The Power of Small Acts of Inclusion

Written by 3 DEI consultants and a professor. If nothing else, DEI has provided thousands of jobs for these sorts of people. No wonder they want to keep it going.

I'm sitting in a Peet's coffee house, and a microact of inclusion I would appreciate is for the ALL GENDER RESTROOM sign to be replaced by one that says GENDER-NEUTRAL RESTROOM. That is, communicate what is necessary while being inclusive of those of us who don't believe there are more than two genders.

This is all very good advice. Frankly, it’s common sense, but it’s good to have some data to support it.

I have several issues with the framing, though. (I understand the authors might be intentionally gloss over the problematic aspects).

- There’s nothing “small” or “micro” about these acts. Most of the people I’ve worked with would have a hard time doing any of this. Most managers/leaders I’ve known are simply unable to behave this way. Maybe after a few years of psychotherapy…

- These practices tend to weaken authority and hierarchy. Organizations will always resist adopting something so radical.

- This approach might have the same goals as DEI, but it’s not DEI by any stretch. The methods are basically the opposite of DEI’s. It reminds me of Egoless Engineering, for instance: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42311069