Diversity and Inclusion - Have these terms lost their depth and trust?
LAU (PRONOUNCED LAUW)
Love is the energy fueling the actions.
Abundance is the energy that gives space and resources for all of the process for production leading to profit.
Unity is collaboration, connection, inclusion and efficiency.
FLS (PRONOUNCED FLISS)
Fear is the energy fueling threat, insecurity, domination and power-over.
Lack is limitation and control of resources.
Separation is division, disconnection and segregation.
What about diversity and inclusion?
The language of diversity and inclusion has lost the depth and the trust… and we need to learn to speak with clarity about what we mean. As we do this work, we need to realize that none of us, not one person, knows how to do it effectively. We have no working model that has been applied in every situation that has solved the deeply rooted system of separation that is racism. So it’s going to take some time. And, we’re going to fuck up and make mistakes.
When I was 10- years old, my family adopted my little brother. He was 3 months old and the minute I saw him, I was smitten. This kid had the most gorgeous dark brown skin and dimples as deep as a crater. Growing up with my black brother in a small, very white, very racist Northern California farming community gave me my education in the deeply racist system that infects our nation and the world.
Fast-forward to 2020 and we are again shown with clarity, and the precision of a sharp sword, that things have not changed much. We live in a system that works for a very few and excludes most others which for one group in particular, it spares no pain against them.
Following the murder of George Floyd, the world reeled. We were reminded that there is no place of equal opportunity where everyone, no matter race, creed, gender, age, or orientation can follow any dream and pursue their passion. Especially if you are Black in America.
“I invite a first step consideration: release the language of diversity and inclusion. Those words have lost their meaning and carry with them the energy of mistrust and betrayal. They do not bring clarity to what we need to see and say, adding to the obfuscation and entrenched systems.”
Declarations, promises and commitments from across the start-up and tech industries flooded social media and occupied work hours on zoom with forums and listening sessions. People told their stories while colleagues listened in horror. They had no idea this was what it was like to be Black in America. “We must do better, and we will” could be the chorus that rang throughout the industry and even across corporate America. Recruiting teams everywhere came under scrutiny. How are you going to build a diverse workforce that looks like our country?
Indeed. It is an important question that we must be vigilant in keeping in front of us. Do not allow it to fall off the agendas and priority lists. One implemented training does not transform a system. In fact, the truth is, this is going to take some time, folks.
We do not know what we are doing. None of us. There is no working model that has been effective in reforming our long-standing system that intended and still intends, to keep a whole lot of people out while welcoming in a privileged few. There is a reason we are in the state of affairs we are in today. The old ways of “fixing” or “addressing” it have not worked. Moreover, it is not too much to offer that there never was a truly authentic intention to transform it. Therefore, everything we have used previously, including all of the hubbub around Diversity and Inclusion, actually originates from the old system that created it, and therefore serves to keep it in place.
There is no judgment in those statements. Fear, lack, and separation (FLS) have shaped all of us and the systems we have created. Even when we did so in service to change and transformation. FLS is slippery. To transform it requires the vigilance of awareness to see, feel, hear, and taste it and to then intentionally shift away from it and into Love, Abundance, and Unity (LAU).
It is time to create a Love, Abundance, and Unity pathway to anti-racist workplaces and then keep going to address all that is out-of-balance and inequitable in our workplaces and world today.
Those of us who have struggled, fought, and championed diversity and inclusion before there was such a thing known as D&I or DEI and those who have grown up in a DEI/D&I work environment are equally frustrated and FLS’d-out because it hasn’t been done with honest, authentic intention to invest all the way to bring the full change needed.
Now is the time to bring it.
I invite a first step consideration: release the language of diversity and inclusion. Those words have lost their meaning and carry with them the energy of mistrust and betrayal. They do not bring clarity to what we need to see and say, adding to the obfuscation and entrenched systems.
It is time we say what we mean. If we are speaking about, as we are now, learning how to build and cultivate an anti-racist work environment, we need to use the language of anti-racist. Diversity does not mean anti-racist. There is a lot more focus on what needs to be addressed and invested in when we say clearly, we are first addressing racism in our system: in sourcing, internships, recruiting, writing job descriptions, in emails, conversations, microaggressions, in education, training, resumes, and assessments. The list goes on and on.
What does inclusion mean? Does that refer to how it feels to be invited to a meeting, happy hour or off-site and you are the only Black or Brown person in the room? Is it about how we use language, ask questions, express ourselves or respond or react to the self-expression of another when it is different from us?
We do not know what we are doing nor do we have a roadmap to follow.
That’s worth celebrating when we have the courage to say it and own it as truth. Yay!
It means we get to honestly muddle through this together. Screw up together. Find the wins together. All the while weaving a stronger, durable and far more beautiful tapestry of humanity, in the workplace and everywhere we look.