Takeaways About Student Inclusiveness & Diversity @ Cal Poly’s LBTR 2016

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the Leadership Beyond the Resume 2016: Conference for Diversity & Inclusivity as a representative of my student organization. The purpose of this event was teach students how to promote inclusivity in their club or organization and build open-minded communities. This conference, the culmination of hard work from some fellow Orfalea Leaders, was incredibly eye-opening and even more so, forward looking. The day was centered around three main breakaway sessions about Privilege, Microaggressions, and Ally-ship, concluding with an action plan. The thoughts, discussions, activities, and takeaways, in my opinion, are extremely important for all students to hear. Below is a quick summary of my learnings and takeaways.

Session 1: Privilege

We started out with with an activity that aimed to explore the complex identities with a social justice framework. We were asked to circle how we identified ourselves based on groups that experience privilege and those that are oppressed in the context of being in the U.S. and then answered various discussion points in groups. The photos below show the exercise with my responses on it.

It was interesting to see the different types of groups besides those mainly talked about such as race or gender.

Privilege is an acquired or born-into advantage available only to a particular person or group of people. It implies a system of oppression where two groups exist, privileged and oppressed. Quick examples include:

Sexual Privilege: Heterosexuals never have to worry about the possibility of being fired for their sexuality.
Racial Privilege: Being caucasian or labeled as white, allows one to be called on a topic and not have to act as a representative about one’s culture/race … “Hey Shreyas, you’re indian, where do you get the best authentic indian food in town?”
Higher Socio-economic Privilege: You can afford to buy new clothes per season or on impulse and when you wear hand-me-downs it may even seem fashionable

It is important to note that often members of the dominant group may not even be aware of their privilege.

Have you ever thought about the privilege of being able bodied?

One of the biggest points was about how to assess privilege. Discussions about privilege should not be about creating an equilibrium instantly or shaming, but rather be about understanding & acknowledgement. Conversations about privilege should be rested on logical and rational thoughts, not overly passionate and emotional ones, as one’s arguments may seem like personal attacks on another person.

Discussions about privilege should not be about creating an equilibrium instantly or shaming, but rather be about understanding & acknowledgement.

Privilege is not something one can get rid of, nor something one should always be shamed for. Rather, it should be used as a tool to understand others and oneself, and the interactions between the two. Social angst towards privilege festers through a lack of acknowledgement and discussion. I highly encourage all of you, especially leaders, to:

Self-reflect on your own privilege and oppression and see where you stand
Keep an open and calm mind when checking others/own privilege
Don’t be afraid to spark constructive conversation about privilege, whether that be in person, online, through social media, or others communication forms
Recognize that everyone’s privileges will be addressed, even your own at some point, and maintain a forward-thinking mindset when in those situations

Session 2: Microaggressions

This session focused on the microaggressions within the statements we say and how they can be interpreted. We went through an activity in groups that made us link statements and interpretations (example show below), analyzed a full microaggression table, and discussed real life examples.

Statement: “That’s retarded”
Possible Interpretations: “People with disabilities are less important, likable, or competent.”

Microaggressions are “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.”

Coming out of this session it's important to note how prevalent and widespread the use of microaggressions is, whether that be through media, social groups, or regular conversations.

A daily example is when first meeting someone new, especially someone of color. A common asked question is “where are you originally from?” which implies a message of “you are not American.” A better version of asking this question would be “what's your ethnicity?” or “where did you grow up?” The two alternatives and not only more neutral, but allow the person responding to the question the opportunity to not be seen as an outsider and to feel comfortable sharing their past.

From this session, I definitely plan to:

Actively seek new viewpoints of how my peers view microaggressions and be open to listening
Become more self-reflective in how I am affected and how my speech affects others
After soliciting viewpoints and conducting self analyses, have an open discussion, and be willing to adapt continuously, especially since microaggressions today might be vastly different than those 10 years from now

Session 3: Ally-ship

This session focused on how one can support subordinate identities within social groups (chart below). We started the activity by taking a selfie and reflecting on what identities we could and could see in the picture. Afterwards, we quickly discussed what social groups we would consider ourselves to be an ally of.

In my selfie you could see my race, gender, youth, and age, but you could not depict my religion, rank, or ability.

After analyzing our past experiences and figuring out what social groups we are connected too, we learned about the power of Ally-ship.

Ally-ship is not an identity — it is a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people. Allies tend to:

Actively acknowledge their privileges and openly discuss them
Listen more and speak less
Do work with integrity and direct communication
Not expect to be educated by others
Build their capacity to receive criticism
Embrace the emotions that come out of the process of ally-ship
Put their needs as secondary to the people they seek to work with
Do not expect awards or special recognition

For me, racial ties are extremely important. Coming from an Indian background, I definitely would be an ally to people of color. What I perceived as ally-ship in racial context is the ability to go to a marginalized group, understand their concerns continuously without causing conflict, develop relationships instead of immediate savior activity, and help support/empower the group with integrity.

Ally-ship is an important stepping stone in battling oppression, and fundamentally relies on trust, which takes time, selflessness, and effort to cultivate and maintain.

On a day-day basis, one way of practicing this is asking:

How much space are we taking up in conversations? in rooms? in organizing?
How do we actively improve access to our meetings? our actions?
How are our identities taking up space? physically? verbally?
How much do we know about the people we seek to work with? what are our assumptions and from where did they originate?
Who are we leaving behind?

Moving Forward:

These three sessions helped me re-focus on the process of how I run my student organization in relation to people, rather than the results. It strengthened my opinion of how important it is to see how inclusive your organization is, especially to its own. Some questions student organization leaders and members should consider:

Do I have any innate biases in regards to the students I work alongside? How does that affect my actions towards them?
Have I taken the time to understand the history/background/experiences of my fellow students? Am I willing to adapt my perceptions of them after getting to them?
Am I asking for feedback on how I lead, work with, and converse with others, in an effort to be mindful?
How do I help others move forward? Where can I support or be an ally?

For my organization, Mustang Consulting (MC), our action plan was to “take next quarter to constantly understand the history/background/experiences of fellow MC members in an effort to increase the inclusiveness and productivity of our organization.”

What's yours?

Shout out to Emily Wong, Oleg Helms, and Natalie Killian for the feedback!