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James added that she also hopes companies focus not only on hiring people of color and women in organizations, but taking steps to make sure they succeed and are able to reach the highest levels of the organization.

\"The networks for white Americans in corporate America look very different from the networks of Black folks in corporate America,\" said James, who did her doctoral dissertation on the topic of networks. \"The access that they have to people who are in the room making decisions around the projects and the pay and the promotions impedes or can facilitate progress.\"

\"We need to make sure that the relationships that people are able to really establish and build can help promote diversity at the upper levels of the organization,\" she said.

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