Photo By Pretty Sleepy One at Pixabay

Don’t take away my Black card during Black History Month. Before you read what I wrote below, you should also know that I am one who has experienced and fought racism and discrimination in the workplace. I won some battles and I have lost some.

It occurred to me, that as we demand diversity, equity and inclusion from others, we need to do the same in our own communities. We are guilty of excluding people from our own churches, communities and organizations based on gender, class, cliques, partisan politics and personal agendas, to the detriment of progress. This is not the case 100% of the time, but it has happened more often than not, and it needs to stop. How do we demand of others what we won’t do ourselves?

In its purest form, if we are being very literal, DEI is not a racial or gender construct, as we tend to use it. We need diversity of ideas and experiences. We need equity, in terms of making sure that those marginalized voices get that extra lift to even the playing field. We need to stop marginalizing people that we don’t like personally just because we can.

All too often the people who have significant contributions to make are left out of “the conversation” because of personal and political agendas. We need inclusion from all major stakeholders in the community, and not just the ones with institutional and political power, and not just the people with whom we agree. Insular thinking stunts our growth.