In the last decade or so, the word diversity has infiltrated the creative industries. While diversity as a concept has significantly increased in popularity, the word’s lack of specificity means that it can be wielded in any which way.

Do we still know what we’re looking for when we talk about diversity? And does this term still serve the creative industries or do we need more clearly defined approaches?

To investigate this question, I sought out help from people who have a range of experiences within the design and ad worlds: Reeta Loi, founder and CEO of Tiger Iron, an agency employing people from diverse backgrounds to work with purpose driven organisations; Elizabeth Guffey, an editor and educator whose work focuses on the intersection of design, visual culture and disability studies; and Julian Thompson, founder of Rooted by Design, a change and futures studio which centres the realities of Black communities.

Here they share their views on how we might define diversity in more thoughtful and nuanced ways, which will create better workplace experiences for all, and also improve the quality of the work we produce.

CONSTRUCTING ACCURATE REPRESENTATION

Within what Loi calls ‘agency-land’, there is a huge disparity between the identities of the audiences that creative teams are trying to reach, and the makeup of the teams themselves, who tend to skew white, male, cis-gendered and straight.

The people who are shaping culture influence how populations see themselves. Loi sees a lot of advertising as problematic because without adequate representation “these concepts are created by people who are othering [audiences]. They’re feeding into stereotypes and prejudices all the time … and then we believe that that is what we are.”

Accurate representation of audiences is often one of the reasons most cited for why we need diversity in the creative industries, but Loi thinks that hiring practices aren’t enough – people need to feel safe enough in the workplace to share their ideas.

“When we’re going into traditional agencies, we’re having to assimilate, often code-switching, because we’ve learned to do that for our survival.” Code-switching refers to a change in behaviour in order to fit in with the dominant culture in your environment.

How can you bring a culturally-rooted, authentic experience into the work that you’re doing if you don’t feel safe to do that?

“As soon as you start assimilating, you start losing everything about you that makes you unique and wonderful as a creative. So how can you bring a culturally-rooted, authentic experience into the work that you’re doing if you don’t feel safe to do that?” Loi founded Tiger Iron for this reason – to provide diverse creatives with a space where they can be themselves and make work that lets them thrive, rather than just survive.

Guffey explains that often disability is left out of conversations about diversity – perhaps this is why the disability justice movement has been making waves in the last few years, because of its specificity. Guffey makes the compelling argument that design shapes what we see as ‘normal’, and thus defines what disability is.

“Vision impairment used to be one of the most significant disabilities there was,” she explains, “but since we’ve normalised glasses-wearing … people don’t even think about it.” Glasses are assistive devices that have been designed to correct a disability, but it’s unlikely that every glasses-wearing person would identify as disabled. It’s striking to consider the creative industry’s ability to sculpt what normalcy is, and how an increase in representation of disabled creatives in the workforce could change the way disability is represented in our culture.

THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS EQUITY

Julian Thompson sees diversity as the first step in the journey towards change, but explains that “some of that agenda isn’t even driven by Black people or people of colour. The industry might have good intention, but at the same time have their own agendas as to what this means for the survival of their organisation. There is a commercial reason sometimes that people want diversity.”

Rooted focuses instead on equity. Thompson explains that their mission is to prioritise voices that have historically been on the margins, from hiring solely Black designers and strategists to taking on projects which centre Black audiences.

The industry might have good intention, but at the same time have their own agendas as to what this means for the survival of their organisation

“This is about recognising that because of inequity, things are broken.” He is adamant that Rooted can never be a DEI initiative – rather than fixing agencies’ diversity issues and metrics, Thompson wants to “fix health outcomes that are disproportionately impacting Black people”.

Rooted’s methodology recognises that those who have experienced inequity have consistently experienced a “historical deficit”, which comes from a lack of investment, care and visibility. To counter this, “we need to create experiences that allow people to experience something other than inequity … that make people feel powerful, strong, valued, seen and heard.”

IS DIVERSITY BASED ON IDENTITY OR VALUES?

One of the common misconceptions about hiring for diversity is that it’s problematic to hire someone based on their identity. “They got that job because they’re [insert protected characteristic here]” is a phrase commonly heard to dismiss the achievements of marginalised people. In fact, hiring systems have always been based on identity – people have historically been hired precisely because they were white, male, and middle or upper class. These life experiences allowed them to seamlessly enter workplaces without friction, because they had access to the right networks.

Viewing diversity solely through the prism of identity also relies on a Western understanding of oppressions. Loi explains that caste is one of the biggest factors contributing to inequality in South Asia and is also an unacknowledged problem within the UK. Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s Equality Labs has raised awareness on an issue that particularly pervades the tech world in the US, but in the UK, caste is still not a protected characteristic, which Loi deems “shockingly unacceptable”. Without making this discrimination visible through law, it’s easy to sweep it under the rug.

Have you done the work to unlearn your conditioning? If [you’re unlearning] your unconscious bias, then the way we interact with each other will be different

It’s vital to recognise the role that identity plays in the distribution of privilege, while also recognising the importance of a diversity of values. I consider how the current government cabinet could claim to be ‘diverse’ because of their representation of ethnic minorities, when in fact only a hard-right political viewpoint is being espoused.

Loi proposes that values and identity are linked. For them, the most important value to consider is “have you done the work to unlearn your conditioning? If [you’re unlearning] your unconscious bias, then the way we interact with each other will be different.” Tiger Iron’s framework for unlearning is characterised by Loi’s artist name – RAIN, an acronym which stands for Recover, Awaken, Imagine, Now. This provides the four steps in what Loi sees is an essential journey for us all to recover from trauma, awaken to systemic injustice and imagine alternative futures, with the urgency of our current climate driving why this change needs to happen now.

CHANGING PRACTICES IN THE WORKPLACE

One of the pros of the multiple pandemic-induced lockdowns is that companies have started to take the mental wellbeing of employees more seriously, from implementing working from home policies, to offering Headspace subscriptions. Embedded in the idea of safety in a workplace is the practice of ‘doing the work’ on yourself.

This could include anything from undergoing therapy sessions to unpack past traumas, instilling meditation in daily routines to obtain a deeper understanding of oneself, or learning about how systemic oppression has impacted the way we interact with each other. This healing and unlearning work is often seen as being at odds with the workplace. Handling conflict with emotion, rather than a detached calm manner, is often seen as unprofessional, and is one example of how patriarchy dictates what is seen as ‘respectable’ or ‘appropriate’ at work.

Loi says that if you come from a marginalised background, it is more likely that you’ve undertaken some work around the impact of systemic oppression, as well as to understand your community’s place in the world. This makes for a better workplace – if we can understand what might trigger negative emotions in us because of past traumas, it will improve how we treat each other in the workplace and beyond, allowing us to handle conflict in more effective and humane ways.

Some of these words allow us to skirt around issues…. You’ve got to be clear on the oppression that you are trying to address

To achieve better work, and thus a better society, we have to do the work not only on ourselves, but with each other, and our collective teams in order to allow people from a range of backgrounds to thrive. For this reason, Tiger Iron offers wellbeing services that are tailored to clients such as WPP, alongside DEI workshops, to ensure that creative and healing work goes hand in hand.

Centring mental health also helps us build more equitable workplaces. Thompson explains that “the generations that came to the UK from the Caribbean experienced inequity first hand, because they couldn’t get jobs that they were qualified for, or housing that they wanted to pay for. Imagine the strain it put on marriages, and the children living in those homes. It created fractures within the family unit because the conditions of inequity were there, but the effects of it live on.” Repairing the effects of generational trauma on our mentality is a vital part of the fight for equity.

THE ‘NEW’ DIVERSITY

Rather than being finished with diversity, perhaps we need to reframe it. Guffey thinks the word still has a function, because it’s “being used all of the time, so there’s a power to it”. Thompson calls for more specificity in the approaches that are being taken. “Some of these words allow us to skirt around issues. I’m clear in saying we’re not just talking about equity, we’re talking about racial equity, or gender equity. You’ve got to be clear on the oppression that you are trying to address.”

For Loi, the ‘new’ diversity requires everyone to do the work to unlearn their biases and heal inequity-based traumas. It is only with a collective strategy to redistribute power that the creative industries will contribute to a healthy, happy and thriving society.

Top image: Shutterstock