What Is DEI In 2023?

Sustainable CT Marlborough holds wide-ranging discussion on issues

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work like Democracy itself is a continual practice. It must keep asserting itself, or else it runs the risk of disused. Sustainable CT Marlborough recently did the work of recognizing the need to discuss sensitive subjects and grow as a community.

Their DEI presentation held in late February began with a few disclaimers – including the facts that they would be discussing sensitive and uncomfortable subjects, but that they were not condemning residents as racist or lacking in compassion. The goal, for them, was to educate in order to move forward.

For years, it was easy enough to exist without having many of these difficult conversations, to not move forward. But as we entered a new century, and through movements like Black Lives Matter, it has been clear that equity is good for a community.

They state this eloquently in the presentation: “It is healthy for a community as a whole government and its residents to perform an internal self-evaluation of its delivery of services, goals, policies, practices, ordinances & regulations, to position the community to be more equitable, resilient and sustainable moving forward.”

And throughout the extensive presentation, Sustain- able CT Marlborough tackled many definitions – what is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion after all? Who are the disadvantaged groups in our community? What is white privilege?

One interesting element is the conversation on Conscious and Unconscious Bias. Understanding that hatred exists in a world of conscious bias is one thing, but recognizing that we can form unconscious biases through social conditioning is another. Harvard has extensively studied this issue and has even developed an online tool that can show how these implicit biases creep in.

Whether its conscious or unconscious, intolerance is still a part of our every day lives. In the presentation, they list a series of recent events that showed this, and some happened just weeks before.

One DEI meeting will not stop hatred, will not stop implicit bias. It is only through continually seeking to name and educate that we can move forward as communities. They are the cornerstones that will help move us forward, in our towns, our state, and our nation.

Work that is done in places like Marlborough is a sign that people are willing to do the work – no matter how uncomfortable it might be for them – to make their world a little bit better for everyone.