Speaker 1: It is August. In Bloomberg Markets magazine, they are out
Speaker 1: with a special issue. It is focused on diversity, where
Speaker 1: black men and women they share their experience on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: There's no universal experience, but their stories reflect what it's
Speaker 1: like in what it means to be just one of
Speaker 1: a handful of black people in finance. Bloomberg Radio and
Speaker 1: Television correspondence Hinney Bassik contributed to the Bloomberg Markets issue
Speaker 1: and brings us more in this special report. It's hard
Speaker 1: to define the black experience on Wall Street, partially because
Speaker 1: there are so few people of color in the c
Speaker 1: suite and on trading floors across the industry. At the
Speaker 1: beginning of this year, there were more than eighty top
Speaker 1: executives at the six biggest US banks, and only one
Speaker 1: was black. We interviewed people across the industry. Carla Harris,
Speaker 1: who has since become one of the most senior women
Speaker 1: at Morgan Stanley, was one of the few people of
Speaker 1: color at the firm in the eighties. Excellence look like
Speaker 1: six white men at the top, right. That wasn't strange
Speaker 1: at all. That's what you saw at IBM. That's what
Speaker 1: you saw a GM. That's what you saw at Morgan
Speaker 1: Stanley Goldman's actually pick it right. So you knew that
Speaker 1: if you wanted to play on this playing field, that's
Speaker 1: was what you were You were going to have to
Speaker 1: be comfortable in some cases being the only and and
Speaker 1: being the first. So that was not intimidating to me
Speaker 1: at all. That's just the way it was, you know.
Speaker 1: I would say I had three strikes against me. Here's
Speaker 1: what I said to myself as the first year and
Speaker 1: second year associate. I said, You've got three strikes against you.
Speaker 1: You're young, you're a woman, and you're black. Reggie Brown
Speaker 1: was also alone when he became the first African American
Speaker 1: Exchange official in the nineties. I've always saw race as
Speaker 1: an attribute because I realized that a lot of times
Speaker 1: I was the only one in the room or I
Speaker 1: stood out because I was six five a black dude,
Speaker 1: and everyone remarked to that because it was such a
Speaker 1: unique thing to be um in environment that I was in.
Speaker 1: And so I think through ambition and talent and drive,
Speaker 1: I created my opportunities. Many of the people we interviewed
Speaker 1: said they felt systematically shut out of wall streets tight
Speaker 1: knit circle. Sometimes that sentiment was even overt. There was
Speaker 1: some recognition I think of my talents, but also you
Speaker 1: know just where I stood in a hierarchy. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember when I first came remember the Stock Exchange.
Speaker 1: I sat the members lounge and a ninety year old
Speaker 1: member of the Exchange I didn't believe I belonged there,
Speaker 1: and cleared his throat and told me to go. That
Speaker 1: was in the nineties. More than a decade later, Lauren
Speaker 1: Simmons was only the second black woman to become a
Speaker 1: trader at the New York Stock Exchange. That's in the
Speaker 1: two five year history of the trading floor. Before she
Speaker 1: passed her Series nineteen exam, the men and around her
Speaker 1: bed that she wouldn't even make it through the test.
Speaker 1: The archive is getting to bea you realized or the
Speaker 1: second half of American woman in history. And this wasn't
Speaker 1: true interest about gear to be to myself like wow,
Speaker 1: this is a story moment, but it is very better.
Speaker 1: See that there, you know, barched more woman. They came
Speaker 1: before me. There's been some change over time, but it's
Speaker 1: coming fits and starts. For Carla, that ship started in
Speaker 1: the nineties, but she saw many people of color laid
Speaker 1: off and hard times for the industry. We have made
Speaker 1: some progress, because it used to be so knowledge that
Speaker 1: I could name every person on Wall Street, let alone
Speaker 1: every senior person on Wall Street. And I am happy
Speaker 1: to say that I cannot do that today. So by definition,
Speaker 1: we've made some progress. The reason why I think we
Speaker 1: aren't farther along in financial services bly and certainly Wall
Speaker 1: Street particularly, is that I feel that diversity has been
Speaker 1: a bullmarket phenomenon. When things are going really well, then
Speaker 1: people are focused on it. And then when you have
Speaker 1: a bear market environment, you have restructurings, you have reductions
Speaker 1: and force and obviously small populations are disproportionately hit. And
Speaker 1: then when we get back into an upturn, that's when
Speaker 1: you look around and you go, oh my gosh, where's
Speaker 1: my pipeline, And you've got to start all over again.
Speaker 1: And with the death of George Floyd and protests spanning
Speaker 1: more than two months, many in Wall Streets black community
Speaker 1: have been compelled to create change. They're speaking openly about
Speaker 1: race for the first times in their careers. You know,
Speaker 1: seeing George Floyd being murdered by a y cop with
Speaker 1: his hands in his pocket, you know, it's just molly reprehensible.
Speaker 1: You know, and I think because we're all at home,
Speaker 1: working at home from COVID, everyone has an opportunity to
Speaker 1: kind of focus on it. And I think what's different
Speaker 1: is I think there's more people of color in their
Speaker 1: agency to speak freely about these issues. Age plays a
Speaker 1: part too. Laurence is a younger generation hesitant to accept
Speaker 1: the status quo. She thinks the next wave of talent
Speaker 1: is unlikely to stay on Wall Street of things don't change.
Speaker 1: The shift is going to happen with the younger generation
Speaker 1: is that they're just going to get bet up when
Speaker 1: traditional Wall Street or traditional maybe Chech spaces or so
Speaker 1: on and so forth, and they're just going to create
Speaker 1: your own companies that include everyone. Because I do really
Speaker 1: believe that the younger generation really gets it. But the
Speaker 1: road ahead is still a hard one with barriers to entry.
Speaker 1: You know, Wall Street, you know it's a closed society
Speaker 1: and you know it's a meritocracy, and it's very hard
Speaker 1: to get in and stay in, and once you're in,
Speaker 1: you know, the environment two times is rough and tumble,
Speaker 1: is not very friendly. But is that true for everything
Speaker 1: else alive? After almost two dozen interviews with people of
Speaker 1: color on Wall Street, we found that being black often
Speaker 1: means being alone, held back, and deprived of the best opportunities.
Speaker 1: Some made it to the top, some left disenchanted. Some
Speaker 1: became rich. Some were so underpaid they had to sue.
Speaker 1: Some think Wall Street is hopeless, but some are more
Speaker 1: optimistic than ever. In New York, Um Shinneli Bassk Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Radio