Asking the right questions
Hello you stitch in time that saves nine.
A quickie for you this week, but one I have been thinking a lot about the past few days. As we have been talking about for months now, most of us have never lived through such a distinct global moment of interconnection and awakening: whether looking at the pandemic, the growing economic fallout, or the potential social healing of the Black Lives Matter movement-- and those are just the macro level movements. There is lots of meso and micro-level changes happening in communities, in relationships and within each of us. But as I am experiencing it, most everything happening right now speaks to the importance of the "we" in a major way, and how the solutions and pathways moving forward are going to require more from us as individuals as well as much deeper collaboration and connection than ever before.
However, sometimes when we are building understandings of the "we" and creating new pathways of engagement, our focus will sometimes lie more on the numbers rather than on the lived experience of these new pathways. I get it: using numbers and a quantitative lens is appealing. Delving into the "we" necessarily evokes images of numbers >1, so it is natural for our heads to want to go there. Plus, let's be honest: qualitative experience can be complex to capture and act upon. But it is just as valid to the decisions we need to be making right now (if not moreso).
The reality is that if we are going to get this WE-volution right, we are going to have to go beyond numbers. As we work our way through some of these initial stages of macro-level changemaking, I like to remember this classic quote from William Bruce Cameron (not Albert Einstein):
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
Focusing on numbers and quantitative measures of progress is and will be important. But if we are taking seriously the concept of creating a truly inclusive "we" and building future systems and structures that create the most opportunity for the maximum number of people, we are going to have to get better at taking into account the things that count but often can't easily be counted.
I thought this reframe on common "diversity and inclusion" terms from Dafina-Lazarus Stewart (taken from this article -- thanks to Sally D. for the instagram post) was helpful for me to get more specific on what we are talking about practically and meaningfully when we want to redistribute power and to start counting the things that need to be counted. And I have been thinking a lot about it this week. So I wanted to share.
Diversity asks, “Who’s in the room?” Equity responds: “Who is trying to get in the room but can’t? Whose presence in the room is under constant threat of erasure?”
Inclusion asks, “Has everyone’s ideas been heard?” Justice responds, “Whose ideas won’t be taken as seriously because they aren’t in the majority?”
Diversity asks, “How many more of [pick any minoritized identity] group do we have this year than last?” Equity responds, “What conditions have we created that maintain certain groups as the perpetual majority here?”
Inclusion asks, “Is this environment safe for everyone to feel like they belong?” Justice challenges, “Whose safety is being sacrificed and minimized to allow others to be comfortable maintaining dehumanizing views?”
By asking these kinds of questions (and being open to the answers and required actions that emerge), we can focus on the larger and more complex issues of justice and equity alongside quantitative measures of diversity and inclusion. And hopefully this time it will be different both for the social movements that have already begun to gain traction, as well as those yet to come as the rewriting of our social order continues to unfold.
But wait! Perhaps all of this talk of power redistribution is feeling a bit too intense on a sunny Sunday morning? Well don't worry, you can do it. In commemoration of the company finally abandoning its racist branding, I thought this recent article about the origins of Aunt Jemima was pretty enlightening. Spoiler: it was never about the pancakes
Still too much realness? Then please enjoy a double whammy of awesome. For musical aficionados, I enjoyed this video of the cast of "A Chorus Line" performing in quarantine. I also loved this short clip of a girl singing to her horse. I do this unconsciously with Garby all the time and feel SEEN!
From one justice-seeking person to another, I am glad that we can find space for experiences of interconnection together. I hope you enjoyed this dispatch, and have an equity-filled week!
Until next Sunday,
The Earnest Platypus