The Token

Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Organization

Crystal Byrd Farmer

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780865719514
• eBook ISBN: 9781771423403
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

Meet the new Black friend you never had

As a Black organizer, community, business, and organization leaders often ask: "How do I get diversity in my group?" The thing is, the work is real, but it's a minefield out there. And even progressive leaders can still, perhaps unknowingly, be racist and uphold oppressive systems.

In The Token, your new token Black friend, Crystal Byrd Farmer, acts as the bridge between majority white organizations that are dedicated to social justice and "diverse" people in community they want to recruit, across identities of race, LGBTQ, education, socioeconomic status, and disability.

With a blunt style that pulls no punches, Crystal tells you how it is, calling you out on tokenism, while extending a hand to help your organization make real transformative change toward diversity and inclusion. Coverage includes:

• What marginalized people experience and what they need to feel safe and comfortable in order to succeed
• Doing "The Work" – how to have deep conversations with your membership about the reality of bias, privilege, and microaggressions
• Practical exercises and discussion questions
• How to choose appropriate meeting locations and establish ground rules, when to bring in outside help, and how to recruit support within your organization
• Strategies on how to talk to friends who are resistant to progressive ideas.

This no-nonsense, provocative, humorous, and accessible guide is for all well-meaning people leading progressive organizations who acknowledge the need for diversity but don't know where to start.

AWARDS

• SILVER | 2021 Living Now Book Awards | Social Activism / Charity

1

I’m Your New Black Friend

Hi, I’m Crystal. I’m a Token, which means I often show up in communities as the only Black person. I’m not just Black: I’m a woman, bisexual, autistic, and disabled, and sometimes I’m the only one in all of those categories. When we talk about wanting diversity in an organization, we mean we want people who have different types of identity. That’s hard to do, because while our differences make us special, our similarities make us comfortable.

You like being comfortable. You are part of a community or workplace, and you probably have a majority of certain identities in your membership. In the US and Western Europe, most organizations are majority white, educated, and middle-class. When you are in the majority, you make the rules, which means moving through the world is easier for you. When someone who is not in the majority tries to move through the same world, they may have difficulty. That’s why those people are called marginalized. They live their lives in the asterisks and footnotes of majority culture. I’m here to explain what the marginalized people in your community experience, and how you can make your organization more comfortable for them.

Whether you are organizing vegans, moms, or local history buffs, you probably want diversity. You heard somewhere that diversity is great, and you’ve tried to recruit people who don’t look like you. You’re really passionate about your community, but you’re confused why people from [insert marginalized group here] never come out or apply. That’s why I’m here. I’ve spent all of my life in community. From engineers to kinksters, Methodists to polyamorists, I’ve been a Token in many different situations. At some point I accepted the Crown of Tokenism and ran with it. I’ve spent my time trying to increase diversity in different organizations as well as speaking and writing about it. I’m usually the bearer of bad news, because diversity is less about the people you’re attracting than it is about you—your values, your culture, and your community.

Here are three steps towards making your organization more diverse:

1. Prepare your community

2. Do The Work

3. Create culture conscious spaces

In order to transform into an organization that is more comfortable to marginalized people, you must do what I call The Work. The Work is called anti-racism or anti-oppression work because you are undoing power imbalances to lift up the marginalized voices in your community. I describe how to get prepared for The Work in the first part of this book. In the second part, I talk about the basics of privilege, bias, and microaggressions. Each section ends with discussion questions to help your members start doing The Work. Finally, I give practical ways that you can create meeting spaces that are more comfortable for everyone.

You may wonder, “Why should I change our community in the name of diversity? Our community is great, and great people will be attracted to it!” The truth is that access is a privilege. If you are privileged, you don’t naturally see the obstacles marginalized people face in their everyday lives. You may have heard things about Black people getting stopped by police more often or being followed around stores. Whether you believe those things happen or not, ethnic minorities have a different experience of the world. It’s a similar story for queer people, people with disabilities, religious minorities, and immigrants. Lack of access is not just in our heads—it has been researched and documented by scholars and YouTubers. The stress from lack of access makes showing up in a community difficult. We have to spend energy coping with implicit bias and microaggressions. When we use all of our energy, we have less energy to do the things we want to do. We might only show a part of ourselves, or we might not show up at all.

You may think, “I already know this! I’m a great ally!” Stay tuned. Even people who think they are helping are sometimes causing harm. I find this to be true when we cross categories of marginalization (sometimes called intersectionality). For instance, you may be white and identify as queer, which leads you to feel empathy for Black people because you have been denied some civil rights. The truth is there could be ways you are alienating your Black members even with some shared experiences. I wrote this book for you, too.

I understand Token is a negative term. In the context of this book, I’m using it to identify the people in your organization who may feel left out because of their identity. I don’t recommend calling them Tokens to their faces, but you should ask for their input during this process.

If you are a Token, God bless you. The work you are doing will be thankless and hard. This book will help you to talk to your community’s leadership so you don’t tear your hair out. Before you start, I want you to build layers of support inside and outside your community. Use your self-care tools, and know that it is OK to take a break or stop the work completely. No work in community is worth your peace of mind.

There’s a saying in the autistic community: If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism. When you finish this book, you’ll have met one Black, queer, autistic woman with opinions. While I hope my experiences translate across space and time, I don’t assume they will always fit your situation. Test my theories on your marginalized friends (with consent). If you don’t have any, start paying people to educate you. If you’re going to be a good leader, you need people who can be honest with you while sparing your feelings.

More on terminology: Why is Black capitalized? A friend started doing it on social media, and I liked it. Black is an identity, not just a social construct. Many white people don’t believe they are white, so they don’t get a capital letter. Why use the word queer? It’s easier than spelling LGBTQ+, but that’s exactly the community I’m referring to. What about disabled vs person with disability? I don’t have a preference, but people say they prefer person with disability, unless they’re autistic. If you’ve already started writing me a letter about all that, keep your pen handy.

Why aren’t you using the terms people of color (POC) or Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)? I am Black and not a representative of other people of color, which could include Latinx or Hispanic, Asian, African, Indigenous, and everyone else who does not pass as white on a regular basis. While I am sure that my tips are relevant and useful to all those groups, I can only speak with authority on those identities I am familiar with.

Furthermore, there is an eagerness on the side of progressives to lump Black people in with other POCs. While many countries experienced the dark legacy of colonization, people of the African diaspora are a unique case. The things that will create an inclusive environment for Black people are not always the same for other people of color. In this book, I encourage you to think about how to include Black people in your community instead of congratulating yourself because you have some people of color. Other marginalized people—especially the ones in your community—can help you understand the challenges unique to them.

Finally, I am always learning, but I’m a little stubborn. I grew up in a time where bisexuality meant attraction to two genders and transgender was a one-way ticket. Now, people refer to multiple genders and a nonbinary spectrum. Language and culture change, and I try to use words that are acceptable in the current time. There may be a point where this book is both outdated and problematic. Call me out or call me in, but I fully believe that problematic writing can be used for good. If my language doesn’t work for you, write your own book.

Preparing for Change

When I worked in corporate America, I felt like I was judged more harshly than my peers. I was an engineer, so not only was I often the only Black person on my team, I was usually the only woman. When I disagreed with my boss, I was accused of being insubordinate. When I took sick days to care for my daughter, I was assumed to be slacking. When I didn’t waste time gossiping, I was told I was not a team player. Many well-intentioned HR managers have welcomed marginalized people with the vision of a diverse organization, but they don’t actually want diversity. They want the appearance of diversity while everyone conforms to white middle-class culture. In my job interviews, I used to ask, “What is the diversity like?” The most revealing answer was from a female Asian engineer, who immediately said, “We don’t have a problem with diversity.” Community organizations often react the same way.

When I talk about doing The Work, I mean the process of examining your internal beliefs about your world and the marginalized people you encounter. You have to learn what your biases are in order to counteract them. You have to understand your culture to help others adapt to it. You have to acknowledge your privilege to counterbalance it. If you are able to see the way your life differs from the lives of marginalized people, you are more able to help them feel more welcome and included.

The simple act of asking, “Is our community diverse?” will spark both movement and resistance in members of your organization. Prepare to engage with personal conversations, group discussions, and, if necessary, outside facilitators. You need to know who will help and who will hurt your efforts. The next two chapters talk about your team members and the resistance—people who will oppose you along the way. If you already feel overwhelmed, consider hiring a diversity consultant or facilitator. This is only the first wave. Once you start making changes, you will have even stronger responses to integrate and resolve.

2

Team Members

Don’t do The Work alone. When you are trying to enact change in your community, it helps to have different types of people on your team.

Cocreators

Talk to your leadership about your desire for diversity. Try to get the majority of them on board before starting The Work. This may mean intense conversations about why it’s important and what your vision is. Your cocreators don’t need to be “woke” or experts on marginalization, but they should be open to the idea of improving the organization. Ideally, you want people with different strengths on your team: someone who can inspire people by painting a vision, someone who can talk extemporaneously about goals, someone who can respond to emails from concerned members, and someone who can facilitate conflict in the moment. If only one person fits all of those, send the rest to leadership development. If you have leaders with different years of experience, make sure that you have a mix of Young Turks and old hats in agreement. A united leader ship is key to making changes more palatable to the community. If members identify warring cohorts in leadership, they will start thinking in terms of “us” versus “them,” and your efforts will be less effective.

Tokens

Identify the people who are “one of the only ones,” and talk to them about your plans. Don’t engage them so they can educate you or encourage you. If you would ask me, I’d say it’s too hard and you’re going to fail. What you want to do is tell your Tokens that you will be talking more about diversity in your community, you anticipate some changes in policies, and you will shield them from the worst of your community members’ reactions. If your Tokens are in leadership positions, discuss the same considerations and ensure that they have a support system of people that identify as they do.

My favorite type of interaction is when privileged people come up to me and tell me how grateful they are for what I’m doing. I’m shining a light on the dark world of oppression. The reality is that most groups never get The Work done. They leave diversity training feeling like they are the good guys, but they usually don’t do what I’ve asked them to do and make systemic change. I’m shining a light, but all too often you’re taking the flashlight and turning it off.

Cheerleaders

It’s helpful to involve people outside your community who know you well. These are people you can vent to and get advice from, but they don’t have decision-making power in your organization. You should have a close relationship with these people before you start. Do not choose a marginalized person just because they are in the category you want to target. Leaders tend to depend on marginalized people to carry the emotional load for them while doing The Work. They see such marginalized people not as experts in their chosen field, but as expert...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. I’m Your New Black Friend
• Preparing for Change
• Doing The Work
• Creating Culture Conscious Meetings
• Limits to Inclusion—It’s Not About You Until It Is
• Tools and Resources
• Index
• About the Author
• About New Society Publishers