WHITMAN – DEI.
Not since the CRT (critical race theory) debate, has an acronym been so divisive – and so misunderstood.
The letters stand for diversity, equity and inclusion, and many people are mistaken about who the acronym is thought to favor, and which groups it really helps and how. According to Dr. Angela Burke who has more than 20 years of experience working in schools. She holds certificates is DEI and digital leadership from Cornell University. Dr. Burke holds a PhD from University of Hartford in Educational Leadership. Currently, she is a full-time consultant with Novack Consulting to assist communities in Diversity Education and Inclusion conversations.
“It’s not about lowering standards,” Burke told the audience that filled the Whitman Public Library’s Community Room on Wednesday, April 16. “In fact, it increases the chances of things being merit-based when you actually have a diverse group of people competing for positions vs it being a very minute group [in a hiring pool].”
The Whitman Democratic Town Committee’s DEI subcommittee hosted the talk. Member Julia Sheen introduced Burke’s talk, sponsored by the DTC.
“I was invited here because we really want to unpack what DEI is, because I’m sure we’ve been hearing a lot of different narratives and we want to debunk any myths, create a common definition aligned with its original intent, understand the history and walk out of here, hopefully, feeling like we’ve a better understanding of what DEI actually means,” Burke said to open her talk.
The program was video recorded by Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV and is available for streaming on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel, as well as by rebroadcast on the WHCA Whitman channel
“Tonight, I’m really not going to use the term DEI,” she said. “I’m going to call it what it really is – because it’s an acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion. Unfortunately, pushing them together and coming up with that cute acronym is what has gotten us in this place of misinterpreting what it actually is.”
She explained that the term DEI had been hijacked by political opponents and used in ways that it was never intended. It is also not a new initiative, nor is it a law out to handuff businesses.
In the early 1900s and before it was applied to the women’s suffrage movement and early civil rights acts. In fact, even today more people are hired through diversity, equity and inclusion intention have been white women.
DEI is not: It is not about hiring quotas (that was the intent of affirmative action). It is not about Black and Brown people either, which is how some confuse it with Critical Race Theory. “It’s not about race and it’s not a Zero-Sum game,” Burke said. DEI is not about quotas, nor is it a law to require all private businesses and businesses to comply.
“I think this is where the misinformation comes from, and this is where it’s been hijacked,” she said, noting that diversity, equity and inclusion are three unique concepts intertwined to create the general idea of DEI, but they “don’t live separately.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion is not about race,” Burke said. “It’s about all of our differences, not just culture and ethnicity. … idea is that we want to elevate and make everyone win no one has to lose in this game.”
For years companies leaned almost exclusively on personal references or the same group of colleges and universities they use as a go-go recruitment source, but when they broaden that net through the use of diversity, equity and inclusion practices, “you really are making sure people are the best fit” an qualified for the job.
What diversity, equity and inclusion is – is variety of people.
Burke cited studies that prove that companies with a more diverse group of employees, also see more productivity and the more they are able to effectively produce and sell to a mass audience.
“You can be 90-percent white male there’s still diversity amongst those white men,” she said. “No one two people are the same. There’s a lot of diversity among us whether we like it or not, however there has been an intentional push over the years to make sure that it is some of the more overt diversity, instead of it being just well we have different political beliefs or we have different education levels” that make us diverse.
“It’s just good practice,” she said.
To gauge how inclusion benefits different people in the workplace, Burke conducted an online poll of her audience. Asking if they or anyone they know needed to take advantage of programs such as parental leave, disability considerations, equal play interpretation services and several other of 11 different categories offered in the workplace because of DEI policies that aid all workers.
The poll result showed the need for these policies is “way more common than you think,” as the numbers came up on the slide screen showing that several in the audience benefitted from more than one of the diversity, equity and inclusion programs listed.
“We take a lot of it for granted,” Burke said. “Because while diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives do stem from there being a specific person with a need, it benefits so many of us.”
Curb cuts on sidewalks are part of the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines, an example of legislation inspired by diversity, equity and inclusion – specifically the access needs of wheelchair users that parents with a stroller also benefit from.
“Just because it is intended for a specific audience doesn’t mean we don’t all get the benefit from it,” she said. “Think about how there were a lot of times companies only did maternity leaves, but those work well for fathers who want to stay home with babies, too.”
Another audience participation exercise had them reflect on the prompt: How does diversity enhance your own environment, whether at work or in your community?
Audience members then shared some of their thoughts.
One man said he always thinks of the film “Apollo 13.” After an explosion on their way to the moon, the crew had to take shelter in the LEM (lunar excursion module), but three people using an oxygen system designed for two was causing serious health problems.
Someone back at NASA had to use only a box of stuff the astronauts had on board to literally fit a square fixture into a round hole so the filtering system could work and the crew could breathe.
“The best idea wins,” Burke said.
“This should teach us to allow everybody to have an idea a place a platform,” another person said. “Kind of like we’re talking about, when you limit platforms you limit solutions.”
Yet another teaches at a diverse community college where, she said, the many cultures represented in her classrooms mean she learning at the same time she is teaching.
“I think it’s very valuable to understand that people see the world in many different ways and that they’re all legitimate,” she said.
Equity.
“Everybody needs something different to do the same thing,” Burke said. “It’s OK for someone to have a different accommodation or privilege to help them have access to something whether it’s education job equal pay in a field. … sometimes we fight it when people get different privileges than us because we feel like it’s not fair but we have to understand the privilege is given because it’s the only way they can actually have access to the task or the uh the job at hand.”
Burke said she thinks of a fourth concept in the equity illustration – Justice – which asks why there are so many barriers to success in the world.
Challenges such as wheelchair accessibility, dyslexia and Parkinson’s are examples of that.
Inclusion
“Diversity is not enough,” Burke explained. “Diversity just means they’re there. Ii could very well be there and have no sense of belonging whatsoever the real power comes from building inclusive work environments where everyone actually feels included.”
Another reflection time focused on the importance of belonging in the community or workplace.
During a group discussion at the end of her talk, an audience member observed that the anti-DEI backlash has become about race, and asked how people – especially white people – can do about it.
“I don’t agree that it is and it’s just because it’s been hijacked in that way,” Burke said. “So what I try to think of is helping people see the data which shows that African-Americans have not been the primary beneficiaries of any DEI initiatives that have been taken place. … People can step back and allow themselves to see factual data.
“It’s not about race until someone decides that they are going to believe that narrative,” she said.