Equity, diversity, and inclusion are so important. I know it — you know it. The world is changing, and we should probably change with it. But let’s get real — Change is hard! It requires work, time, money, accountability, and for us to align our actions with our words. And honestly, who really has time for that? As a full-time nonprofit worker, I spend so much time talking about making the world a better place, that I rarely have time to actually make it a better place. I know I’m not alone, so I decided to make this comprehensive list of five things you can do to stay the same and never change:
1. Avoid self-reflection and personal accountability.
First and foremost, change starts from the inside out. Real change requires one to look inward, examine their identity and privileges, and excavate their traumas and cultural understandings. This examination also requires us to understand how our experiences have constructed unconscious attachments to the status quo and oppressive systems. Why on earth would I want to do that?! It is hard, and requires me to take responsibility for the ways I benefit from oppressive systems and the ways I contribute to harm, consciously and unconsciously. Unlearning how I have been taught to see the world requires a vulnerability that I am terrified to tap into. Understanding myself and how my personality and beliefs have been shaped by systemic oppression is a huge can of worms I’d rather not open. I am just not ready for the healing work required to move beyond superficial change. Instead, I’ll consume content that makes me feel good. I’ll only learn enough to have a basic language to talk about equity and inclusion without requiring me to critically examine power and privilege or personally divest from oppressive systems.
2. Never question or challenge your organization’s existing practices.
My organization has done things a certain way for like 20 years. In that time, we’ve cultivated a really loyal and diverse audience of all White, middle to upper income people. Are there a whole lot of other people who our institution could serve better? Sure. But one thing you should not do is question what existing practices and policies might make those people feel unwelcome in your space. If they really were interested in art and culture, they’d show up. Right? It can’t possibly be our unconscious bias, personal blind spots, and White Supremacist, heteronormative, and classist culture that produces unacknowledged barriers to participation. We are all really nice and well-intentioned people; we like everyone and want everyone to come through our doors. We don’t know who those people are, or what they are interested, or what they need. Nor do we need to think about what they may have to offer our space in terms of new ideas or perspectives. But despite that, we tend to only see people who look and think like us participating in our programs. So, naturally they are the only ones who want and deserve access to it. Thinking of new ways to engage underserved audiences would require us to rethink how we connect and build relationships with diverse communities, and we are not ready strategically to be held accountable to the ways we likely create harm through exclusionary practices. So rather than changing those things, we’ll keep doing what we’ve always done, until someone calls us out on it. Fortunately, we have a one paragraph, PR-approved diversity statement ready to go at a moment’s notice that will enable us to talk about our commitment to diversity, without having to make any material changes in the way we do things.
3. Leave it up to your BIPOC colleagues to carry all the emotional burden and intellectual labor of moving your DEI work forward.
BIPOC people are so knowledgeable about oppression through their lived experiences moving through a White Supremacist world. So obviously, they are the experts in this topic. Never challenge your White colleagues’ entitlement to learning from BIPOC people’s racial trauma. There should be a constant and unquestioned expectation for BIPOC people to teach their White colleagues about equity and diversity, in addition to their regular work. And even though you might like to compensate them for that additional work, since the budget already doesn’t allow for paying our staff equitably, we’ll just ask them to do that extra labor without additional compensation. And all of us are already super busy, so it must be easier for them to add DEI education to their workload, since they already know so much about it. Of course, BIPOC people make up a very small percentage of your staff, and there always seems to be a high rate of turnover for BIPOC staff. But never question how racism is operationalized and engrained in the work culture of nonprofit workplaces. Because we’re all a family here and care about the mission so much!
4. Stay in your comfort zone.
Because it sure is comfortable! And who doesn’t like to be comfortable? Doing things different is super scary for a lot of reasons. I’m scared of doing things wrong, of creating more harm, facing my unconscious biases, and challenging my perception of myself as a well-intentioned ally. It is extremely uncomfortable to push my organization to radically shift the way we work, share power with communities, acknowledge and redress harm, and do the hard work of internal reflection and meaningful organizational change. Instead, we can just read a bunch of books to gain a bunch of performative language around equity and diversity. Then we can cherry pick marginalized community members to tokenize and use their stories as a marketing tactic to appear more equitable without making any sustainable changes to our processes, operations, representation, or involvement of diverse voices. Of course, we’ll inevitably feel really confused about why communities don’t trust us and eventually disengage. But we can plan to deal with that in our next five-year strategic plan.
5. Keep putting off starting a DEI training program.
Your organization probably knows it’s way behind where it needs to be as far as becoming more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. Your organization probably knows that it has created harm at some point. Your organization probably knows that change cannot wait…
But make it wait anyway!
There’s so many reasons to not take the leap and start making equitable change. There’s not enough time, there’s not enough staff, there’s so much you’re already doing, and you just don’t have enough room in the budget right now. Maybe next quarter. And then next quarter, we’ll push it off to the next quarter, and we’ll keep doing that forever and basically never start. Wait until the perfect time that will likely never come. You’ll be knowingly and unknowingly perpetuating harm and injustice all along the way, but that is a risk you can be willing to take from your place of organizational privilege. Your donors and existing audiences are happy enough, and that’s all that really matters, right? A partner that is experienced in DEI work and can guide you through a structured process, while challenging you to push past your comfort zone and make sustainable organizational change is just not something you should be willing to prioritize in this year’s budget or in your team’s workflows. Maybe next year. Or the year after. Or never. You’ve been talking about it for years, and never taking the step forward, so I guess we’ll wait and see! When YOU feel ready and comfortable enough to build equitable relationships with communities you’ve been harming for decades, they’ll certainly be open to connecting with you because they’re going to know how much you care about being better. One day.
Writer’s Note:
This piece was written as a satire that unfortunately is all too real for many of us working in nonprofit organizations. I’ve been there and experienced these things. And whether you’d like to admit it or not, dear Reader, I’m sure you’ve also experienced at least one or two of these things as well. Did anything above rub you the wrong way? What feelings came through you as you read it? It’s ok to feel embarrassed, maybe even angry. I know you care about making your organization more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. And everything above are real barriers to getting started for so many individuals and organizations. It’s also the reasons why the status quo continues and nothing ever changes.
We all individually and collectively need to find the courage to say “No more. It ends with us. It ends NOW.” It just takes making that first step. And then another. And another. And before we know it, before we ever knew what it would look like — suddenly things are different. It’s a journey and a process, and it starts with you. Luckily, you don’t have to do it alone. Partnering with an organization that can guide you, support you, challenge you, and cheer you on can make all the difference. When you’re ready to give up, we can be here to help you see a new perspective. When you’re feeling alone and discouraged, you can have access to a network of members who have been there before and can remind you that this feeling is a normal part of the learning process. When you don’t know what step to take next, you can be armed with tools and frameworks to guide and facilitate your team with compassion. The support is here waiting for you to take it. And we believe in you. Let’s talk about taking that leap. We can’t wait to work with you.
Apply now to become a member of the Change Network. We provide three cohorts annually, each beginning in March (Q1), June (Q2), and September (Q3). The application is simple and only takes about 30 minutes to complete. You can select to start in any cohort when you apply, and we’ll get back to you on the status of your application within 2-4 weeks. Talk to us about membership discounts! If you have any questions at all about the program — if it’s a good fit for your organization, timing, or applying — don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re here for you! And we’re looking forward to being in community and building the beautiful, revolutionary future — together.