When Rights Are Weakened Outside the Workplace, Leaders Must Strengthen Dignity Inside It

On June 25, 2013, the Supreme Court decided Shelby County v. Holder, a ruling that struck down the Voting Rights Act’s Section 4 coverage formula. That formula determined which jurisdictions with documented histories of racial discrimination in voting had to receive federal approval before changing voting laws or procedures. The Court did not strike down Section 5 preclearance itself, yet without the coverage formula, that protection became largely inoperable unless Congress created a new one. In practice, one of the most powerful tools for stopping discriminatory voting changes before they could harm Black and brown communities was severely weakened.

On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court decided Louisiana v. Callais. The Court held that Louisiana’s congressional map with a second majority-Black district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander because, in the Court’s view, the Voting Rights Act did not require Louisiana to create that additional majority-minority district. Civil rights advocates have described the ruling as a major weakening of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which has long been one of the remaining federal tools used to challenge vote dilution affecting Black and brown communities.

For Black and brown employees, these rulings are not abstract legal developments. They land in the body. They land in the nervous system. They land in family conversations, in memories passed down from elders, and in the awareness that the rights many people fought, bled, prayed, organized, and died for can still be narrowed by institutions with immense power. These moments can carry bodily, mental, emotional, and spiritual weight. They can reopen historical wounds while creating new fears about safety, representation, and belonging.

This is where workplace leadership matters.

A workplace cannot repair the full harm of a weakened democracy. It can, however, become a place where dignity is practiced with intention. It can become a place where Black and brown employees do not have to carry civic grief in silence while still being expected to perform as if nothing has happened. It can become a place where leaders understand that justice is not only a public policy issue. Justice is also a culture issue, a leadership issue, and a daily practice of care.

The first thing leaders should be doing right now is creating real psychological safety, especially for truth-telling. This means making room for Black and brown employees to speak honestly, process carefully, and decide for themselves how much they want to share. It does not mean forcing people of color to educate the organization or carry the emotional labor of explaining why this moment matters. It means creating conditions where grief, anger, fatigue, fear, and clarity are not punished, dismissed, or quietly labeled as a lack of professionalism.

Amy Edmondson’s peer-reviewed research on psychological safety found that teams are more likely to learn, speak up, and engage in productive behavior when people believe they can raise concerns without humiliation or punishment. That matters deeply in this moment because silence is not always a sign of wellness. Sometimes silence is a survival strategy. Sometimes people stop speaking because they have learned that honesty costs too much. Leaders who want to build trust must ask better questions and then protect the answers they receive.

Those questions may sound simple, but they require courage. “What support would help you feel safer and more grounded this week?” “What are we asking of you right now that may need to be adjusted?” “Where are you seeing harm, silence, or avoidance in our culture?” The work is not finished when those questions are asked. The work begins when leaders listen without defensiveness, adjust without resentment, and refuse to turn someone’s honesty into a performance concern. Psychological safety in this moment means people can name what is happening without being labeled difficult, divisive, or distracted.

The second thing leaders should do is audit the workplace for equity in power, protection, and consequence. Moments like this reveal whether an organization’s values are operational or ornamental. Leaders should review how power moves inside the workplace. Who gets heard? Who gets protected? Who gets promoted? Who gets doubted? Who is expected to remain calm when systems are causing harm? Who is allowed to express concern, and who is expected to keep carrying the weight quietly?

Research on diversity climate is helpful here. Patrick McKay and colleagues found that employees’ perceptions of a positive diversity climate were connected to lower turnover intentions among Black, Hispanic, and White managers. In other words, people pay close attention to whether an organization’s stated commitment to fairness is reflected in its actual culture. A related peer-reviewed study by McKay, Avery, and Morris found that supportive diversity climates were associated with smaller racial and ethnic differences in sales performance across work units, which points to the practical impact of equitable workplace environments.

This means leaders must move from statement to structure. Review promotion patterns. Review pay equity. Review discipline data. Review who is invited into strategy conversations. Review whose ideas are challenged more aggressively. Review who is asked to absorb conflict for the sake of organizational comfort. Review whether Black and brown employees have safe reporting pathways when they experience bias, retaliation, or coded forms of disrespect. This work should be done with humility and with data. It should also include outside facilitation when the organization does not have the internal trust or skill to examine itself honestly.

The question is not simply, “Do we care about equity?” The stronger question is, “Can our employees see equity in the way decisions are made?” If the answer is unclear, then leaders have work to do. If the answer depends on who is being asked, then leaders have even more work to do.

The third thing leaders should do is practice civic care as part of workplace wellbeing. Voting rights are not separate from workplace wellbeing. When employees experience public threats to their rights, representation, safety, and dignity, those threats can shape stress, belonging, concentration, trust, and hope. Leaders who care about employee wellbeing should understand civic harm as part of the social environment their employees are living through.

This does not require turning the workplace into a partisan space. It requires treating civic dignity as a human concern. Practical steps matter. Offer flexible time for voting and civic participation. Provide access to mental health support that is culturally responsive. Bring in skilled facilitators who can help teams process racialized harm with care. Support employee resource groups with budget, authority, and executive sponsorship. Make sure managers are trained to recognize how racial stress, grief, and vigilance can show up at work.

It also means leaders should communicate clearly. Silence from leadership often gets interpreted as permission for harm to remain unnamed. A respectful message does not need to solve everything. It can simply acknowledge the weight of the moment and name the organization’s responsibility to protect dignity inside its own culture. A leader might say, “We recognize that recent voting rights decisions are carrying real weight for many of our Black and brown employees. We are committed to protecting dignity, safety, equity, and justice inside this workplace, and we will be reviewing our practices to ensure that commitment is visible in how people are treated, heard, supported, and protected.”

That kind of message is only meaningful if action follows it. Words can open the door. Practices determine whether people feel safe walking through it.

The civil rights movement was never only about access to a ballot. It was about full human dignity. It was about the right to move through public life without being treated as disposable. It was about the right to work, learn, worship, vote, gather, rest, speak, and live without systems constantly reminding Black and brown people that their safety is conditional.

Workplaces are part of that public life.

So the question for leaders is direct: What are you willing to do now to ensure safety, equity, and justice inside your workplace for the Black and brown employees carrying the weight of this moment? The answer cannot live only in a statement. It has to live in calendars, budgets, policies, meetings, promotions, protections, and daily leadership behavior.

For leaders who want support doing this work with care, humility, and accountability, there are several people and resources worth turning to. Through Ok…On Second Thought Studios, I support leaders, teams, workplaces, and relationships seeking human-centered coaching, communication support, empathy-centered leadership, and healthier culture practices. You can learn more at onsecondthoughtstudios.com.

For leaders in the education sector, Erin Jones offers powerful work around racial equity, storytelling, leadership, social-emotional learning, and community healing. Her work is especially valuable for schools and educators seeking to create spaces where students, staff, and families are seen with dignity. You can learn more at erinjonesdreams.com.

For leaders in the ministry sector, Mekdes Haddis brings important wisdom around justice, mutuality, global missions, power, and dignifying leadership. Her work can help churches, ministries, and mission organizations think more deeply about what justice requires in faith-centered spaces. You can learn more at mekdeshaddis.com.

Sources

Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383.

McKay, P. F., Avery, D. R., Tonidandel, S., Morris, M. A., Hernandez, M., & Hebl, M. R. (2007). Racial differences in employee retention: Are diversity climate perceptions the key? Personnel Psychology, 60(1), 35–62.

McKay, P. F., Avery, D. R., & Morris, M. A. (2008). Mean racial-ethnic differences in employee sales performance: The moderating role of diversity climate. Personnel Psychology, 61(2), 349–374.