This year, I’m enrolled in a Graduate Certificate program from Drury University in Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Leadership. I’m excited to be taking part in the program, both because I’m passionate about issues of Social Justice and because I hope to learn more in terms of the concepts, content, and skills I need to be a more inclusive leader and change-agent in my community. I’d like to write about my experience in the program here, but I have to start by saying that I am a learner in the field of DEIJ and am bound to make mistakes along the way. I hope that by writing about my learning, I can de-stigmatize that possibility, because we have to take risks and try new things if we’re going to learn and grow.
I’ve just started the first course in the program, and we’re already engaged in thought-provoking and challenging conversations around DEI and Social Justice. One of the assignments I completed this week included the “How You See Me” video series on YouTube. It provides an overview of various labels used to describe/categorize people and the impact these labels have on the individual and society in general. They are powerful conversations, full of important observations and insights. Of the points raised, I found the following eight insights to be most impactful:
Labels raise consciousness.
This speaks to the idea that a label is not inherently negative. The panelists argue, therefore, that labels can be embraced as a positive tool for the individual as long as we are not using them to perpetuate negative stereotypes and actions. By acknowledging labels, we can create a common vocabulary to talk about issues of race, gender, etc. and provide a common framework for discourse and understanding.
Our labels help us to define ourselves.
Again, this idea strips the negative implications of labels away. By taking ownership of a label, a person is able to create an identity for themselves and their communities. For example, by using the label of “black” or “person of color,” a person may grant themselves ownership of that title, the identity that they themselves associate with it, and the community of people who share that label.
Not recognizing differences actually marginalizes a person’s/culture’s experience.
This speaks to the notion of “color-blindness” and the sometimes unintended negative consequences thereof. By denying someone their label, we deny them the legitimacy of their experience and the power of their community. For example, saying “I don’t see color” denies a person of color their very real experience of living as a person of color in a culture of white privilege, AND denies them their community of support, i.e. other people of color.
You can’t really understand the impact of a label until one has been placed on you.
First-hand experience carries an emotional weight that no amount of reading/study can match. Until you’ve lived the experience of discrimination (based on gender, race, etc.) you can’t truly understand how it impacts every aspect of your lived experience.
The term diversity should be changed to complexity.
This speaks to the importance of understanding intersectionality (though it wasn’t specifically mentioned in the videos) and the fact that we are all a complex amalgam of various attributes.
Yes, everybody wants something they can’t have or be, but lack of representation is different.
There was a moment in one of the videos when one panelist personalized another’s experience leading to a conversation about the difference noted above. It’s an important distinction. My (here I go personalizing myself) feeling self-consciousness growing up because I couldn’t tan simply isn’t the same thing as someone realizing that no one on TV looks like them, period. That’s point number one.
Continued…
Point number two is that there is significant danger in personalizing someone else’s experience in an attempt at empathy. It runs the very real risk of disenfranchising them by minimizing their lived experience of discrimination as something we all go through. We don’t. In a system designed to artificially support one segment of the population by systematically disempowering and disenfranchising others, not everyone’s lived experience is the same.
Who are you to have anything to say about… or …. someone else’s expectations shouldn’t define us.
I’m not sure I can point to an exact moment in one of the videos where this is said but I think it’s worth mentioning that one key piece of learning is that one person doesn’t have authorship over another’s story. So, if someone is facing discrimination, that’s their story to tell, and our responsibility to listen and act as an ally. This also reminds me of my favorite quote from Teddy Roosevelt, that the critic doesn’t count because they haven’t “gotten in the ring” and lived the struggle. He wasn’t talking about issues of DEIJ at the time, but the message translates just the same: we can’t let the criticism of others, especially those who haven’t lived what we’ve gone through, define us, our story, or our perceptions.
So, I hope at least one of these insights speaks to you, or sparks a conversation. The video series is worth the watch for the same reasons, and I hope we all spend some time today and every day trying to make the world a more tolerant, inclusive, and equitable place.
Garrenteed Learning 