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Discussion on: Diversity vs Inclusivity: Understanding the Difference

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bvmcode profile image
bvmcode

To me all this gives the excuse to be restrictive while branding it as diverse-friendly, rather than solely making decisions on talent and ability. To make true progress, we need to all take blinders off and look to what will make our companies, brands, apps, whatever, the most successful. In the end the result will likely be a far more diverse workplace than the pigeonholing alternatives of focusing so much on identity. It seems the more progressive we get the more we talk about identity. That seems counter to what it should be...just viewing people has human beings. The more groups and terminologies that are formed just perpetuate the focus on identity, which is exactly what we all worked so hard on fighting for many years.

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eli profile image
Eli Bierman • Edited

I hope by “take blinders off” you mean deconstruct centuries of white supremacist and patriarchal ideologies that were designed to justify taking resources through violence. Because that’s what would be necessary to “just view people as human beings” for the industry. ;-)

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bvmcode profile image
bvmcode

I simply mean let's focus on the individual, not their identity. Doing ANYTHING other than that is ultimately wrong. All I see is identity, identity, identity. Overcorrection should not be confused with correction.

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eli profile image
Eli Bierman

I agree with the goal of focusing on the individual. If an individual’s identity is important to them, wouldn’t supporting the individual mean supporting their identity as well?

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bvmcode profile image
bvmcode

Sure, tolerance for all. I am talking about business decisions in the workplace. I think ability and talent is what should separate you or me, not race, gender, religion or otherwise. I know that sounds pie in the sky but my concern is that lately we've seen more talk about identity and its role in the workplace rather than what people bring to the table that will make the workplace successful (like profits for example). LinkedIn is notorious for this. All they do is push identity-laden articles. It just seems concerning to me. Ok, I'm done. I probably got more people mad at me today than I should have LOL. Peace and prosperity to all :)

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bvmcode profile image
bvmcode

Just one more note - Eli, I am willing to bet 1000 bucks you are a better developer than me. In a workplace setting you should be 100% recognized for that fact more so than anything else, such as your identity. It would be truly reflective of your talent, ability, work-ethic and so on.

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eli profile image
Eli Bierman • Edited

Inclusion and diversity is a business decision as well. Organizations that neglect it early often struggle to compensate when they are larger, when it really affects their ability to recruit and build a product that appeals to and serves a diverse set of users.

I agree with you that public posturing is not an effective strategy for companies. Establishing inclusive internal policies and procedures in response to the needs of employees is usually much more effective than PR. Representation speaks for itself.

I also agree that we should focus on what makes a workplace successful. I think it’s important to recognize cultural competence as being just as important of a factor as development skills, since most digital products we build are global and require cultural competence at every level in order to build the best product. Especially when scaling a product to more users, which requires also scaling the organization’s understanding of their users and their experiences.

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molly profile image
Molly Struve (she/her)

It seems the more progressive we get the more we talk about identity. That seems counter to what it should be...just viewing people has human beings.

I struggle with this as well and feel the same way. Sometimes by forming these niche identity groups you are excluding other marginalized groups when in reality we should all be a single big group! Everyone is first and foremost human.