{"id":1151,"date":"2013-10-16T09:39:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T09:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/10\/how-to-avoid-tokenism.html"},"modified":"2013-10-16T09:39:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T09:39:00","slug":"how-to-avoid-tokenism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/10\/how-to-avoid-tokenism.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Avoid Tokenism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Carol Howard Merritt<\/a><\/span>
R3 Contributor<\/span>

<\/span>*This post first appeared in Tribal Church<\/a><\/span>

<\/span><\/p>\n

Every once in a while I get an invitation to speak at an event. I look over the names and see a dozen people who look so similar that the conference brochure might as well be served in an egg carton. I call the organizer and ask if I could provide them with some options so that there\u2019s a bit of diversity on the docket. I always keep a list handy.<\/span><\/div>\n
He answers, \u201cWell, we always ask the\u00a0best<\/i>\u00a0people to speak at our conference. And if the best people just happen to be white men, then so be it. We don\u2019t want to ask women and minorities to come just\u00a0to come<\/i>. We don\u2019t want to be involved in tokenism!\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
And I sigh, because \u201ctokenism\u201d is often used to excuse for a lack of diversity these days. It\u2019s a gentle way of saying, \u201cI\u2019ve listened to people who say they aren\u2019t taken seriously at conferences. I understand. I would never be a part of that.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
Except that they haven\u2019t listened, because tokenism complaints are not so that we keep a diverse group of speakers out. It\u2019s so that we will take all\u00a0of the voices seriously.<\/span><\/div>\n
There are\u00a0always<\/i>\u00a0qualified women and people of color. We\u2019re the majority of the population. If you\u2019re a conference organizer, you\u2019re not lowering the bar of quality by having different perspectives involved. You\u2019re making things more interesting. It proves that you\u2019re not just in your own echo chamber, listening to your frat-boy buddies talk about a certain topic, but that you have a vast knowledge of the subject. You have an understanding that comes from voices outside of one particular ethnicity or gender. As my friend\u00a0Ed Blum<\/a>\u00a0recently commented, \u201cIf segregation is wrong at the swimming pool, it is wrong in the pools of our thought.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
I know that people may have taken my demographic more seriously than my content at first. I started writing and speaking when I was a relatively young woman and I know that my face was a counterweight in the glossy brochure line-up. That\u2019s okay. In a world where doors are often sealed shut, having a bit of opening in the edifice is important. But there was a point in my career when the doors opened and I was invited to many things. I didn\u2019t have enough time and money to support every endeavor. I needed to say \u201cno\u201d to some things, so I needed to come up with a formula for avoiding tokenism. Here are a few things I take into consideration as a speaker, and organizers who truly want to avoid tokenism can take them into consideration as well.<\/span><\/div>\n
Influence.<\/strong>\u00a0When I\u2019m asked to be a part of a group, I often ask, \u201cWhy me?\u201d What I want to know is if the person has read my work or heard me speak. Has my work influenced them in some way? If not, then it can be a frustrating road ahead, especially if it\u2019s a long-term project.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
If we\u2019re worried about tokenism, we can ask, \u201cWhy are we inviting the person?\u201d If it\u2019s only because they fit into a demographic slot and we\u2019re worried about that, then that is easily remedied. We can read their work, listen to their sermons, or visit their ministries. We can let them get inside our thoughts and opinions. We can let them influence us.<\/span><\/div>\n
Expertise.<\/strong>\u00a0This can be tricky. I speak about church and cultural shifts. I wear lipstick and a dress while I\u2019m lecturing, but I\u2019m not an expert on gender. I\u2019m a feminist. I constantly read Womanist, Mujerista and Asian-feminist thought, but I\u2019m woefully inadequate as a historian of feminism or intersectionality. The fact that I\u2019m a woman influences my thought, gives me a varied perspective, and (hopefully) makes my work more interesting, but it\u2019s far from my expertise.<\/span><\/div>\n
If there\u2019s a panel and a person asks me, \u201cCan you answer this question, from a woman\u2019s perspective?\u201d please understand that being a woman is who I am, but it\u2019s not focus of my work. So he or she might want to ask the next person, \u201cCan you answer this question, from a white man\u2019s perspective?\u201d That will allow people to understand that he has a particular social location, just like I do. It\u2019s not the default race and gender, it\u2019s just one of many combinations. If you\u2019re moderating a discussion, and you\u2019re not comfortable doing that, then you can drop the particularities. The dress and lipstick will locate me.<\/span><\/div>\n
Paralanguage.<\/strong>\u00a0There are all kinds of ways that we show that we take a person\u2019s opinion seriously. In our culture, we make eye contact and we\u2019re thoughtful about introductions. We have cues that show we\u2019re listening. If one person is talking and we\u2019re nodding, taking notes, and soaking in what he has to say, and the next person is up and we start checking our Facebook and filing our nails, people understand those social cues.<\/span><\/div>\n
Compensation.<\/strong>\u00a0What are we paying people across the board? Often keynoters are paid and other leaders are not compensated. There is a certain pay structure to these things, but if we don\u2019t want tokenism, we can make sure that there is some sort of parity in pay.<\/span><\/div>\n
Wanting to avoid tokenism is important. But it\u2019s a terrible excuse for our indolent inability to see beyond our own thought bubbles.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Follow Carol on Twitter @carolhoward<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Carol Howard MerrittR3 Contributor*This post first appeared in Tribal Church Every once in a while I get an invitation to speak at an event. I look over the names and see a dozen people who look so similar that the conference brochure might as well be served in an egg carton. I call the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Avoid Tokenism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Carol Howard MerrittR3 Contributor*This post first appeared in Tribal ChurchEvery once in a while I get an invitation to speak at an event. 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