Day 3-Why Social Justice Frameworks are Necessary for Successful DEI/JEDI Initiatives
— Hello and welcome and thank you for tuning into this conversation. We will jump in with a creative exercise
— I would like you to close your eyes and breath in deeply through nose and exhale through your mouth
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I will walk you through a guided meditation
— Imagine world where
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People not marginalized
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Injustice doesn’t exist
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Societies work for all people
— Think what that looks like or should feel or even smell like
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What will be present in world you imagine and what will be missing
— What work needs to be done to get from where we are to what you imagined?
— Open your eyes and come back to your body
— The exercise we did is called Freedom Dreaming from the Black radical tradition
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Using creativity to reimagine systems with care at center
— Welcome, and I’ll tell you a little bit about me. I’m a senior program manager for Product Equity at Adobe Design
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Know that I care fiercely and passionately not just for my family, but the vulnerable people ofthe world
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I’ve been put on margins of society in my life, so I center justice and equity in all I do
— I’ll acknowledge land I am giving the conversation on, and will provide ways to for you to take action, based on this
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Learn about original stewards who lived on the land you live on
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Supporting the LandBack movement for indigenous stewardship
— Don’t be performative, and attach action to sentiment you are working towards
— I’m an ambitious person, so here are the session goals
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Importance of equity in all positions
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DesignOps and it’s power, and importance of wielding power responsibly
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Identify harmful characteristics for dominant culture
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Explore social justice frameworks crucial for successful works
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Gathering a set of tools to include journey beyond conversation
— Hope you will leave inspired and activated
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Take energy to empower you in ways with equity oriented principles at core of work
— We will talk about colorful concepts. Take care of yourself as we go through conversation
— With initial exercise, gave you tool for family and home dynamic and personal community and applying to the workplace
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Activists have been doing this for centuries and out of necessity
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When you did the practice, did you feel overwhelmed, deflated, or powerless?
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Likely haven’t gotten in habit of freedom dreaming, but there is also an intense amount of problems in the world and in your community
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Sense of no agency to impact any of this
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I’ll offer a framework to identify harmful cultural practices
— The dominant culture (DC) thinks you need unique qualifications to freedom dream, but everyone has ability to do so
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So start with personal sphere of influence
— Curious to hear if you identify as professional designer, and will give sense to think about answer
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Many of you might not
— All of us though, are professional designers
— Didn’t mispeak
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Anyone with operations is designing policies and practices that impact the design org
— Don’t know this is intense amount of power, and deciding how design machines function, and how creatives work
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Even if you experienced overwhelm, you can design systems to work for all
— We are all designers, so we can use this power to ask if we are designing things for the better or aligning with exclusive and inaccessible practices
— You have power to decide how creatives in your org operate
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If only specific identities, your work will likely reinforces problematic power dynamics
— Dominant culture is what DEI is working to balance out and counteract
— Many aware that through world and history, where people have power use it to impose their ideas on masses, without care of impact or considering human difference
— A dominant culture is one that imposes it’s norms and preferences on an entire group
— Imposed regardless of values of larger group, which has to accept shared values , often times by force
— A dominant culture is not default setting of values. DC imposes itself on space, and is coded and designed into systems and practices
— Sub-culture have to adhere to dominant norms to avoid being ostracized
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And ostracisism is not just folks refusing to play with you in playground
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It has real-world consequences
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Impact of where you live work, show-up work, and how much you get paid
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— People feel DEI is about feelings and playing nice, but inequities have major practical consequences that impact life trajectories
— So let’s name characteristics of DC, as work is easier to do with naming
— The US dominant culture includes
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White Supremacy Culture: Belief that folks with white skin are superior, along with beliefs and dominance, with few exceptoins
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Patriarchy: Men as more valuable than women
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Judeo-Christian Values: Christian values as right way and norm and ‘American’ way
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Think of reaction of people swearing on different books they consider holy, other than the Bible
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Individualism: Embedded within American society and framework of solo person as opposed to entire group
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Communities allowed so long as aligned with dominant values
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Different from indigenous communities
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Considered default in how society chooses to function and evidence
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i.e. benefit of doubt white men get in various fields
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— This work is balancing out the systemic advantages of a dominant culture
— Lot of characteristics of dominant culture globally and I assume you are familiar with this
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Colorism
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Heteronormativity (gender expression that is different is bad)
— General themes in many global societies
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Figure out values for respective dominant cultures and beliefs and practices impact workplaces
— Design is community with dominant culture embedded into it and field that dominated by white men
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White men seen as default in work done, and work that is valued
— People who work in DesignOps have power and impact internal procedures
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Your work is to push back against harmful systems and redesign new ones that have equity and humility
— Ops fields typically tend to align with dominant culture, and reinforce harmful practices
— You get rewarded within the dominant culture
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But anyone outside it gets alienated and oppressed
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People are dis-enfranchised, and forced to hide true selves for benefits of dominant culture
— So you might wonder, what this has to you?
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People don’t get paid extra to care about this
— I will note a few things
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Gen-Z prioritizes working at a company with policies and practices that align with equity and social good
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Companies to hold themselves to higher-standard, whether DEI or not
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There are lawsuits over proven discrimination
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Discriminatory practices are more penalized now in society
— And a lot you can do within the workplace. This conversation will give practical tools, and way to do the work
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Had plan to leave with list of suggestions for practice
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A dominant culture will look different to everyone based on company, it’s focus, and where you are on the world
— Cultural norms will be unique to you, workplace, and culture
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Makes sense to look for dominant culture in work and life, and redesign systems for what makes sense to you
— First, go into intersectionality
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Metaphor to understand the ways that multiple marginalized identities compound to negatively impact experiences
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Lens for dominant culture to create obstacles outside of conventional advocacy structure like anti-racism or feminism alone.
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Thorough awareness of social justice concept and harmful power dynamics that lie under umbrella and come as reaction to dominant culture
— Doing work takes time and so much I am still learning
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I have included a list of resources to jumpstart your journey
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Identify dominant culture and quicker decisions
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— Some questions to ask:
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Who is missing from community and who is kept out of culture?
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If everyone is the same, it’s a red flag
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Practices or behaviors rewarded that are harmful and even people who align with it
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Communities that struggle to align with workplace culture
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Comfortable taking advantage of company benefits versus companies where it doesn’t feel safe to take a break?
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Standards that don’t impact concrete outcomes
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Examples of barrier to entry within company
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Do employees contribute in conversational change ?
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What identities typically missing and decisions making and impact community?
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— Incredibly important to identify dominant culture, as you will otherwise encounter psychological abuse, inequitable practice, micromanagement, resume and hiring bias
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This can imapct whether you can get talent, and risk of legal issues
— Key way to check if DC is oppressive is if sub-cultures can exist and thrive within it
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Loosing DC doesn’t mean getting rid of it, it is like letting more air and sunlight in, even with most people are still aligned to the DC
— So reality is whether DEI in job title, you are working to create systems that work for all people, and working for marginalized folks
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Deeper impact possible
— Don’t forget ability to Freedom Dream and reimagine and power and tools you have ops professional to shape org
— This will enable ecologies of care and move past heart and mind work, and let company move forward
— Thank you to people in slide above
FAQ
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I’ve witnessed people from dominant culture who have hide true-selves at work. How do we engage them?
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Approach with understanding, as we are not looking to eradicate, but to create space for other people to exist as full selves
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Approach people with realities of how they feel and helping understand that you are not being attacked, but underlying systems are
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