I'll admit it: #diversity, #equity, and #inclusion doesn't benefit "everyone." But the people this work excludes aren't who you think.
🌱 DEI aims to create better organizations for men—but not misogynists.
🌱 DEI aims to create better organizations for white people—but not white supremacists.
🌱 DEI aims to create better organizations for cisgender and heterosexual people—but not transphobes or homophobes.
🌱 DEI aims to create better organizations for non-disabled people—but not eugenicists.
And with each of these, the former far, FAR outnumbers the latter.
In tearing down and transforming the systems, policies, processes, and practices that uphold inequity in our organizations, DEI work aims first and foremost to end unfairness, bias, discrimination, and mistreatment of all kinds. Of course this work will benefit those most targeted by historical inequity—but it'll benefit virtually everyone else, too.
⚖️ Hiring policies that genuinely measure experience and competency rather than discriminatory "like-me" bias and favoritism? Good for everyone.
⚖️ Managerial support for everyone, not just people who happen to share social circles with the manager? Good for everyone.
⚖️Pay that accurately reflects contribution and skill, rather than what school you went to or how well you can fast-talk a hiring manager? Good for everyone.
That's why so many people, including huge numbers of men, white people, cisgender people, straight people, non-disabled people, and other folks who might have one or more socially advantaged identities back DEI work.
It's only the small number of die-hard misogynists, white supremacists, transphobes and homophobes, eugenicists, and others who have tied hate and inequity into their sense of identity that are doing everything they can to take down DEI. They're using brute-force misinformation and zero-sum fearmongering to paint a picture of a DEI boogeyman so malicious that it scares people into rejecting progress for everyone in favor of a status quo that's good only for the select few.
They make the argument that men "should" be misogynists, that white people "should" be white supremacists, that dominance and inequity is better than collaboration and fairness. It's honestly offensive. And the good people who see through it are right to call it out.
If you're seeing this kind of bad-faith rhetoric impact your organization, don't enable it with your silence. You're anti-discrimination, pro-fairness, and want to build an organization where everyone can thrive—that's why you're working to improve your organization, rather than rewind it to how things might have been a century ago.
Share the facts with confidence. Make it clear you won't tolerate hate. Continue unshaken with the work that makes a difference, toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion for all.
