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