This is why true inclusion is intersectional

2020 has been a year like no other in our lifetime. As the world protests demanding justice for George Floyd, an end to systemic racism and police violence, companies large and small are making their own statements against racism and are pledging donations to civil rights groups or launched new diversity efforts.

 “Events in our world impinge on us. They incite emotions, elicit cognitions, influence our interactions, and change our behaviours, even when they do not directly happen to us.” (Morgeson, Mitchell, & Liu, 2015).

Never before have we seen a momentous collective act by business leaders, speaking out about social injustice and racial inequality. While some responses have been well received, others have fallen flat for appearing hypocritical or opportunistic. When it comes to speaking out on a topic like this, a brand’s or business's history with an issue matters. While many organisations have promoted diversity and inclusion over the years, the idea of being explicitly anti-racist may be a newer concept to some.

As part of my goal to ‘make work more accessible’ through the Changemaker partnership, here with LinkedIn, recent events have led me to think how racism and ableism intertwine and interact to generate unique forms of inequality and resistance.

The conversation on diversity and inclusion is typically addressed in a singular approach that segregates each identity, such as race and disability. While this helps start the diversity conversation, it’s far more complicated than that, yet many business are still stuck at the start - due to failing to take an intersectional approach to inclusion. 

Disabled People of Colour

Disabled people of colour needs and views have often fallen between the two areas of disability and race equality policy;

• There are at least one million disabled people of colour living in Britain
• Nearly half of all minority ethnic disabled people of colour live in household poverty, compared with 1 in 5 of the population as a whole.
• Individual incomes for disabled people of colour are 30% lower than for the general population.
• Less than 4 in 10 disabled people of colour of working age are in employment.

My Reality

As a disabled Asian woman, I can experience bias and discrimination in multiple ways – as a consequence of my race, disability and gender, or as a combination of these. Here is an example:

1. As a person of colour, I’m three times as likely to be unemployed or if in work, I'm likely to be underpaid 

2. As a disabled person, I’m twice as likely to be unemployed or if in work, I'm likely to be underpaid 

3. As a woman, I’m likely to earn less than my male colleagues

Pretty bleak, right?! This example relates to employment, highlighting the ethnicity, disability and gender pay gaps and privileges - but this example can be applied to a variety of life situations. 

Intersectionality

Over the past twenty years, the concept of intersectionality, first coined by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, has emerged as an influential approach to understanding discrimination and exclusion in our society. It refers to the nature of how personal characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, social class, age and disability overlap and intersect in dynamic ways that shape each individual. It also recognises that an individual can identify as belonging to multiple identifying groups – the issue arises when someone who does fall into more than one group is boxed into one identity. 

While many businesses right now are looking at how racial inequality can manifest in policies, procedures, unspoken norms and routines that push people into different paths of opportunity, where some individuals have greater access, and others have less, due to race. I want businesses also to consider how race coupled with other personal characteristics excludes and harms their employees and communities too. Businesses and brands have the ability to influence culture and influence society and need to take that responsibility seriously and do more.

Intersectionality is important, so each of us can understand where we stand in the fight for equality, as well as where we stand to help others who may not have the privileges we have. I encourage everyone to see themselves as allies of intersectional issues, which in turn will help us all to endorse change, shift the dial on the nature of diversity and inclusion practices and uplift even more people.

This article was written as part of the LinkedIn #Changemakers partnership – a 12-month campaign shining a spotlight on individuals who are using LinkedIn to drive genuine change in the world of work. To find out more about the partnership, read more here: https://blog.linkedin.com/2020/may/10/follow-the-changemakers-driving-change-in-the-world-of-work