Walking the Walk: What “Diversity in the Workplace” Means
It wasn’t surprising for me to read about UXDesign pausing its expected design-themed articles to unravel questions of diversity in the industry. Issues around race, culture, and diversity in our fields is hot on a lot of creative minds right now, as politics has quickly gotten many communities polarized and thinking about how to integrate their values into all aspects of their lives.
Working for an organization that serves to put the needs of its end users, usually women and girls in Africa and Asia, in the center of their work, I’ve been energized by the discussions everyone has been open to having around these issues. While people may want to talk about discrimination and bias in the workplace, our organization has been making a concerted effort to create a safe space for these discussions. This is not an easy task. This doesn’t involve just creating a working group or being more active in diversity hiring. For me, it means sitting with that queasy feeling in your stomach — being okay with discomfort around what these conversations bring up for each of us..
Take for example a recent discussion around our projects in different parts of the world, and how gender equity takes different shapes in Asia, Africa, and America. When the conversation turned from domestic violence and marriage rituals to post-apartheid emotions, none of the ten people in the group discussion left. This, as a woman of color growing up in America, is amazing to me. This is exactly the moment in my experience I’ve seen many colleagues “get tired” or look at their phones. And it was at this critical point that everyone stayed and engaged.
Race, gender, culture, sexuality — all identities which are marginalized in society carry histories of discrimination and oppression. People who have experienced these over decades have internalized them. They inform all our experiences, from power relationships at work to every-day interactions on the streets. I’m reminded of this great scene from a popular American movie where they talk about why pool tables are racist. It colors everything. If I’m seated in the back of a restaurant, I always believe it’s because of the color of my skin, whereas my white male partner never has felt that way. Does that mean I was wrong? It’s hard to say, because when you’ve experienced something consistently your whole life, it’s hard to think something’s not.
So what does this mean in the workplace? It means in fields like design and technology where women and people of color feel even further polarized, it’s very hard not to already feel self-conscious. Irrespective of geography or job sector, many women and people of color feel that their reviews are unfair or that their interactions with colleagues are clouded because of their gender or race. How do you know when you’re receiving feedback about your “approach with the client” or “attitude at work” if they would have the same feedback if it was a man or someone from a different class or background? And I think this is what makes inclusivity efforts in workplaces so complex.
Take for example diversity stats and goals. An art director friend of mine who works at a design company in New York told me that over 3 / 4 of his company is women or non-Caucasian. But their entire senior management team is straight white men. In his perspective he does not work for a diverse organization.
While I work in a more diverse environment, people in our inclusivity working group also also voiced mixed feelings about presenting diversity stats to our board. “Who counts as the diversity?” a female colleague asked. That question wasn’t just demanding a break-down, it was questioning how we define diversity to begin with.
One of the questions that has come up recently from many of the male or Caucasian employees at the organization, is how can they engage in these discussions. As one of my colleagues asked: “How exactly do people of the middle class that care show support? It is not that easy to get involved, if you don’t belong to the most affected groups, to show this matters to you without anyone getting angry at you because you are not part of the group affected the most.”
How does a man show support to gender issues without coming off as patronizing or without feeling they are in the way? How does a white person in South Africa voice dissent? I’m not sure how other people would answer this question, but I believe that being engaged and active does not always come in the form of sharing opinions or “doing something”. Many times it can be about active listening and validation — something that many women and people of color have only experienced rarely in their lives.
For me, it’s not about the number of women and people of color we’ve hired. It’s the ones we have representing us in client meetings, conferences, and workshops. Promoting inclusivity is about being willing to share power, share space. It’s not about my organization “allowing” me to write about these topics, but honestly wanting to read about it.
The real crux of diversity is how many people are willing to actively learn, get educated, and listen. I think this is crucial in fields of design, where many of the values of HCD and user-centric work have to do with observing and listening to our end users. If we can do it with them, can we do it for each other?
Written by Ambika Samarthya-Howard, Head of Communications at Praekelt.org
