Thread by @BusinessInsider

Swim cap company @soulcapofficial tried to have its caps — which fit over Afros — approved for the 2021 summer Olympics, but the request was rejected.

Here's why the decision is a teachable moment for business leaders.

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Maritza McClendon, the first Black woman to make a US Olympic swim team and an Olympic silver medalist, called the decision "really disappointing."

She vividly remembers her white teammates at school laughing as she tried to fit her hair into a swim cap.

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The International Swimming Federation, or FINA, said the caps didn't follow "the natural form of the head."

It later said it understood the "importance of inclusivity and representation," and that it is reviewing its decision.

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That FINA snubbed the opportunity to be more inclusive is a lesson for business leaders, said @twiffanyjana, the founder of the diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm TMI.

Jana called the decision "a demonstration of white supremacy."

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Some writers have said that FINA's language about the head's "natural form" is reminiscent of phrenology, a pseudoscience once used to argue that nonwhite people were inferior because of the shapes of their heads.

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Jana said the decision showed a lack of historical and emotional awareness and "overall intelligence."

@KerrynMichele, a DEI principal at the consultancy @TheRabenGroup, agreed.

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No leader or organization will always get things right, especially when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

But it's what leaders do after they make a mistake that defines what they stand for, DEI consultants said.

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