  Promoting racial and ethnic diversity is critically important to the future
success and growth of the field of astronomy. The raw ability, drive and
interest required to excel in the field is distributed without regard to race,
gender, or socioeconomic background. By not actively promoting diversity in our
field we risk losing talented people to other professions (or losing them
entirely), which means that there will be astronomical discoveries that simply
won't get made. There is demonstrated evidence that STEM fields benefit from
diverse perspectives on problems that require more complex thought processes.
This is especially relevant to a field like astronomy where more and more work
is being done collaboratively. The lack of notable growth in African American,
Hispanic, and Native American representation in astronomy indicates that the
'pipeline' for these individuals is systemically leaky at critical junctures.
Substantially more effort must be directed toward improving the educational and
career development of minorities to insure that these potential colleagues are
supported through the process. However, simply recognizing that the pipeline is
faulty is woefully inadequate. There must be very specific, targeted solutions
to help improve the situation. With this in mind, we offer two position papers
addressing specific areas of improvement that we identify as (a) essential for
any foreseeable progress in the field, and (b) attainable in the 2010-2020
decade. These position papers focus primarily on African Americans, Hispanics,
and Native Americans. Although we do not directly address issues of Asian
Americans, Pacific Islanders, and other groups, many of the recommendations
made here can be adapted to address issues faced by these groups as well.
