Every month I take all the sarcastic thoughts I have or articles I have written or found, and turn them into a cover of a fake magazine.
Don’t stand up for hair
Complaining about unprofessional hair is professional if the person is black
As I was looking for the magazine cover for this week I found this lovely photo (thanks to Jojo). It reminded me of all the times I see on Twitter and LinkedIn where black women complain about being told they have “unprofessional” hair. That’s why I decided to put it in.
No need for nuance
Why you should make decisions about diversity even without lived experience
I recently gave my “Improving Diversity and Inclusion in Senior Leadership” workshop at eResearch NZ 2022. The audience was genuine and lovely, and the feedback was great. What I heard was that people were simply unaware of the nuances around diversity and inclusion and had their minds blown when they found out about it. And they loved the practical tips provided in the workshop. It reminded me that many people are trying to make these decisions without truly understanding diversity and inclusion.
Strategy session
How to write DEI strategies to deny & discourage diversity advocates
Recently the UKRI released a draft EDI strategy and asked for feedback. Of course I provided my feedback. What I found was that the strategy was overly complicated, difficult to read and didn’t answer the underlying question that marginalised people really want to know: “Do the senior leaders really mean it, or is this just performative?”
Panel diversity
How you can ignore complaints when you don’t care but want to pretend that you do
I wrote an article on one way of calling out a panel in your industry or academic circle that seems to be doing a poor job of diversity. It is tricky, but the key fact is to recognise it is difficult to identify people from “invisible” marginalised groups but still respectfully ask for improvement.
