DEI Against Occupation
At the core of being a DEI practitioner for me is the notion of common humanity - and the acknowledgement that all systems of oppression are interlinked.
humanity - noun
: compassionate, sympathetic, or generous behaviour or disposition : the quality or state of being humane
: the quality or state of being human
: the totality of human beings : the human race
Like many of you, now is a particularly hard time for me to maintain hope in common humanity. Thousands(can we even process this kind of inhumanity?) of children being killed, propaganda wars, dehumanisation and further polarisation. I stand with my fellow DEI practitioners who have formed the #DEIAgainstOccupation coalition.
"We can’t talk about creating diverse, inclusive, and equitable spaces without using a social justice lens. Cultivating and practising this lens is an ongoing process that requires individual and collective reflection and accountability. Without it, the DEI acronym will continue to be overused and lose its meaning."
I hope it goes without saying that sometimes (often) we need to maintain neutrality, and objectivity in the work we do. And there are times where silence is complicity - Never Again Means Never Again for ALL.
I know what it is like to be from a country 🇱🇰 where your government commits horrific atrocities not in your name, so I stand with all those suffering - regardless of religion or country of origin. The explicit double standards we see in coverage, and adherence to international law, needs to be called out.
"Our role as practitioners is to ensure that we apply a social justice lens to our work. This lens encourages us to take a deep look at how historical structures and policies create advantages for some and disadvantages for others, understand where our own privilege and non-privileges show up due to these structures and policies, and decide what we need to do to centre those who’ve been historically excluded."
