As a black person, recent conversations about DEI has brought into focus concerns I’ve held about DEI and how I believe it is often used as marketing or PR material by institutions.
I’ve always observed that organisations, institutions, and society at large are normally keener to align to, or promote people with the humble, underdog narratives. For example, within the workplace, you often see employees handed the employee of the month awards not necessarily based on how well they’ve performed in their job, but because they were compassionate, kind to another colleague or were heroic. Undoubtedly admirable acts, but in most cases, totally unconnected to their job performance. Or television competitions like ‘X-Factor’ or ‘Britian’s got talent’, which to me normally seems to reward contestants with sob-stories over those with talent but no ‘story’, perhaps this is motivated by the producers’ perception of the appetite of its audience.
This societal propensity of wanting to back the underdog is what I believe drives these white saviour behaviours when it comes to DEI in organisations. Which is why I believe that often organisations and institutions treat DEI as a PR exercise and as a marketing opportunity to display how well they are doing when it comes to DEI, by prioritising the marketing narrative ahead of merit.
As long as our wider society yearns to hear the rags to riches and underdog story, organisations and institutions will continue to feed this need by exploiting DEI candidates for their marketing collateral, whilst seeking a pat on the back for their self-benefiting efforts.
I think the biggest problem is that this approach undermines the very spirit of DEI. Opportunities risk being skewed towards those with marketable stories, while equally talented people without a compelling “overcoming adversity” narrative are overlooked. Diversity should not depend on how inspirational someone appears to others.
What jars for me personally is the associated celebration of what should be unremarkable. A genuinely successful DEI culture is not one that constantly showcases itself, it is one where inclusion is so well embedded that nobody feels the need to applaud it. Real inclusion in my opinion shouldn’t be a headline, a campaign, or a photo opportunity, it should be the norm.