Why I’m Ride or Die for DEI
Diversity, equity, and inclusion policies are under attack. They shouldn’t be.
I navigated my dad’s end of life care this year. When his health took a turn for the worse, one of the staff members at his care home emailed me to share that my father, a residential school survivor, had expanded the way they think of care and the long-term wishes of their residents.
My dad was the first and only Indigenous person in their care. The home has a chapel for residents who wish to feel connected to their faith; however, my dad survived a Catholic residential school and understandably avoided anything that reminded him of that time in his life. Instead, the home created a smudging area for him and the staff purchased smudging materials, including sweetgrass, a shell, and a feather. With support from the staff or me, he could go to the garden and smudge. They also allowed me to smudge his body indoors after he died, no-smoking signs be damned. Their perspectives shifted because they cared for and worked with a person different from them.
If you’re a person with a pulse, it’s fair to say you are aware of the absolutely wild ride the United States is currently on with its new president and his broligarch besties. Besides arguably plunging the country into a constitutional crisis, the president of the US has decided that DEI is to be removed from all agencies, organizations, and federally funded anything. DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Essentially, when an organization says they care about DEI, it means they acknowledge the benefits of, and moral imperatives to, having different folks with different life experiences on their team.
Unfortunately, DEI has been framed as lowering the bar for credentials and experience. To say a person was only hired because they are Black, Indigenous, a woman, disabled, queer, an immigrant, or some combination thereof, rather than being very qualified but never hired because companies were too busy hiring from their close contact list, or because of other biases, is—well, the irony is not lost on me. Phrases like “diversity hire,” “meritocracy,” and “best person for the job” have stuck—underscoring a bold assumption that the best person is not from the above-mentioned groups of people. I’m sure Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is exceedingly qualified to run the Department of Health and Human Services with his, *checks notes*, no medical training whatsoever.
Phrases like “diversity hire” underscore a bold assumption that the “best person for the job” is not Black, Indigenous, a woman, disabled, queer, an immigrant, or some combination thereof.
This misguided outrage against DEI is taking root all over. In Nova Scotia, my home province, the premier recently dismissed several groups, including the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, as special interest groups. The premier, it would appear, forgot he has a constitutional duty to consult with us—the traditional stewards of the land—when it comes to any development in our territories that could interfere with our access to treaty rights. He also shuttered the non-partisan communications branch of the government and refuses to speak to media outlets. Hell hath no fury like a white man being asked to think about people who are different from him.
As someone whose entire career has been supported by DEI initiatives, I can tell you, the bar is not lowered when DEI is a factor in hiring. Even today, many qualified candidates are never given a call back because of their name, or they miss out on jobs because their vernacular, accent, or phrasing doesn’t meet the expectations of what is considered “professional”—another way of saying, they’re not white North American.
But let’s suspend this mode of thinking for a minute and let me talk to you in cold, hard capitalistic facts. Diverse companies just do better. By a lot. A McKinsey report from late 2023 shows that diverse companies are 39% more likely to outperform less diverse ones. There is better retention, and people feel safe to speak up and share their thoughts and ideas, which leads to better problem-solving and innovation.
Every job I have ever held was a designated position, meaning the organizations that I worked for had no choice but to hire an Indigenous person for the role they advertised. They restricted their hiring pool because, historically, people didn’t want to hire Indigenous folks. The late Senator Murray Sinclair—the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba and a personal hero of mine—summed it up well in a lecture I attended at Dalhousie University. Sinclair said that while Canadian society and government were telling us that we were no-good, lazy, Indians that couldn’t do anything right, the rest of the world was given the same information. So when bans and restrictions were lifted on where we could be and what we could achieve as Indigenous people, no one wanted us because they believed we were no-good, lazy Indians that couldn’t do anything right.
Restricting a hiring pool to combat that historical bias is a very small attempt to right a long-standing wrong. It doesn’t mean the qualifications to get the job are lowered. My employers didn’t lessen the required qualifications of a university degree in a related field with related work experience to hire me; they took the steps to acknowledge that, depending on who you are, the world will see you differently and sometimes with lesser social standing. Not to brag (I’m going to anyway), but I have an undergraduate degree with honours, a master’s degree, and a diploma for good measure. I also have well over a decade of experience in my field of study. Sprinkle in a few awards here, a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal there, and I assure you I am a very qualified candidate for the job I have.
DEI is for the people who listen to podcasts that highlight our struggle but are unwilling to set aside their convenience for a program that would put us on equal footing.
As a person from an equity-deserving community, it is very important to state that I am not looking for validation from white audiences. I don’t need to be told I am “worthy” or “good.” Plenty of well-meaning, left-leaning folks think that we, as equity-seeking people, are vying for their approval and acceptance. We are not. We know we’re capable and clever. We’ve been subverting and resisting systems meant to eliminate us for centuries. Even you, dear reader and ally—we don’t need your approval. What we need is your humility.
I once had a university professor tell me he marked me harder than other students to prepare me for the “real world,” since society wanted to see Indigenous people fail. This was a liberal, left-leaning man, who would most definitely wear an orange shirt and a pink pussy hat, telling me he was “just looking out for me.”
You see, DEI, in my humble and jaded opinion, is not meant to change the behaviour of overt racists and misogynists. It’s not for the people who revel in stripping rights away from vulnerable people. I don’t think there is a policy or seminar on this Earth that could change the minds of folks who seek to harm—although good policy might lessen the harm. DEI is for the people who think they’ve got us figured out because they follow BIPOC influencers or listen to podcasts that highlight our struggle but are unwilling to set aside their convenience, feelings, and ambitions for a program, policy, or process that would put us on equal footing. DEI is for the people grumbling about why they did not get that job or promotion they wanted because it was designated for an equity-seeking candidate, as they straighten their pride flag lapel pin.
If, dear reader, you find my tone aggressive, or pushy, then I suggest that you get yourself to a DEI seminar to understand why I am so pissed off—before they’re all gone.
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