Diversity to me means differences. When I look at you, you are different from me, when you look at me, I'm different from you. But there's also several differences that we don't see that we we may not be aware of. And that's what diversity is, to me it is just differences; not just black or white or Hispanic, it is beyond race. It includes everything like veterans, individuals with disabilities, individuals who have a different sexual orientation, all of those things to me represent diversity. And when you don't have all of that in your work environment, or even in your personal life, you really haven't experienced the true experience of living on this earth. 

People like to put diversity and inclusion together and like to work on the diversity part but they don't want to work on the inclusion part. To me, inclusion specifically relates to making an individual comfortable in their skin and in an environment and that doesn't happen too easily. I can tell you, it's very difficult for me to be comfortable in my skin in a lot of venues because of where I've been and what I've been able to accomplish in my roles of employment. Not only was I the only when I was in college, but I've also been the only pretty much all my life because of being in leadership roles. I’ve walked into meetings, and I might be the only African American person sitting in the room, not just the only African American female, the only African American. I think that we spend too much time talking about, “oh, we know we have all these differences”, but we don't spend enough time ensuring that a person is comfortable in their skin and with who they are. We don't spend enough time ensuring that when we have a Muslim student who is attending our school, that they feel comfortable wearing their hijab, or whatever way that they want to do to express themselves. Or to ensure that we don't schedule testing on a religious holiday that may be important is to someone else – may not be important to you, but it's very important to someone else. I think sometimes we spend so much time focusing on race that we forget the details of the other individuals who are underrepresented.

Social justice and equity to me are kind of similar in nature. I'm a social justice advocate and I'm going to go out there and I'm going to fight for individuals to have a voice. And I think that's what social justice is, advocating that justice is provided to individuals who are not privileged. A lot of times individuals are uncomfortable with even the conversation of social justice or any ism, and it becomes a problem because it automatically puts individuals on the defensive. This morning, I was in a meeting and we were discussing our culture and how some things are an example of institutionalized racism. Immediately, individuals backed up and you could see their opposition to the topic based on their body language they exhibited. I would think that by now, individuals understand that institutionalized racism is not focused on an individual; it is something that is engraved in an organization’s policies, their structure, how they manage things. It is not about an individual. So to take that personally, it just tells me we still have a lot of educating to do because that's not what institutionalized racism means. There should be no reason for you to be offended because the term is used. One individual even said, “well, that's just a strong term to use.” And so my response, because I am a social justice advocate, was “it may very well be a strong term to use, but it's important that when we have these types of concerns surface, we don’t just sweep them under the rug and act like they don't exist.” It's not an individual that is perpetuating this instance, it is the institution that's perpetuating. You're not going to point out one person and say that it's all their fault that this is still going on – it is the institution.

I feel like a lot of the time, I'm in the position of educating people. I made that decision early on in my post-secondary years. Instead of me being angry about someone saying “Deirdre, can I touch your hair?”, I finally had to come to the conclusion that maybe they just have not been around anybody like me. I didn't attend a school where there was going to be a lot of representation. Now, Central Michigan right now is a very diverse school, but not when I was there.

The best example that I think of when I talk about equity is when you have one person on this side that is worth “A” and a person on the other side that is worth “A”, then they should be treated the same, paid the same, given the same privileges, have the same office space, have the same ability to express who they are, what they believe and have a place at the table. Equity means that when Kelsey walks in a room and Deirdre walks into the same room, I open my mouth, people listen. And when Kelsey opens her mouth, people listen. When you look at Kelsey’s paycheck and she's in the same job that Deirdre is in, we better be getting paid the same as Kevin or Martin or Michael. And that's not happening. 

I just hope that one day everyone has a sensitivity to differences. If we don't accept that we're different and recognize that we have to be sensitive that someone may not be or act like you, may not want to do the same things you do, talk the way you do, or interact the way you do, we will never be able to move ahead in this society.