When DEI Becomes a Weapon
In this blog post, I share thoughts about how DEI is weaponized and the opportunity for leaders who hold racial equity as a value.
Let's Keep the Main Thing, the Main Thing
As I have said before, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) can mean anything that anyone wants it to mean or it can mean nothing at all, which is part of the challenge the field itself currently faces. DEI can mean dramatically different things depending on who you ask.
For example, as practitoners, we focus on different things — some of us focus more on diversity (who is in the room); others inclusion (power and voice), and others on equity (policy and practice).
And, it seems in our current political context DEI is a not so subtle proxy for Blackness — by way of Black lives, Black people, and Black identities. Nevermind all of the other things (like accessibility) that fall under the DEI umbrella in workplace, education, and other settings.
In Season 2, Ep 12 of my podcast, Race in the Workplace, Sean Thomas-Breitfeld makes an excellent point about DEI as terminology, when he says:
As terms (like DEI) become ubiquitous, I think they generally begin to lose their meaning and have in a way. I think some people are now adding J [Justice] into the mix. I think increasing the acronym doesn’t feel like it’s actually what we need to do as a sector.
-Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, the Building Movement Project
In terms of leadership shifts in the nonprofit sector, Thomas-Breitfeld further notes:
I think in a previous generation, DEI was about challenging white leaders, right? But now we have leaders of color in those positions, so how can DEI as a field and as a practice support leaders of color, support staff, and also ensure that our organizations are having impact that benefits communities?
I think questioning whether DEI (as an umbrella-like descriptor) is serving its orginally intended purpose is desparately needed. Further, I think to vigrously question what we mean when we say DEI is necessary, because its range is so wide and spans from a one-off training to the transformative cross-organizational, organizational development work that I do.
DEI Weaponized, Like Critical Race Theory
Current negative framing around DEI sets up the argument that somehow DEI is responsible for inequities or differences between people. Hmmmm. So, racism that is embedded into organizational policices and practices is not the problem, but the mechanism for disrupting it is?
So, DEI as a workplace practice creates inequity between people?
Not racist practices?
Image Source: gify.com
So, from this perspective, cutting off resources and firing the people who do this work will somehow return workplaces to the utopia of colorblind equality.
Let’s say we set equity to the side for just a second. Stay with me, here.
We don’t even have colorblind equality in our society right now, nor have we ever. Using this analysis, equality is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
A few months ago, I did an interview for a blog called How Stuff Works on the differences between equity and equality. I remember making the following point:
Equality is one of our national values, but in no way are people in similar situations treated the same way — across identities, across race, across the board. That doesn’t happen and never has. There’s a big difference between the national narrative and the actual everyday lives of people. In my opinion, equality in and of itself is yet another unrealized American ideal. To refer to it again and again moves the goalpost in ways that hide Whiteness (as a system) and White rage.
New Opportunities for Leadership When Times are Uncertain
Y'all, we are living in a tough moment. Really tough. But this moment also gives leaders an incredible opportunity.
No matter what you call your commitment -- DEI, DEIA, DEIB, or DEIJ -- be specific and clear about your organizational why — who you are, what you believe, and what you are going to do about it everyday.
Every day gives us the oppotunity to work differently, and equitably, even if we made mistakes yesterday.
And, this moment gives you, executive leaders, the opportunity to be specific and clear about the organizations you lead and the legacies you will leave.
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