Performative deference to under-represented and marginalized groups is not equity, inclusion or justice

Should we recognize our positionality when we engage conversations and undertake actions to advance justice? Yes.

Should under-represented groups have voice in the conversations about our own marginalization and exclusion? Yes.

And there’s a difference between performative deference to under-represented and marginalized groups and owning the responsibility to transform unjust systems and structures.

The essential aspect of positionality that I all too often see “dropped” even as people use the term is the most basic: that positionality describes our location in a community. That means that we need to acknowledge and address the gateways of access to experience and knowledge within that community, not just shrug when “I don’t know because I’m just…” (which is a way I hear people describe being white, wealthy, male, heterosexual, cisgender – and other identities that our systems treat as typical or privileged).

I will likely never know what it’s like to be called the n-word in my lifetime. And that’s not the point. In fact, I believe many of us share the goal that no more people should ever know what that’s like. I need to stand up against the n-word and other slurs, from my position, not despite or only when my coordinates are in the direct path of this slur. I need to stand up for justice always with my perfectly partial knowledge, practicing chutzpah and humility (thank you, Parker Palmer).