Diversity & Inclusion

Resilient systems, like resilient communities, are built on diversity. A diversity of perspectives, skills, and lived experiences allows us to adapt to change, overcome challenges, and build a more robust and sustainable future. Our solutions will be increasingly equitable once the metrics and indicators company's are compelled to report on actually tell us something.

 

When considering diversity metrics, organizations often rely on superficial proxies like race or gender, instead of gathering contextual information that will help us understand if the life experience of the person who possesses the diverse trait is aligned with the majority of those who have the same trait and have been disenfranchised because of it. For example, two individuals of the same race who grew up in vastly different socioeconomic environments likely have very different worldviews and understandings of social issues.

 

People who are deemed "different" or "alternative" by the majority face less resistance in securing a seat at the table if they are willing to conform to the cultural norms of the majority. That does nothing to improve resilience and develop equitable systems. My inkling is that many minorities and women who are represented on boards of directors and on senior management teams are only there because they're willing to conform and be subservient to the white males in power. 

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Corporations and governments know a lot of personal information about us, but do not reciprocate. The shareholders shouldn't have say on CEO pay, the Employees should . It's a taboo subject in America, which allows inequalities to persist unchecked. We need to know how people who run companies and sit on boards of directors grew up, and we need to contextualize their current net worth relative to those living on the poverty line, the median net worth individual in the United States, and the net worth of their employees. People with significant wealth can use a larger percentage of their overall net worth to further increase their wealth, and in absolute dollars, this increase can be thousands of times greater than what those working in their factories or on their farms earn. This disparity has serious implications for social equity and our ability to create a just society.

How much money one has is likely a good indicator for how they live, and the types of communities they live in. How much money one grew up with, where they grew up and when, is likely a good indicator for how much sympathy they have for others in the context of where they are now, for how long, and their history of engagement activities with the communities they live in. Do they own half the town? Or are they on the PTA like every other parent? This is not to say that individuals cannot transcend their backgrounds, but rather that understanding these backgrounds is crucial for fostering genuine empathy and creating truly equitable solutions.

THINKERER recognizes that a deeper understanding of diversity, one that goes beyond superficial markers and embraces the complexities of lived experience and economic inequality, is essential for creating a more sustainable and just future. By incorporating this understanding into The Process of Sustainability, we can develop solutions that are not only more effective but also more equitable and inclusive.