Reply to SWS - You are only invited if you’re Black

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Reply to "SWS - You are only invited if you’re Black"

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[quote=Anonymous]I think one of the issues here is that this is a social event, and it's being promoted by the PTA, and it appears to exclude people not in that affinity group. These might seem like subtle issues, but if your focus is inclusion, it matters.

I used to work at a company that handled this issue really well. We had tons of affinity groups -- for women, for parents, for black people, AAPI, Native, LGBTQ+, etc. The company had a very well-publicized policy that if you wanted to start an affinity group based on anything as long as it was legal and didn't violate company policy, you could. So there were lots.

Affinity groups had events all the time, and often those events were just "for" people in the event. Especially if it was an event to talk about their experiences or to discuss challenges. No one felt excluded, because if you weren't in that group, it would be weird and awkward for you to go to an event where people discuss something very specific to them that you can't relate to. No frustrations.

But also the company often had celebratory social events that might focus on one of these groups -- a Pride happy hour, an event to celebrate women leaders at the company on International Women's Day, events celebrating black, AAPI, latino employees during times of the year that are meaningful to those groups. And the company would partner with the affinity groups to do these events, which ensured that the events were appropriate and appreciated by these groups. But everyone was invited, because it was a company-sponsored event.

So it was normal to get notices about, say, an affinity group holding monthly lunches for moms to discuss work-life issues, because a group of moms at the company wanted that and created the group. But if the company had a Mothers Day celebration, everyone in the company was welcome.

It's not that hard, when you think about it. It just requires asking what your goals are with any given initiative and making sure the program AND the messaging match that goal. I think SWS has failed on that here, personally.[/quote]

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