Sh*t People Really Say to Us about DEIB

“You’re not helping Black people by helping them get jobs that they’re not qualified for.” “Community college students are too low-skill to benefit from pipeline programs.” “You’re doing ‘skin deep’ diversity and that’s not fair, just pick the best person for the job.”

These are just a few examples of things people have actually said to our faces. Sometimes it’s so off-base, so clueless that we’re just lost for words.

One skill that every DEIB practitioner builds is keeping composure in a micro-aggression moment like this, taking a deep breath, and taking a step back to reframe the issue by calling out biased assumptions and correcting the record. Sometimes these are moments of opportunity to claim the narrative and educate the people around us. Sometimes they are moments to center our own well-being and avoid draining our cup with someone who does not want to change.

It’s all part of a larger DEIB skillset that we unpack in today’s episode, which is really about what to do – what we do, because it happens all the time – when people say wild sh*t to us about DEIB.