As Joe Gerstandt points out in his sidebar in Include Is a Verb: Moving from Talk to Action on Diversity and Inclusion, clarity is key. We need a shared and widely understood vocabulary of “concise, clear, actionable language” in order to make progress on D+I.
So that’s where Sherry Marts and I start: by defining terms, some of which may be familiar to you and some of which may be new.
- What do we actually mean when we use the term diversity? What about inclusion?
- What “counts” as diversity, and why does it matter?
- What is intersectionality? How does it affect us?
- What is “covering,” and why is it a problem?
- What is tokenism, and how can we move past it?
Or as Joe put it:
Powerful statements of commitment to diversity and inclusion matter. But without a clear understanding of what we mean when we say “diversity” or “inclusion,” widespread agreement on how that will affect our daily actions, and a shared sense of responsibility for taking those actions, such statements are ultimately meaningless.
So that’s where we start, with creating the shared understanding necessary for meaningful action. To download your free copy of Include Is a Verb: Moving from Talk to Action on Diversity and Inclusion, visit http://bit.ly/2peWwP0, no divulging of information about yourself required.