ‘prove them wrong’ and pressure not return to her hometown and therefore be seen as a failure. Working in the DEI field has its ups and downs, victories and losses, and we talk about these and how to prepare for the inevitable bad days. Sheri shares how it’s not just about changing the minds of people, but changing hearts too: ‘heart work’. Sometimes people will just not have the capacity to care about your work and you need to be able to identify where to focus your attention on those whose minds and hearts you can change. We also discuss the unique challenges of DEI in the retail industry, including having a widespread employee base geographically, and empowering customer-facing employees to protect themselves and uphold inclusion. Fossil is currently focusing on building up communication and offering sharing and learning opportunities for its employees across the world. Sheri then gives insight as to why Fossil has been named one of the best companies for LGBTQ+ employees to work for by the Corporate Equality Index. Links For more from Sheri, you can find her on LinkedIn at Sheri Crosby Wheeler For more from Fossil visit their website at www.fossilgroup.com You can find more on the Sephora Racial Bias Study that Sheri mentions in this Forbes Article For more on Dr Charles Drew, the African American Doctor Sheri mentioned, you can find his Wikipedia article here. To hear Why Care? episodes first, sign up to our newsletter here, and you can find more from us at Avenir via our LinkTree here.