Let’s Talk About It: Race and Inclusivity

As communications professionals and as people living and working together in a society we need to talk about the realities of race and inclusivity. And in today’s episode we do just that.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane:

Thank you for joining us for another episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you today?

Karen Swim, APR:

Hello, Michelle. I'm doing great. So glad to be back from our little one week break. How are you doing?

Michelle Kane:

Yes, I'm well, thanks. Yes, it was, you know, even the things you love the most, it's always nice to have a little break, but yeah, I'm glad to be back at it, and talk with you today. And today we're going to talk a little bit about race because a lot of the work we do, we have to counsel our clients on how to handle situations, diversity programs, all that kind of stuff. And let's face it at the end of June, the Supremes dropped some nasty bits. So it gave us a lot to talk about. That was quite the day, June 30th. I'm working and listening to them, I'm like, oh, great. What now? Oh, wonderful. So…

Karen Swim, APR:

Well, the Supreme Court decision has certainly ignited a lot of discussion and reaction. In addition to that, without surprise, social media served up another little bit of scandal. But it has, I believe that it has also launched some very beneficial conversations. Kristen Bell, who I love as an actress had a dinner party and shared a picture of who was at the dinner party. And that has just invited a lot of criticism about the lack of diversity that was at that dinner. And so we want to unpack this and talk about, we just, you know, sometimes you have to confront this thing that we don't like to talk about. Talking about race is uncomfortable. It's not the fun topic, it's not the light topic, but as communicators and just as entrepreneurs and people in business, it's an issue that we should not be shying away from. And I believe that we have to have these discussions and we have to have an understanding, and we have to do our part if we are going to counsel clients to do the same.

Michelle Kane:

Agree, agree. And, also I think in recent weeks, and I sadly do not recall the entities, but I think there were three or four corporations who just let go their heads of diversity. I mean, really, what gives? And so, it's really disturbing. It's concerning and we definitely have to be conscious of it so that we can both help counsel clients and really just make our own mark.

Karen Swim, APR:

I heard the word that we live in post-racial America. That is the biggest lie that I've ever heard in my life. So let's clear that up. And let's talk about, again, when we talk about race and we talk about diversity, I want to remind you all of another forgotten class of people. And those are people that have visible and hidden disabilities. Yes. So we, if we're really talking about being inclusive as a society, we have to look at all of these factors and we have to make it okay for people to inhabit these spaces. What do I mean by that? Last week there's a Latino family that lives on my block. My neighborhood, my particular block is super diverse. It's really weird in Michigan to have a block that is so diverse, thank you auto companies for bringing people from other countries to live on my street because yeah, we are a little United Nations here and I love it.

So there's a little girl - a lot of the kids come down and they ride their bikes. I have kids on either side of me and the little girl has a dog that I've met and I've met her family and I know that she speaks Spanish. So we were talking about something and I said something to her in Spanish, and she answered me in English and I said something else to her in Spanish, and she answered me in English. Now, these roles are usually reversed. Because I was usually the one that can understand the Spanish fast enough, but can't always get my words out fast enough, so I'll answer in English. And she said to me that it felt weird to speak Spanish outside of the house, because when our family came here from Mexico, her parents instructed them as they were learning English, to not speak Spanish outside of the home.

That was heartbreaking to me because I know so many Spanish speaking Americans that feel that way and feel like they will be judged and treated differently. And they're not wrong because I've experienced this myself. When I’m in the park walking and speaking Spanish to my dog, and people pass me by and they are mean to me because I'm speaking in another language. So I know that this is true, this is not okay. So when you say post-racial America, when people are afraid to own their own culture, speak in a language that is other than English, by the way, you want to know how many people in the world speak Spanish? We always want to think that English is the dominant language, Spanish is spoken all over the world. There is no shame in having this as a second language. And people should not be embarrassed to speak in their first language in public. Right. That is painful.

Michelle Kane:

Yeah. Yeah. And it's a tradition that's been handed down through the centuries. You know, we did it to Germans, we did it to Japanese, we did it to all kinds of people. And it's, I don't know where this insecurity comes from. No, actually I do. It's a lot of these problems in our society come back to fear.

Karen Swim, APR:

Yes.

Michelle Kane:

Fear of, of the quote unquote other fear of, well, how's that going to affect my security? And you can't lie the societal forces around us sometimes they play into that to their favor. I was so internally angry over the weekend when I got wind that my former church is doing a culture and civility series. And I'm like, oh, here we go. Don't go there. And the current pastor said, “Okay, in Hollyweird now they have certain quotas to be considered for an Oscar.” And I know where he was going. He was going against the LGBTQ community. So I thought, you know what, let me look this up because I'm, I'm 99% sure he is dead wrong. I'm like, no, it's because of #Oscarssowhite - that's why if you weren't, if you were any bit mature and intelligent and loving as Jesus wanted you to be, you would realize that.

Karen Swim, APR:

There is this attitude that somehow being inclusive is tied into extreme woke. And we've made that an evil thing. But let me be really clear with our communicators and with our business people, diversity does not just happen. You have to be so intentional about inviting people into your spaces. So the affirmative action piece is really distressing. Not because I believe that you should be less intelligent and get accepted into these spaces, but because there again, there has to be some accountability for being intentional about bringing diversity into a space. And now, rightfully so, the legacy system is being challenged.

Michelle Kane:

Good,

Karen Swim, APR:

I find it pretty disgusting to be honest with you, that in this day and age that we're saying that just because your parents went to a place that you have a right to be in that same place. And that's what you considered when that definitely favors one class of people. And that's wealthy white people. And so you're ruling out so many people that don't fit into that, which is the majority of people. Can we be honest about that? Because wealthy white Americans are a small percentage of our overall society. So you're leaving out others and that's not okay. You're benefiting a class of people just because their parents went there. That shouldn't be a thing for education, whether it's private education or not, it just should not be a thing. People have the ability to enter a school without any of this. However, we haven't done a good job of making education equitable.

So challenge yourself, institutions, to think about what you're going to do to make these spaces more diversified. And that includes with your teaching staff, because those are overwhelmingly slanted as well. And so we need to be intentional. I know the Kristen Bell thing seems different and people are saying, well, you know, there's this group of people that are like, well, these are her friends, that's fine. However, let's remember that in this group of people, they belong to an industry. You want to know what happens when people within an industry get together? It's networking. Deals are done. This is where power is exchanged and shared. And when that power remains with a class of people, we never change. We never become diversified. This is true of Hollywood.

It's true of so many industries where deals are being made. You only have the same type of people in a room, whether it's on a golf course, at a country club, at a chamber meeting. If you don't have diversity in the room, guess what happens? You never diversify. We have to be the ones as communicators to guide our clients into not giving up on to on DEI and B, but to be very, very intentional and to hold themselves accountable for opening the door for people that are not all of the same race, gender, and ability. We have to, we have to do that. We owe it. This is something that, again, this has nothing to do with woke and this has to do with humanity. It has to do with making us better. And guess what, I could cite you statistics all day long on how all of these things actually benefit your bottom line as a corporation. Why wouldn't you want to do something that leads to employees being more engaged, more loyal to your company and making more money for your corporation? It would, if you look at it from that perspective, like, this is good business. You're stupid not to put some effort and some muscle behind diversity.

Michelle Kane:

You are so correct. And you know, we battle that in our hyperlocal chamber. It is Whitey McWhiteville around here. They are welcoming communities. It just isn't that diverse. Now, at the same time, we have a significant batch of businesses that are Hispanic owned. And it is a struggle to get these communities, you know, like how do we engage the Hispanic business leaders? You don't want to create like a, a little offshoot of it. You don't want to say, well, here's the Hispanic chapter. No. I mean, we want you to come on in. How do you do that without being too pandering or where there's no animosity. But I think too, it's just pulling back big picture, the white community, so to speak, has been, let's face it, in charge for a very, very long time, specifically white males.

And it is interesting to see how it then distills into fear of, oh, I, I might lose my footing. And I'm not saying that this is always conscious. Sometimes it is for sure. I think it's been so ingrained. And it's like, you know, really? What's the worst that can happen to you? I mean, if I'm applying to a school, I want to be, I want it to be on my merits. If I don't get it, fine. If someone else gets it great. I, who, who cares? Who? That's could just be me. For me, I want to learn, I want to know why things happen. I want to know real history that doesn't, as you know, those doing the the bastardization of the word woke would say, “That's going to make me feel better about myself.”

No, it's going to make me want to do better and realize what someone's sitting across from me, what their story is. I don't know. I mean, I am, but two or three generations away from a people that were, they were attempted to be murdered and exterminated in Ireland. So I I get it a little bit. And I really believe that that generational knowledge comes with you. So it's really concerning. It's always riled me when I see things happen that are just unfair and unjust just because of who you are, what faith you practice, what language you speak. I mean, thank God Gaelic is having a comeback just because of the cultural value of it. It's just kind of fun. But my goodness, for a while, if you were in Ireland in the 1700’s and you wanted to speak your native tongue, you’d be killed.

Karen Swim, APR:

I agree.

Michelle Kane:

Sorry, we'll bring it back to modern times.

Karen Swim, APR:

<Laugh> History will bear out that Yeah, this racial reckoning in America is nothing new. No, it really sadly is not. And there have been so many different ethnicities of people who have been oppressed and who have been made to feel shame and who have been forced to fit into this homogenous view of what it means to be an American. And I mean, that is really sad because again, going back to humanity, you, you, humankind is beautiful. I love that we're not all the same. I love that we all come from different backgrounds. I love that. I love that we have all these beautiful different traditions that we can share with one another. And we should be able to live in a world where we view people as people. We are not there yet. And so no, as communicators, I think, you know, some of the things that we can own and we can do is that we can make sure that we have messaging that is inclusive, that we make sure that even for our media relations efforts that we put together talking points that are inclusive so that the media says the right things about what our clients are doing.

Perfect example. Don't say “special needs kids,” you would say “children with disabilities” - it's people first language. You want to respect that they're not their disability. That's not what identifies them. They're a human being that has a disability. And I even hate the word disability these days because I believe that we all have different abilities. I believe that none of us is perfect. And I believe that because it's the truth. Not a single person is perfect. We all have something I need reading glasses. Some people need glasses all the time. That means that you don't have perfect eyesight. What does that mean? That means that you have to be accommodated.

That means if you're a kid in school and your vision is not good, that you may need to sit closer in class. So we need to start thinking about, again, all of these ways that we're different and learning how to open up our spaces to make room for everyone. I think it's also important in our messaging that we don't take for granted. And humor can get really tricky, by the way. Don't take for granted that everyone will share the humor or get the inside joke. Again, people who are not native English speakers often struggle with that because they miss the context. They hear the laughter, but don't quite understand how. That's funny. So if you're using humor in your messaging, you want to be mindful about who your publics are and make sure that your message will not be lost because it's targeted to a very narrow group of people.

So I, you know, these are things that we definitely can know and we can also, you know, if you do internal comms, you have an opportunity to work side by side with HR on making sure that things are inclusive internally. Now I get that we're not involved in the trainings and things that can happen, but companies definitely can be intentional. And as a communicator, you need to stand for that and insist that things are not put together. Strategies are not put together. Messaging is not developed, branding is not developed from a very narrow lens, but that you're looking at it from various perspectives to ensure that what you're trying to say is really what you're going to say.

Michelle Kane:

Yeah. And honestly, at the crux of it, at the center of it, this is how we should always look at communications. If we truly know who our audiences are, you want to be respectful of them, their backgrounds. We're certainly not saying that you should be afraid to say anything. It's just like, okay, well who's in my audience? Whether it's internal or external. Okay. How might this message land with them? Keeping in mind too, just the current temperature and tone of our society something that might have hit a little differently 10 years ago is not going to hit the same right now. So we know you're all smart, we know you get this, but it's good to talk about this. And I think too, over time, and because as a nation we've not done a great job at this, is because we really haven't had the conversations. We haven't had the hard conversations of, oh, well gosh, what was that really like for you? Because I need to learn. And that doesn't matter if you have gender, race, physical issues - until you've truly walked in someone's shoes, you can't.

Karen Swim, APR:

It's absolutely true. And yeah, I mean, we say this, we're addressing this topic because again, as communicators, it's important for us to tackle and to turn over these things and to have these discussions and make having these discussions be very normal. I think. You know, someone says to me, “Hey, you know that I struggle with this when people do this and I feel a little left out of that space,” that drives awareness for me and helps me to do my part to make things more inclusive. Because just because I am a black woman in America does not mean that I get to take a pass on intentionally driving toward diversity. I do not get that pass. I have a responsibility to be inclusive as well. And I have a responsibility, just like all of you, to our clients. But here's the thing, clearly we have work to do because we're not there yet. And so, no matter how smart you think you are and how open you think you are and how diverse you think you are, we're not there. We're just not there. That is our reality. And this again, has nothing to do with political agendas. It has nothing to do with wokeness. This is about humanity and it's about being effective at our jobs and helping our clients to be effective at what they're doing as well.

Michelle Kane:

And you know what, it's so much better to try to have the conversations and maybe step in it and move forward from there than to not have the conversations at all or not have the awareness at all.

Karen Swim, APR:

Agree. I mean, as communicators, we cannot be shy about bringing up the hard stuff. We have to address hard stuff all the time. We have to ask clients uncomfortable questions because we don't want things to come out later that harm our efforts. I've said to clients, like, this panel does not work, there's zero diversity. You have a bunch of men that are all the same race. Like, this is not okay. And so I think we have to get comfortable saying those kinds of things. We have to get comfortable saying could just stop inviting black people to only speak during Black History Month.

Michelle Kane:

Oh my gosh, right.

Karen Swim, APR:

I mean, could we not do that? Yeah. I don't know. I'm saying <laugh>

Michelle Kane:

Just, just saying <laugh>. No, it's so true. And they're difficult conversations. It can feel awkward, but I think once you start having them, it feels less so. And I think you will find that it feels good. I know that sounds weird.

Karen Swim, APR:

Yes. But, and I would say please be mindful. You know, Kristen Bell, I have empathy and so let me be clear, we didn't share this story because we want to have her bashed or to have her cancelled because I'm not a fan of cancel culture. I am a fan of reconciliation and healing. But she is someone who wrote a book about diversity.

Michelle Kane:

<Laugh>

Karen Swim, APR:

She wrote a book about diversity. She advocates for diversity and then she shares a picture that's like, really? Girl, do you not have any, were they just not invited to dinner? Are there people not at the table that are missing? Maybe all the diverse people are, you know, still swimming in the pool. I, don’t know what's happening. You really missed the mark. So, yeah.

Michelle Kane:

Yeah. Did she post it to her Instagram?

Karen Swim, APR:

Oh God. She posted it to her Instagram and poor baby. She, she like a lamb to the slaughter.

Michelle Kane:

Girl, just keep her,

Karen Swim, APR:

Where's purple? Where are the purple people in your picture? ‘Cause I'm not seeing purple. I'm not seeing any color here.

Michelle Kane:

It's also like, ooh look at all of us fabulous people, especially during a writer's strike. Like really <laugh> and I, not to say, I know they're being supportive.

Karen Swim, APR:

<Laugh>. I agree. But you know, how often have we as communicators, God bless her PR people. How often have we been in that situation where we have clients that don't make the connection between who they are as a corporation or who they represent. And things that they might share publicly. I've said to clients that even when you're doing things and you have interviews that are about your personal life and it has nothing to do with the job that you hold, please remember that that job that you hold as the CEO of a company or a founder, they're intertwined. And so you want to make sure that there's alignment and you do have to be mindful of that. It doesn't mean that you should be fake and inauthentic, but it does mean, think. You have to think about these things. You can't just do things without thought. That's just not a good move. And it'll ruin the good work that you really are trying to do.

Michelle Kane:

Agree, agree. Well, that was a lot that we brought before you today. But we hope it gets you thinking and we hope that you will continue this conversation with colleagues and others and let's just keep that door of conversation open. And we appreciate you for giving us your time. We would love it if you would share this around if you found it of value. Check us out at soloprpro.com and until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.