Today I had the opportunity to listen in on the Reed Smith 2020 Virtual Diversity Summit. It is great when you attend or listen in on these summits and learn something new. Today I learned a new term – Intersectionality. This was addressed in one of their breakout sessions titled Inclusion of Mixed-Visible and non-Visible Diversity.
I found an article that pretty much describes what the meaning is and what they were referring to. https://www.ywboston.org/2017/03/what-is-intersectionality-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-me/
I had always felt this was an issue but hadn’t realized that there was a name attached to it.
This is especially relevant to ERGs. How? Suppose there is a black female wanting to join an ERG. Does she choose the African American/Black ERG, or does she join the Women’s ERG or maybe both? Let’s take it to a more complicated level. Latino gay female. Which ERG. Hispanic ERG? LGBQTA+ ERG, women’s ERG? This applies to males as well. Black or Hispanic gay male veteran? You see my point?
This intersectionality is something that can add another layer to the whole diversity, equity, and inclusion quotient.
How do you apply this now to Bi-racial individuals or groups? This is one of the reasons why I am an advocate for a Multi-Cultural ERG. This would help eliminate some of the decision.
I have struggled with this myself being Multi-racial. Where will I feel most comfortable? The bi-racial or multi-racial population is growing and will need to feel comfortable in whatever organization they work for.
This is something a lot more people are going to have to struggle with that have not had to think about it yet. When I look at my Ancetry.com or 23andme.com trees and DNA connections. I am not really surprised with the racial mixture on the trees. However, there are probably a lot of people that, when they look at their trees and DNA connections, are surprised to see 3rd to 5th cousin that just don’t fit the family picture and when they look at their DNA makeup and it says there is some DNA makeup in there that they had no idea, it finally sinks in. I am who I am, but I am not who I thought I was.
I love learning new stuff dealing with Diversity, Inclusion, and Genealogy. What an awesome experience to learn new things that takes me to a deeper thought pattern about myself and the diversity in me!
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