Black CEO representation on the Fortune 500 is 1.6% this year. Here’s what could turn it around

Still, eight out of 500 leaders is a near-record high, second only to 2022. (The list shrank after Rosalind Brewer’s abrupt resignation as Walgreens CEO last year, and is set to shrink further when Franklin Clyburn Jr. of International Flavors & Fragrances resigns this month.) 

Diversity workplace experts say it doesn’t need to be this way. Companies can break ground in workplace equality (and some have.) But first, there are some common pitfalls to be aware of.

The ‘teddy bear’ effect 

Black men, who make up most of this year’s Black CEOs, face an unusual challenge with a peculiar name: the Teddy Bear effect.   

“The stereotype of aggressive Black men can be a barrier and an extra burden in terms of something they have to manage,” said Winny Shen, a professor at York University who studies workplace diversity. “Leaders at the top are not immune to problematic stereotypes that continue to be pervasive in society,” she added. 

As she describes it, stereotypes of Black men as aggressive mean that those with teddy-bear-like features—such as rounder cheeks or bigger eyes—advance further in the workplace. Because they are perceived as less threatening, teddy-bear or baby-faced CEOs are seen as more likely to broker the kinds of relationships required of a CEO. It’s a bizarre phenomenon that has been documented in research by social psychologist Robert Livingston, a lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Women who’ve stepped into the C-suite, meanwhile, often face gossip that “they have earned their position not through merit, but because of the societal push towards greater diversity,” Shen said. Essentially, they face peers who think they only have their…