5 DEI Terms You Need to Know

In today’s world, a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is critical to the success of businesses, service organizations, and schools. A colorblind, equality-driven approach seemed sufficient in the past, but in 2020, the world is realizing that more education, awareness, and commitment is needed to become the leaders and organizations we want — and need — to be. But this is new to many of us, and it’s hard work.

You might be uneasy about starting conversations before you’ve learned everything yourself, or may feel anxious about using the wrong words and offending someone. Most importantly, you will need everyone who is part of the conversation to have a shared understanding of what you mean when you say certain words. Here are some terms that will help equip you and your team for the critical conversations.

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity: central to the understanding of “diversity” is not just difference, but ‘variety’ as well. This is key because it allows us to start the conversation from the standpoint of commonalities, use them as a basis of connection, and feel more comfortable moving on to discuss differences. Thinking of diversity only as the differences between people robs us of the chance to recognize our shared humanity.

• For example: Diversity often seems to refer to having representatives of various races within a team, group, or community, but the real definition allows for a much broader understanding. In addition to race, consider diversity of age, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, socioeconomic status, education, and life experiences. Diversity of all kinds contributes to the richness of a community.
• The problem: The challenge in diversity pushes us to understand our differences, to identify and celebrate them. But the problem with it — intentionally or unintentionally — has to do with what “others” get left out. Which identity groups do we not recognize? Someone’s social class and gender can not always be seen, or people may identify by their ethnicity and not the race we think they are. Keep these in mind when considering pushing diversity in your organization.

Integration: the meaning of “integration” is simple — bringing together. But the word itself lacks context, leaving the questions under what pretense? In whose interests? To whose benefit or chagrin?

• For example: Chicago, IL is one of the most diverse cities in the world, but arguably one of the most segregated. The suburb I grew up in had and continues to have — like many cities in the US — great racial and socioeconomic diversity yet, there are roads, waterways and industrial areas that separate wealthy White neighborhoods from impoverished and predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods. We can’t confuse diversity with integration. They are not the same.
• The problem: Integration presents to us the challenge of understanding different needs and the value in bringing various different groups or people together… understanding and valuing all of them being part of the bigger picture. At the same time, our understanding of integration can strip the value of diversity if our bias leads us to an idea of homogenization instead of allowing differences to be visible and celebrated.

Inclusion: to be included is to be valued, accepted, and welcomed. To include someone different from the “norm” of a group, or different from those who have power in a group, requires a shift in value, power and often identity.

• For example: Inclusion helps move us toward equity when it is intentional and sustained. For example, hiring women into a heavily-male company is a great step towards improving numerical diversity, but keeping the air conditioning at a temperature uncomfortable for most women would make them feel excluded (yes, female and male bodies are scientifically proven to have different sensations and sensitivities to temperature). You can include people of color in your organization’s meetings, but if your rhetoric and conversations are exclusive, whitewashed, or denying their experiences, they will not feel included.
• The problem: When working for inclusion, we can commit to the challenge of learning how people feel valued and trying to affirm them in those ways. The problem that comes up is that it’s often more convenient to make a one-size-fits-all solution, assuming what others want and need, than it is to include each person in the way that works best for them.

Equality vs. Equity

Should we be striving for racial equity or racial equality — and what’s the difference?

Equality: in school, we learn that the equals symbol (=) implies that two things are the same. This should NOT be the goal when working towards DEI. Focusing on equality discounts the differences between us and speaks to notions of being colorblind. It implies fairness without regard to what different people need, want or consider fair. Despite many thinking that equality is proper, good, and desired, it is not exactly what is needed.

• For example: consider equality in a school setting where one student has dyslexia, another student is learning English as a second language, and another struggles with long division. Treated equally, all three of these students would receive resources to deal with dyslexia, OR be put in special classes for English-language-learners, OR have a tutor help explain the concept of long division. But this would be ridiculous. Equality disregards differences between people, focuses only on sameness of treatment without considering what treatment is needed, and thus, from a justice lens, fails to achieve what we are working towards.
• The problem: Equality challenges us to understand that we are similar, but not exactly the same. The problem we can run into here is assuming everyone thinks or feels the same way, has the same starting place or baseline of understanding, and has the same needs or wants.

Equity: applying social justice, common sense, and basic humanity to a situation allows us to work for equity. This can happen at the individual, institutional, organizational and societal levels (as all of the above terms do). It denotes access to the same opportunity — not just starting from the same starting line, but making it possible for everyone running to have a good chance of winning. It means giving people what they need in order to succeed, taking their unique circumstances into consideration.

• For example: Going back to the school example, we can easily see what an equitable solution would be: giving the student with dyslexia the resources she needs to read better, giving the English-learning-student access to a particular class and curriculum, and giving the math student some tutoring sessions to focus on those skills. Any other solution is a waste of resources and a stumbling block for students and, in turn, for their families and communities.
• The problem: Working towards equity, we are challenged to understand, recognize, and own our positionality — where we stand based on our various intersecting identities. It can be very hard to do that, though, when our bias, prejudice, and dishonesty get in the way of truly recognizing and claiming that positionality.

Are these definitions different than what you thought these words meant? Have you heard them used differently? How does thinking about diversity and inclusion with these new definitions in mind change how you will approach these issues in your life and work from now on?