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The Journey of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Now that you have a good understanding of terminology and central concepts within diversity, equity and inclusion, we can dive into the how of this journey. This chapter will explore ways to integrate the previous learnings into advancing your personal practice.

Journal Prompt

Take a few moments before you move on and reflect.

What are at least three personally meaningful reasons that you have decided to commit to this work?

 

Step One: Do the Internal Work

Keep Learning

Educating yourself is a critical step; after all, you can only challenge injustice and disrupt inequity if you know what it looks like. Seeking to understand differential experiences from multiple communities is the first step to dismantling oppression. Through proximity and understanding, we develop empathy.

  • Adopt an orientation of curiosity and continuous learning.
  • Not all bias looks the same – think back to the lesson on intersectionality. Although we likely have shared stories, no one group is a monolith.
  • It is important to remember that it is not the job of others to educate you, especially not those who bear the burden of occupying typically marginalized identities.

 

Become Comfortable With Discomfort

Activity

Try crossing your fingers. Now cross them in the opposite direction. Try crossing your arms. Now cross them in the opposite direction.

How did it feel? A bit uncomfortable, even though you have likely crossed your arms a million times? That’s because you are putting things together in a different way than usual.

 

The journey of diversity, equity and inclusion is very similar to this. In fact, the more you learn, the more discomfort you may feel. It can be hard to witness bias or understand oppression through others’ experience. It can be even more challenging recognizing that we have personally played a role, whether intentional or not, in marginalizing others.

Lean into the discomfort, it is part of the learning process.

Mistakes Happen

The goal in diversity, equity and inclusion is to strive for progress, not perfection.

Mistakes are inevitable and often occur when we make inaccurate assumptions in reference to a person’s ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, or socioeconomic status. If a mistake happens, try the following:

  • Apologize quickly
    • “I’m so sorry. It was wrong of me to assume.”
  • Remember, it’s important to move on. There is no need for a drawn out explanation which prolongs the discomfort, especially for the impacted party.

Own Impact vs. Intention

What does it mean to own your impact? It means centering how another person has experienced your behaviour, instead of centering yourself and your intent. This often shows up in the DEI realm when our impact is far from what we intended.

Phrases such as “where are you really from?” or “you are very well-spoken,” are common examples of the intention-impact gap. It is our responsibility to learn the why and how, and adjust behaviour so the impact of your words comes closer to your intention.

Avoid using phrases like:

  • “That’s not what I meant!”
  • “I didn’t mean to offend you”
  • “They should know I would never intentionally hurt someone”

Avoid trying to:

  • Justify your words or behaviour
  • Explain yourself
  • Convince the other person of what you really meant

 

Instead, try these useful strategies: (ADL Education, 2022)

  • Listen with the goal to understand
  • Centre the person who was harmed
    • e.g. “I can see that my words were hurtful for you.”
  • Learn from your mistakes. Thank the person and commit to learning more about _____.”

Step Two: Strive for Brave & Safe Spaces

A safe space is a place where respect and psychological safety reside. According to Merriam-Webster, a safe space is “an environment that’s free of bias, criticism, or potentially threatening actions.”

The reality is that safe spaces are harder to create.  Spaces are occupied by people, who are inherently unpredictable. It is impossible to predict every variation of behaviour that will occur in any space, and therefore it is hard to guarantee the safety of any space. Rules governing behaviour and etiquette can help mitigate this.

A concept that has risen in popularity is the term brave spaces, coined by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens in their book The Art of Effective Facilitation: Reflections from Social Justice Educators. It classifies five criteria to establish a brave space:

  • “Controversy with civility” that allows for multiple opinions.
  • “Owning intentions and impacts.”
  • “Challenge by choice” giving individuals the option to opt in or out.
  • “Respect.”
  • “No attacks” to prevent individuals from doing harm to one another.

In practice you will find that most spaces exist on a continuum between safe and brave and both the dynamics of the group and the facilitator will influence the outcome.

 

It is important to note that the physical creation of “spaces of access” is important for both representation and inclusion. In this sense, creating safety is of primary importance to protect the participation of historically under-represented or marginalized groups. Whereas in programming typical of service learning and community engagement, brave spaces that foster transformative learning, especially through cognitive dissonance and critical reflection may be more appropriate.

 

Creating Safe and Brave Places

Below are a few guidelines on creating safe and brave spaces.

(Canadian Mental Health Commission, 2019)

Build a container that supports discussion of voice, identity, and power. This also involves building connection through specific activities, which allows individuals the opportunity to know each other beyond their visible identities. Relationship building allows us to get beyond our assumptions about people, and know them on a deeper, more human level.

 

Provide the opportunity for participants to share a few aspects of their identity, including pronouns and names. This helps remove assumptions and deepens the ability to connect.  A popular activity is to ask participants to share the story or significance behind their name.

 

Create a sense of belonging, through a physically welcoming environment. (Acknowledge the importance of design.) It is also important to create spaces that are relevant and connect with the community using it.

 

Think about accessibility – to ensure that spaces can be used by those who wish to access them.  This might include physical accommodations, but should also include consideration for participants age, language spoken, level of education, neuro-diversity etc.

 

Give others space to talk and share. A key ingredient is to engage in active listening when others are talking.

 

Allow the group to add guidelines that are relevant and owned by the group.  This is often called group agreements/contracts or living agreements

 

Step Three: Know Which Conversation You Are Having

The path of diversity, equity and inclusion is not always smooth and can entail some deep conversations. We have outlined four common types of conversations that arise out of different situations.

Restorative Conversation – this practice focuses on reflection, communication, community building and making amends. A restorative mindset focuses on supporting individuals as they accept accountability for their actions and reflect on the impact. There are a few key elements if you are facilitating this type of conversation: (Whitehead, 2020)

  • Explain the reasoning behind the conversation. It is especially important to emphasize that this is a process to develop empathy rather than “getting things right.”
  • Build empathy through exploration of each others perspectives
  • Create a common ground
  • Look for a path forward

 

Courageous Conversations require a willingness to engage in vulnerability and discomfort.  This type of conversation has some risk as there can be deep emotion associated with it that requires an element of self-regulation. It has four agreements: (Singleton & Hays)

  • Stay engaged – the more personal and difficult the topic, there is a higher chance to disengage
  • Speak your truth – the enemy of courageous conversations is silence
  • Experience discomfort – which can arise from intense disagreement, or discoveries of uncomfortable internal truths
  • Expect and accept non-closure

 

Difficult Conversations usually occur when there are different perceptions of the same reality. It can be characterized by assumptions of intent, heightened feelings and blame (Ohio State University). Be certain this is a conversation worth having with an internal reflection before proceeding. Some strategies to assist with this type of conversation are (Ohio State University):

  • Make it safe to talk through mutual respect
  • Listen to understand through open-ended questions
  • Accept multiple perspectives over choosing right and wrong.  This is often referred to as the “yes and…”
  • Remove assumption and communicate impact
  • Focus on shared contribution rather than blame

 

Calling In and Calling Out​ are important conversations on how to bring attention to actions that result in bias or discrimination for marginalized groups.  Understanding the difference between these concepts can help guide our actions in a way that best promotes constructive change (Harvard Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging).

  • ​Calling In is an invitation to have a one-on-one conversation to bring attention to an individual’s harmful actions. This is similar to the practice of having a difficult conversation, but from from a place of mutual understanding. This practice works best when you have influence with the person through a personal or professional connection, when your safety is not jeopardized and when the individual has demonstrated an openness to learn previously. This conversation can be started with (Harvard Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging):
    • “I’m curious, what was your intention when…?”
    • “Why do you think…?”
    • “How might someone else see this differently?”
  • Calling Out occurs when there is urgency to pause to prevent further harm, when power dynamics prevent you from calling in and when previous attempts have been rebuffed. Examples of statements that call out are (Harvard Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging):
    • “I don’t find that funny,”
    • “That triggers a strong reaction for me,”
    • “That is not our culture here.”

Step Four: Practice Allyship

An ally is an individual who stands up or speaks out for people or groups that are targeted or discriminated against. Being an ally is about providing support, acceptance and understanding to a marginalized group without being a member of the group themselves (We Create Space, 2023).

Allyship is a lifelong process of building relationships and an ongoing practice that requires action. It also requires an understanding and self-awareness around power dynamics and our own privilege. True allyship means actively working to achieve equity and inclusion on behalf of socially disadvantaged groups.

 

8 strategies for allyship and action:

  1. Negotiate your relationship to vulnerability and discomfort
  2. Listen to understand not to respond: actively listen by acknowledging versus problem solving or relating
  3. Cultivate curiosity and keep learning without leaning on equity deserving groups to educate you
  4. Stand up and speak out: saying something in the moment is a true form of allyship (We Create Space, 2023)
  5. Be mindful in confrontation by calling in versus calling out if possible (We Create Space, 2023)
  6. Reimagine belonging, it’s not one size fits all: what/who do we need to consider, who’s not in the room?
  7. Let others self determine: leave space for folks to tell you what they need and treat people how THEY want to be treated
  8. Know how to address your mistakes (We Create Space, 2023)

 

Deeper Dive

For more information, watch the short video “Bystander Intervention PSA”

Step Five: Develop Cultural Competence

As diversity increases, so do the potential difficulties to communicate across cultures. Cultural competency means that you recognize and respect diversity across all contexts and are able to interact appropriately with people from many backgrounds. It requires internal reflection and a willingness to expand your knowledge horizons; it is an ongoing process of intellectual curiosity (NC State University).

  • Explore your own cultural views and unconscious bias. Who are you and what forms your perspective? This stems from a deep understanding of the aspects of your identity that forms your lens in the world (NC State University).
  • Expand your knowledge of other cultures through exposure. This can be through friends, reading, movies and more.
  • Engage in conversations across differences (identity, experience, values, ability etc.) Listen with an intent to understand (NC State University).
  • Educate yourself on the context of current social issues to understand the factors that created those issues (NC State University).

 

No cultural group is homogenous: there are individual differences in the thoughts and behaviours of members of every cultural group. Cultural values do not allow us to predict the behaviour and responses of individuals, yet an understanding of how members of a cultural group, in general, think and behave provides a useful starting point for navigating intercultural interactions. It is important to remember that these dichotomies are actually a continuum. The following list of national cultural value differences is adapted from Culture Plus Consulting:

  • Individualistic versus Collectivist. Some cultures focus on individual achievement and other cultures focus more on group goals.
  • Power Distance. In high power distance cultures, less powerful members expect and accept inequalities. This is often reflected in class differentiation and access to resources.
  • Uncertainty Avoidance. This reflects a culture’s comfort with ambiguity and the unknown. In low uncertainty avoidance cultures rules are not emphasized and exchanges are formal, with members relying on trusted relationships rather than contracts.
  • Orientation to Time. Members of short-term oriented societies tend to focus on the present and value instant satisfaction versus a future orientation that prioritizes long-term goals.
  • Gender Egalitarianism. In low gender egalitarian cultures, men and women have different roles, with women occupying few positions of authority and generally a lower status in society.
  • Assertiveness. Low gender egalitarian cultures typically overlap with high assertiveness, where strength is admired. In contrast high gender egalitarian cultures exhibit low assertiveness where cooperation and modesty are valued.
  • Being versus Doing. High doing oriented cultures encourage self-determinism and stress performance and excellence. Education and schooling are highly valued. Whereas a being orientation prioritizes quality of life and views time as circular.
  • Humane Orientation. High humane orientation societies value relationships, prioritizes all people and nature and promotes the well-being of others. Conversely, low humane orientation cultures are predominantly concerned with personal pleasure and comfort.
  • Indulgence versus Restraint. This refers to pleasure seeking versus strict social norms.

 

These cultural values show up in our interactions with each other in many ways.  It can include a lack of eye contact, priority on punctuality, adhering strictly to the rules, prioritizing quality of life over money and more. Understanding context for these values ensures that we jump to fewer assumptions in our interactions, and can proceed on the basis of mutual understanding and respect.

Step Six: Practice Inclusive Language

Inclusive language are word choices that promote the acceptance of all people and empowers the audience. Using inclusive language is an essential step to including people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences. Since language is evolving daily, it is more useful to consider inclusive language principles rather than a list of “good” and “bad” words. The Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership offers four guiding principles for inclusive language:

  • Inclusive language conveys respect to all people. It provides space for self-determination of how people wish to be identified and respects identities. Context matters, and language that is appropriate in one setting may not be another setting.
  • It is precise and limits the use of metaphors and other figures of speech that draws comparisons. An example of this would be replacing elderly with the age demographic you are referring to.
  • Language should acknowledge diversity instead of minimizing the differences. This includes referring to specific identity groups (South Asian, Pacific Islander versus Person of Colour).
  • Inclusive language involves continual improvement.

 

The Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership also provides guiding questions and recommendations that are helpful in building inclusive communication. Again it is important to consider the term within context.

  • Does this term centre the dominant group as the “norm” or perpetuate a stereotype?
  • Does this term have a harmful history or association?
  • Will everyone feel seen by this communication?
  • Can we find an alternate term that does a better job?
  • Distinguish between borrowing and appropriation. While there are no hard rules that separate these two concepts, appropriation is often associated with use by a dominant group that sees a benefit from using the term while simultaneously devaluing members of the minority group who use the same term. For guidelines consider if the term originated in a community that you are a part of? If not, would those members be treated similarly to you if they used this term? Are members of the community upset when others use the term?
  • Honour how people identify themselves.
  • Understand language across different identities. This involves research on your part to understand the nuances of language . Gender, sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, ability, age and socioeconomic status are identities that should be explored to ensure you are using language that respects and empowers everyone.

 

Here are a few places to start:

  • Use person/position/function centred language:
    •  Person with diversabilities/disabilities, person with Autism
    •  Firefighter, Mail carrier, Outdoorsperson (also gender neutral)
    •  Menstrual products versus feminine hygiene
    •  We inadvertently perpetuate inequality in gender roles based on language. For example, a generalized term is “Cleaning Lady” and “Chairman”
  •  Use plain language:
    •  Avoid complex terminology, acronyms or expressions
    •  Avoid idioms that may be confusing to multiple language speakers like “it’s raining cats and dogs”
    •  Use familiar language – fit your language to your audience and context
    •  Avoid jargon: provide definitions for unusual words and abbreviations
  •  Avoid gendered and heteronormative language:
    •  Use parent, sibling or partner versus mom, brother, or wife.
    • Try folks, friends, or colleagues for a greeting instead of guys or ladies & gentleman.
  •  Avoid words that associate an identity with a negative experience or emotion:
    • Use gap instead of “blind spot”
    • Exciting/Overwhelming rather than“crazy”, “insane”, “bonkers” etc.
    • Disappointing/Odd (vs “lame” or “gay”)

Deeper Dive

Read about an Anishinaabe woman’s memory of being called an “Indian” while growing up in Canada in “Words Matter.”

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/words-matter

 

Bringing It All Together: Making the Outdoors More Inclusive

Thank-you for committing to this learning journey through the world of diversity, equity and inclusion; it is a lifelong process! We have posed a few outdoor scenarios to reflect on, where you can integrate the learnings from the last six chapters.

Journal Prompt #1

Call Me By My Name

While hosting a trip preparation session, you introduce two folks to each other.

One is a white woman and the other is a racialized man with a multisyllabic name, Paramjeet.

The woman laughs and says, “oh I’m sorry, but there’s no way I am going to get that right – is there something shorter that I can call you?”

How can you practice allyship at this moment?

What type of conversation do you have with the woman?

 

Journal Prompt #2

Culture Fit

You are selecting candidates for participation in an upcoming outdoor program and are choosing between two excellent candidates. Their levels of experience in the outdoors are equivalent, but some members of the selection team mention that the female Asian candidate may not be a “good culture fit” or have as much “leadership potential”.

What are some underlying factors that are contributing to this?

What are steps you can take to remove bias from your hiring process?

 

Journal Prompt #3

Microaggressions On The Trail

Sunny is excited to go hiking with their family. Since this is their first summer in Canada and they are unfamiliar with the trails, their neighbours have agreed to show them around. As they pull up to the trail head, Sunny wonders how the mountain trails will compare to the ones back home.

While on the trail, Sunny starts to notice some comments from other hikers on the trail. One group in particular stops to congratulate them. “Good for you! You must be so proud of yourselves. You are lucky to have friends who can lead you through this.”

Despite their good intentions, Sunny feels singled out. Why are they not congratulating other hikers on the trail?

Reflect on the “stereotypes” of who recreates in the outdoors. What do they look like? Gender? Body type? Ability? Ethnicity?

Where do these stereotypes come from?

How could you be an ally to Sunny and their family at that moment?

Reflect on your work – are there media images, language choices or assumptions you make that help perpetuate these “outdoor stereotypes?”

 

Journal Prompt #4

Sexist Remarks

Sam is camping with her partner, Luke, who has never slept in a tent. Sam is excited to share her passion for camping and the outdoors.

They arrive at the campsite to set up in the early afternoon. As Sam is stringing up the tarps and pitching the tent, she overhears a remark from the neighbouring campsite about “who wears the pants in that relationship.”

Later on, as Sam and Luke are preparing dinner, Sam chops the wood for a campfire later in the evening. Again she hears a remark, “Wow, she is strong for a girl!”

Reflect on your experiences – how many times have you noticed sexism in the outdoors? How have you personally been impacted by sexism in the outdoors?

What are some of the internalized, interpersonal, institutional and ideological factors that pave the path for sexism in the outdoors?

 

Journal Prompt #5

Inaccessibility

A person with a physical disability arrives at a national park and is met with stares and uncomfortable glances from other visitors.

They struggle to access certain areas due to a lack of accessible facilities and pathways.

With respect to the other visitors – what assumptions and biases are contributing to their stares?

In what way does the park design contribute to these biases?

What measures could be taken to promote inclusivity and remove barriers to ensure the park is more accessible?

Reflect – are there opportunities in your own work or programming to increase inclusivity through design?

 

References

ADL Education. (2022, June 29) When it Comes to Bias, We Must Prioritize Impact Over Intent. https://www.adl.org/resources/tools-and-strategies/when-it-comes-bias-we-must-prioritize-impact-over-intent

Ali, D. (2017, October). Safe Spaces and Brave Spaces Historical Context and Recommendations for Student Affairs Professionals. NAPSA Research and Policy Institute. Issue 2. https://www.naspa.org/files/dmfile/Policy_and_Practice_No_2_Safe_Brave_Spaces.pdf

Canadian Mental Health Commision. (2019, March.) Safer Space Guidelines. [factsheet] https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/wp-content/uploads/drupal/2019-03/safer_space_guidelines_mar_2019_eng.pdf

Center for Equity, Gender & Leadership. (n.d) Understanding Inclusive Language: A Framework. https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/Understanding-IL-Playbook-3.pdf

Culture Plus Consulting. (n.d) Nine Cultural Value Differences You Need To Know. https://cultureplusconsulting.com/2015/06/23/nine-cultural-value-differences-you-need-to-know/

Harvard Diversity Inclusion & Belonging. (n.d) Calling In and Calling Out Guide. https://edib.harvard.edu/files/dib/files/calling_in_and_calling_out_guide_v4.pdf

Hayes, L. N. (2019, September 29.) How to make every space a safe space. Ladders. https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/how-to-make-every-space-a-safe-space

NC State University. (n.d) Cultural Competence Toolkit. https://diversity.ncsu.edu/cultural-competence-toolkit/

Ohio State University, Office of Human Resources. (n.d) Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. https://eye.hms.harvard.edu/files/eye/files/difficult-conversations-summary.pdf

Singleton, G.E Hays, C. (n.d) Beginning Courageous Conversations about Race. https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/BTB_23_PRECON_Make_It_Plain_2.pdf

We Create Space. (2023, May 31) 7 Powerful Steps to Become an Active Ally. https://www.wecreatespace.co/post/7-powerful-steps-to-becoming-an-active-ally

Whitehead, J. (2020, October 27) Restorative Practices: Seven Steps for Facilitators and Mediators. National Association of Secondary School Principals. https://www.nassp.org/2020/10/27/restorative-practices-seven-steps-for-facilitators-and-mediators/

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Outdoor Professional Copyright © by Josephine Baran and Amil Reddy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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