Hello! I am Dr. Kanika. I’m a Board certified Internal Medicine Physician and a Diversity Consultant. I specialize in diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, implicit bias trainings and implementation for organizations committed to creating more opportunities for communities of color. I have spent the majority of my professional life in healthcare organizations doing diversity, equity and inclusion work.
There are many barriers that prevent organizations from moving forward with implementing effective diversity, equity and inclusion policies within their organizations. The five most common diversity, equity and inclusion barriers that I see are lack of leadership buy in, lack of employee buy in, the expectation of uncompensated labor by minority team members, centering of whiteness and the belief that possessing biases is the same as being racist. These are barriers that must be identified and addressed in order to have meaningful, intentional action.
#1 – Lack of Leadership Buy-In
Meaningful change from Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives only happens when there is leadership buy-in. If there is not leadership commitment then diversity, equity and inclusion work will not receive the support that it needs to make a meaningful impact. This requires funding for initiatives identified as meaningful to the organization and funding for employees who will be doing the work.
#2 – Lack of Employee Buy-In
Equally as important as leadership buy-in is employee buy-in. Every organization will have some employees who do not believe that diversity, equity and inclusion work is important. They will see efforts and trainings pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion as taking away from their real work. It is not possible to change the culture of an organization without employees having an understanding of the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion work and how it is imperative to the success of the organization.
#3 – Emotional labor expected of Minority team Members
A frequent barrier to successful diversity, equity and inclusion policy implementation is that within many organizations, the heavy lifting of diversity, equity and inclusion work is disproportionately done by minority team members in addition to their normal job responsibilities. Although the tendency to look to current team members is understandable, it is also unfortunate. Emotional labor occurs when people who are minorities are constantly placed into positions where they have to explain racism and white supremacy and systemic racism to white people.
#4 – Centering of Whiteness
Another very prominent barrier to getting DEI in motion is the centering of whiteness. Centering of whiteness is when people of European dissent center the discussion around themselves and frame their understanding of behavior and policies that may be harmful to minority employees around their experiences. Due to whiteness being the norm, it is the measuring stick by which all standards are set as one determines what is appropriate or not appropriate from concepts of timeliness and professionalism to communication styles. What we consider ‘standards’ are arbitrary rules of engagement that have been set by white people based upon their cultural norms and then set as the bar that everyone else must aspire to.
#5 – Belief that Bias equals Racism
The final barrier that is incredibly problematic to successful diversity, equity and inclusion work is the belief that bias is the same as racism. They are not the same. All individuals have biases. It is impossible to be raised in any culture or society and not have biases. Possessing biases is not the same as being racist. Most biases are unconscious or implicit and not immediately clear to the individual who has these biases. Racism is typically a more overt phenomenon where an individual thinks that they are superior simply due to the color of their skin or their origins of birth. This belief that Bias equals racism prevents many white people from even considering that they may have biases that may be negatively impacting their colleagues, due to their fear that they may be considered racist. This barrier prevents employees and organizations from being able to move forward and do the hard work of building inclusive environments.
Understanding the most common barriers in your organization is only one of many steps that an organization must be prepared to take in order to create truly diverse, equitable and inclusive environments. I work with organizations who are committed to investing resources in creating more opportunities for communities of color. I specialize in diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, implicit bias trainings and implementation. Click here to set up a meeting so that we can discuss how I can help your organization.
——————————————————————————————————————————
Kanika Sims, MD, MPH, is a Physician, Health Equity + Workplace Inclusion Strategist and author of “Diversity Is Not a Dirty Word: Harnessing the Power of Inclusion to Create Anti-racist Organizations.”
