DE&I: The Appearance of Inclusion
I’m not convinced they’re even trying
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives have become common among many human corporations over the last few years. The idea — in theory — is a good one: having access to as many perspectives as possible allows a company to see situations from many angles, and including those who aren’t accustomed to being included helps boost morale and loyalty to the company.
In practice, however, these programs do little to actually realize these goals, and employees may not even know they exist. At best, they are seen as pandering, and at worst, they subtly exclude those who don’t appear to be diverse.
The company I use for cover while I complete my human ecology research — which I won’t name for reasons that will become apparent — has many DE&I initiatives. We receive emails telling us about events we have planned for Black History Month, Pride Month, and Chinese New Year, among others. We also have groups we can join on Yammer for BIPOC people, queer people, veterans, women in business, and “people of diverse abilities.”
Based on these factors, you might assume that the company I work for is an oasis of diversity and inclusion, where discrimination is a thing of the past — a true testament to the progress of the human species.
But you would be mistaken.
A quick look at the leadership page of our website paints a starkly different picture.
- President and CEO? White man.
- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer? White man.
- Another EVP? White man.
- A third EVP? White man.
- The fourth EVP? White man.
- EVP of General Counsel and Secretary? White man.
- EVP of Europe? White man.
- EVP and Chief Information Officer? White man.
- EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer? White woman! Now we’re getting somewhere!
- Senior Vice President of Global Communications and Brand? White woman again!
- EVP of Global Supply Chain? White woman.
- EVP of Strategy and Corporate Development? White woman…
You don’t need to be a humologist to see the pattern here.
Eight white male executives and four white female executives at the head of an international company with thousands of employees.
One female executive with “Chief” in her title.
Empty promises and half-hearted platitudes are much cheaper than effecting any real change, and my studies indicate that money is the only thing corporations truly care about. If we actually had a diverse and inclusive company culture, I don’t think they’d have to try so hard to convince us of that reality.
Of the five human subgroups we have a special newsletter for, only one is definitely represented among leadership. None of their bios mention military service, but I suppose one or two of them might not be heterosexual; more data would be required to make that determination.
It seems we can only afford the illusion of inclusion, and if you try to touch it, you’ll find that it has no substance.
Normalized Exclusion
I’ve noticed that humans like to separate and group yourselves based on — in this alien’s humble opinion — fairly arbitrary physical attributes like skin or hair coloration. Human societies also tend to create a standard of what is considered “normal” when it comes to behavior and appearance, and often ostracize or ridicule those who fail to conform to it.
A colleague of mine who has conducted extensive studies on human biology (they assure me that no humans are harmed during these studies, and that all subjects are released back into the wild after a standard memory modification procedure) once told me that there is no such thing as a perfectly “normal” human. If one such specimen did exist — one who was average in every respect — they would be the most remarkable human ever encountered and would, therefore, be the most abnormal.
There are, however, some groups who actually do differ in meaningful ways from what you would call “normal.” Unfortunately, instead of seeing these individuals as having valuable divergent perspectives, humanity has a history of pathologizing these individuals. My company refers to these individuals as “People of Diverse Abilities.”
Disability is an uncomfortable word for most humans. It makes you feel things you’d rather not feel, so it’s masked with more comfortable language like diversity or difference.
Conditions that impact those with them on a daily basis–that color their interactions with others or their view of society as a whole–are trivialized and reduced to “differences” so that others don’t have to confront their bleak realities.
So, why am I writing this? What inspired this article?
One of my human coworkers was fired recently for failing to conform to a very narrow definition of normal. His “diverse abilities” made other coworkers uncomfortable, and they took their discomfort straight to HR.
He was fired for being too different — too diverse — if you will.
So much for inclusion.
Uncertainty makes humans anxious, and humans hate feeling anxious. It’s a primitive part of your brain — poorly adapted to modern life — telling you that you might be in danger, and the immediate instinct is to alleviate that anxiety.
Even humans with only a stereotypical understanding of autism should have realized this was the cause of their discomfort. Usually that’s enough to calm a human’s nerves, but it wasn’t this time.
Studies generally show that the unemployment rate for adults with some form of disability is significantly lower than the unemployment rate for the general population, but among autistic adults, the unemployment rate jumps to between 75 and 85 percent (“Employment | Autism Outcomes”) (Scheiner).
So, what differentiates the employed autistic population from the unemployed?
The ability to mask autistic traits. The ability to blend in among other humans and adopt their behaviors and mannerisms.
Masking is a full-time job that autistic humans must perform for forty hours a week while also performing their actual job, and if they don’t perform it well enough, they’ll be excluded, bullied, or fired by the very same humans who claim to celebrate diversity.
This is — obviously — very stressful, and it should be no surprise that 65 percent of autistic juveniles have one or more mood disorders. “For adolescents with Asperger’s syndrome [autism], an additional mood disorder is the rule rather than the exception” (Attwood 129). These mood disorders carry over into adulthood and result in low self-esteem, social anxiety and a general distrust of or ambivalence towards other humans. Over time, autistic humans come to view their own species as a source of anxiety and fear.
Being consistently told that your personality is inadequate, that your attempts to connect with others are offensive, and that you should fundamentally be a different person is soul-destroying.
For a company that extols its commitment to inclusion, it isn’t even close to hitting the mark. The nature of our work attracts people on the autism spectrum, and the employee that was recently fired was only one of at least four autistic people who work there.
The work we do is highly detail-oriented and rewards meticulous attention to detail. This is something autistic people excel at. We also work mostly independently, and only have one team meeting a week. Communication is mostly conducted through Microsoft Teams, and most coworkers are fairly conflict avoidant.
One would think our management and HR would know how to mediate between autistic employees and those with the more widespread neurotype, but they don’t. They can’t be bothered to learn anything new or strive to live up to the claims made in their diversity statement.
As one who studies humans and has developed a certain fondness for your species, this is disappointing.
I’m already seeing the same pattern repeat with a member of my team. She’s much better at masking than the coworker who was just fired, but the other humans can tell she’s different. She rubs them the wrong way, and I overhear them talking about her behind her back.
Their complaints are trivial at best, but I’ve come to realize that the empathy of humans is limited to those they understand. Anyone or anything confusing is a threat, and if they all agree that someone is “too weird,” they remorselessly target them until the threat is eliminated or retreats into isolation.
The goal set by these diversity initiatives is a noble one, but few seem willing or able to reach for it.
Generation Z does inspire some hope. They can certainly talk the talk, but their actions also resulted in this termination. They seem to suffer from a moral dependency that I suspect is due to growing up on the internet and aren’t yet used to resolving conflict in the real world.
Their strong sense of social justice can be very destructive if they can’t slow down and consider others’ perspectives, but once they’ve matured a bit more, I think humanity will be in good hands.
References
Attwood, Tony. The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome. Jessica Kingsley, 2008.
“Employment | Autism Outcomes.” Drexel University, https://drexel.edu/autismoutcomes/topics/employment/. Accessed 10 February 2023.
Scheiner, Marcia. “Tackling the Unemployment Crisis for Adults with Asperger Syndrome.” Autism Spectrum News, 2011, https://autismspectrumnews.org/tackling-the-unemployment-crisis-for-adults-with-asperger-syndrome/. Accessed 10 February 2023.
