and where exactly did you have in mind?

Because it’s not about wanting the thing, the person, the career, the money.

But where is it supposed to land?

—

A very long time ago, because it was 2019 and we all know that was an era which feels closer to the 60s than to our current day reality, that’s how much has changed, I got into an argument about inclusion at the workplace.

My provocative stance was that anyone not a cis male, had no benefit from any numbers game or intention from a company to hire more inclusively.
Because a workforce was a reflection of how much the culture there can absorb.

Focusing on introducing different employees would only result in them being spat out by “the system” immediately, or result into very unhappy newly introduced employees.
Because they would not be accepted, and be confronted with not being a cis  white male every day.

My firm stance was that an inclusive workforce is a result of a very hard to achieve culture change, and cannot and should not be forced from the outside in by just adding a new type of co-worker.

They disagreed with me, and thought I was letting companies off too lightly. That my opinion, although they understood it was coming from a good heart, but that it was unhelpful, in this matter.
And ever since I have wondered if I am in all actuality a cis white horrible female….

But come different era 2025 and I think No!
I mean yes of course, I could still be a horrible cis white female. After all villains are seldom accurate in their assessment of themselves.
But I do still stand by what I said in 2019.

I think it is dangerously simplistic to think the solution to getting a more diverse inclusive society lies in forcing culturally diverse people into reluctant, 50s-time capsule, male dominated environments.
As if we can flood them into submission.

Because if those environments were welcoming to people of diverse backgrounds?
They’d have them!
Marginalized people are not like an extinct species, where you would have to manually reintroduce them.

We all know very well where we are loved, and where we are not.
It is our number 1 survival skill.

In other words, instead of focusing on the new people coming in, or setting quota for how high (or typically, how low) a percentage needs to be non-male or non-caucasian;
The focus needs to be on the people already there.
Or, in a bit more abstract way, on the culture currently existing within the company.

Because they are the reason the workforce is white and male;
You’re looking for ghosts, if you think focusing on new imaginary employees will change anything.

And this all reminds me of someone whom I think must have fallen from grace one way or another, I don’t really keep up, but he had a domineering way of treating people that was controversial even back in the day.
So I think somewhere along the way, he fell (figuratively) and will not be as popular now anymore.

But that person is Dr.Phil.
From whom I did pick up a few quotes that I use probably more frequently than I should.

One of them was when he asked an abusive partner or parent:
“How much fun do you think it is living with you?”
In an attempt to open their eyes that it was of course, absolutely horrendous.

The abusive partner or parent, similarly to the cis-male workforce from the earlier example, was lacking in skills that are absolutely vital in navigating and building healthy relationships!
You cannot solve that by giving therapy to the abused partner, anymore than you can make a workforce more inclusive by targeting the new employees.

And this is just us talking about people, currently.
But if that’s your thing you can even imagine money, good fortune, creative spirits, and God themselves, having a consciousness that gets to choose!
What do you think they will choose?
Are you offering a place where they will feel at home?
A place where they are taken care of, and do not have to bring something to you, or prove their use or validate their existence?

The things you say you want, and the people that you think should be in your life but that have been absent from it, as if you’re an all male environment being forced by HR to diversify.

Ask yourself;
Where is the culture of YOU, behaving toxically toward them?
In word, in thought, in deed, in a house overflowing with clutter that would feel welcome to no one….
Are you preparing for the arrival of those events you say you want?

The bible says to dig your ditches, even when there is no rain (abundance, good fortune) in sight!
Are you digging your ditches? 

If the doorbell rang now, and it was the person or the delivery you have been wishing for;
Would they be welcomed with a big smile, an open heart, and ample space and time to accommodate and attend to them ?

Are you ready, not just in any, but in every way?

~Suzanne Beenackers
Catacombe
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