Social Justice Together
Diversity, equity and inclusion are becoming more commonplace in our lives and workplaces. We’re hearing these words and phrases more, seeing more roles dedicated to forming inclusive environments. We can see the number of executives with diversity and inclusion job titles is up 113% since 2015. LinkedIn research has shown a decrease in these jobs immediately after COVID-19 lockdowns globally, as organizations scrambled to cut costs, and unfortunately viewed diversity, equity and inclusion as an area to minimise. However, the same data has shown a significant spike upwards since the globalisation of the Black Lives Matter movements in late May and early June, after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police brutality.
Some organizations may have or still do view inclusion-related work as something adhoc and community-driven that is separate to their business strategy. They may not say this outright, but it will be noticeable in their lack diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, with clear milestones, goals and an appropriately-skilled person to lead these efforts. All too often, we see organizations conflate passion for skillset, putting the labour of diversity, equity and inclusion work onto passionate people from underrepresented backgrounds, without actually analysing the problem they are trying to fix, and the type of skillset needed to do so.
Unsuccessful inclusion efforts
According to CNBC, Big Tech companies, such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft have been publishing annual diversity reports, focusing on representation since 2014, however few have made much ground. Despite these efforts, Catalyst have found that underrepresented professionals continue to pay an emotional tax at work when they feel they must be on guard to protect against racial and gender bias. Despite efforts to create more equitable and inclusive environments, we’re seeing needle-movements (if we’re lucky).
So, what is all of this work accomplishing? And why is it accomplishing so little?
Are you talking about exclusion?
One of the buzzwords right now is inclusion. According to Google Trends, in the U.S., interest in the word alone jumped from 44 in mid-May to 100 in mid-June, highlighting the word’s peak popularity.
Many organizations are forming inclusion strategies - rolling out different trainings on bias, creating employee-resource groups, dedicating someone to do this work full-time - but in that process, how often or regularly do you see exclusion being talked about vs inclusion alone? My issue with this is that if we do not fully discuss, talk, educate and create awareness of the exclusion that has historically gotten us to this point, then we cannot honestly say we are working on forming truly inclusive environments. One without the other would be applying a sticky-plaster to a gaping wound and expecting it to be useful.
We must be honest about the state of society and our workplaces. Deliberate decisions have been made to give unequal and unfair treatment. Have you ever had to experience this personally? If not, that’s a privilege.
Remember that:
- Only 1 out of 5 U.S. companies offer paid family leave for LGBT employees.
- “Redlining” prevented access to mortgages and home ownership for Black Americans.
- Studies have shown the greater increases in depression, anxiety, self harm and suicidal thoughts among Black, Asian and minority ethnic young people compared to white peers during COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting a clear difference in support readily available.
- In the period immediately after 9/11, researchers noted low birth weights and other poor birth outcomes among for Arab-named women (which was not prevalent for women with western/expected American names), a result linked to increased racial and religious discrimination.
- In London, currently only 78 out of 270 Tube stations have some degree of step-free access, actively causing friction and excluding disabled people from travelling easily.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, but we must acknowledge that the reason we need all of these inclusion efforts is not by accident. I dislike the passive nature that many have taken, labelling exclusion or bias as “unconscious”, as opposed to recognising that people have done horrible things that have brought us to this position.
How can I integrate exclusion into the conversation around inclusion?
Exclusion is horrifying, deliberate and violent, in many ways. Here are some tips to start being upfront about how it has brought us to where we are now.
Educate
Maybe you’re rolling out bias training, or allyship training to help challenge the bias we all have and bring people on a meaningful journey of creating better environments for everyone. Ensure that these trainings delve into the exclusion that has brought us to the position we’re in now. They must shine a hard light on the true facts that have meant we’re dealing with very biased views of what “good” or “successful” looks like, sounds like and behaves like. Don’t shy away from difficult conversations around racism, homophobia, ableism, sexism, or ageism.
Talk about it, and discuss it.
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One-off education is almost as pointless as none at all. The world changes everyday. Tragic events continue to happen, and it would be facetious to say these don’t affect our workplaces or our people. Create an avenue to keep these conversations going - a Slack channel focused around diversity, equity and inclusion where people can have a safe space to talk and a regular monthly discussion group to keep the conversation going. When world-events happen, post and discuss them in work, making sure you highlight support such as your Employee Assistance Program or mental health resources for those who might need them and not know where or how to access them.
Be honest and transparent
You must be accountable and honest about where you and your workplace is too. Like I said above, these exclusionary events have a knock-on to everything - you are no exception. Share your diversity demographic data breakdowns and your inclusion measures. Sharing diversity data without inclusion is sharing one side of the coin. You should be measuring your inclusion in the same way, being able to comfortably say how/if people from different backgrounds feel differently in your workplace - and using this to fuel your diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. Don’t hide away from the truth - share it and what you’re doing to make things better.
Conversations around inclusion are going to keep happening and we must be ready to deal with them properly. Peakon found in their 2020 Employee Expectations Heartbeat report that there was a 19% year-on-year increase in diversity and inclusion-related terms in employee comments. This included terms such as ‘POC’, ‘race’ and ‘minority’ occurring more frequently.
Society, people and the world have been purposefully and deliberately exclusive to uphold the power white, able-bodied, financially stable people have. We must be purposefully and deliberately inclusive to create a society which no longer greatly advantages some whilst intentionally disadvantaging others.
