They Would Recognize the Music
Beyond Inclusion: Ownership and Belonging on the Journey
to Pluralism
MG Kaplan
January 23, 2023
The truth is, we are becoming more and more diverse. Our racial demographics are remarkable, as we
near a point in about 20 years where only 50% of the U.S. population will be white. Although it doesn’t always seem like it, we
are also becoming more inclusive, with social attitude surveys showing a significant
improvement in tolerance and acceptance of all kinds of difference. Diversity and inclusion are not guaranteed by
each other, but they sometimes work together.
For example, gay, lesbian and bisexual people, though always present and
likely in similar numbers across time, are more visibly and practically present
in our culture (and thus we are more diverse in this tangible sense), and this
is because our culture has become more inclusive. We are more diverse by age, family/parental
status, national origin, culture, first language, and many other categories. This diversity comes from both inevitable
demographic changes but also from a more open, inclusive culture. We are making progress, but as is our history,
that progress is paralleled by a reactionary element, and given the amount of
change, the reactionary counterforce is quite powerful right now. Moreover, all of this is exacerbated by an
increasing globalization of communication via the internet and social media. We are in a period of time when change is
deep, fast, and multi-faceted, and the dynamics of human diversity are right in
the middle of it.
Thus, we need a new and more resonant path, one that doesn’t
replicate the past but instead brings us towards a more manageable place in the
future. Our patten of primarily focusing
on the inclusion of excluded groups is not enough. We should not be directing our efforts primarily
toward correcting past wrongs, though we can’t ignore them and pretend that
past wrongs have no impact today. Rather,
we must create a new vision for inclusion that speaks to more people. We can see today what happens when we
splinter, when we argue over who is the most victimized, when we polarize into
various identities. This does not mean we
shouldn’t focus on reducing bias and discrimination; in fact, we will probably
always have to take individual and societal action to create more equity,
fairness and justice. Despite progress,
there is too still too much bigotry, bias and unfairness, and we should keep
working to reduce it. However, in a larger
sense, we need a societal effort that is embraced by more people, a
socio-cultural push for pluralism, where there is room for multiple life
experiences and perspectives¾even
if these are not shared by all or even by a majority¾and where we all can see the
benefit to ourselves of our diverse society.
We need to foster not just inclusion but a sense of belonging that
emerges from pluralism, and is broadly felt.
Unfortunately, in today’s world, we fight for our viewpoint to win,
defining belonging in an insular, zero-sum sort of way.
Virtue signaling has become the norm today across the
political spectrum. We search for and
amplify every utterance that might be seen as biased to prove how wise, in
touch, and “woke” we are. Being “woke”,
which at its essence is about being aware and not in denial of bias and
bigotry, is a good thing, but not so productive when attached to notions of
being morally superior. I would rather
that more of us who define ourselves as woke would look at ourselves more closely,
and spend time trying to connect with those less aware, rather than judging
them as morally inferior. We also try to
prove our belonging to our “tribe” by spouting lies and ungrounded conspiracy
theories in a way that is cult-like, irrational, and destructive, with the focus
on “owning” the other side. I would
rather that those who want to “own the libs” would instead take ownership for
creating a diverse, inclusive society that works. This bi-partisan virtue signaling achieves
nothing, and only demonstrates our collective insecurity in who we are. In a quest to feel like we belong, we achieve
just the opposite, as we feed divisiveness.
We will never create a diverse, inclusive, and pluralistic society¾ one in which a strong
majority feels a sense of belonging¾if
we aren’t able to foster a broader sense of ownership in the whole endeavor. Fortunately, we have a history and framework
via our laws and Constitution, and very compelling historical rhetoric of
values that does speak to our need to get it right.
My professional work involves helping organizations leverage
their diversity, become more inclusive, and foster a sense of belonging. A few decades ago, the focus was on just
getting more diversity, but now there is a lot of diversity, so that focus is
on how to make it work. Healthy organizations
know this work is essential to their success.
There is an analogy, various forms of which have been described to me by
others, that goes something like this:
“Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to
dance.” This is a useful analogy because
we often think that the presence of diversity automatically creates inclusion;
it doesn’t. However, inclusion by itself
isn’t enough. “Belonging” is the new framework
many organizations are starting to embrace.
In a recent conversation, I suggested adding an extension to the
diversity and inclusion metaphor, as follows: “Diversity is being invited to
the party; inclusion is being asked to dance; belonging is recognizing the
music when you show up to the party.” We
don’t all have to like all of the music all of the time, but we should
recognize it as collectively ours. It is
not enough to be invited to someone else’s party and asked to dance. We need to all feel like it is our party, and
that we fully belong, that even if we don’t love the music, we see ourselves
somewhere in the lyrics or the tune. Incidentally, American music is a good
example of this kind of belonging. In
the December issue of the magazine, Hemispheres, author Justin Goldman
writes about his trip to Appalachia and the mid-south. He describes a musical tradition inclusive of
many different kinds of people and traditions who connect to each other through
their music, and collaborate to create something that is unique and in which
they can see themselves. American music
is perhaps the most powerful analogy for leveraging our diversity to create
something better, richer, and fuller, that we can all relate to and have a
sense of ownership for. We need a
stronger sense of ownership for our unique social experiment of intentionally
bringing together a diverse and ever-changing population. We need to recognize our national metaphorical
music - the lyrics, tunes and harmonies of our ever-changing culture. This is a path of ownership and belonging
that can emerge in a truly pluralistic society
The non-pluralistic alternative is what we see now: a fight for who is right and who can
dominate, a battle to be the “one-up” and not the “one-down.” There will always be power dynamics in any
society, most certainly in a diverse society, but these dynamics need to ebb
and flow and not be the primary social dynamic as they seem to be now. As change accelerates, we need more shared
ownership for a pluralistic outcome.
This has to be done in our collective spaces, in the civic institutions
that bring us together around our shared interests. Three areas of activity could promote this
sense of shared ownership: 1) a
re-articulation of our national proposition and our shared interest and values
in continually creating a diverse country that works; 2) public policy that
puts the collective interest over the interests of specific groups, not in ways
that ignore group-based discrimination, but in ways that speak to and
positively impact more of us; and 3) participation in civic institutions that
focus on our collectiveness. Every day,
all over the country, there are opportunities to come together and pursue
shared interests. This happens in
workplaces, in local governments and committees, in school boards and in a
variety of other institutions. If this
feels boring and bureaucratic, just think about music, about social clubs,
sports groups, etc. I’m on my town’s
conservation commission. When we meet as
diverse groups around shared interests, the result is better ideas and shared
ownership. When we own something, we
usually work hard to make it succeed.
