Inclusion through exclusion

In a training session I had we were told that when we learn, we go through four stages of learning:

1. “Unconsciously bad”: being so bad that we don’t know what we don’t know
2. “Consciously bad”: knowing that we are bad, but not knowing how to get better
3. “Consciously good”: improving, but having to make an effort to improve. Unable to “be better” without focusing on it.
4. To, eventually, “unconsciously good”: being good without having to think about it.

If we apply this to the tech world’s diversity (and, on a larger scale, the working world), right now I would put us as somewhere between the “consciously bad” and “consciously good”: we have (sort of) identified our biases, and we are making the conscious effort to hire/promote/include people that we wouldn’t have in the past.

And this is what “inclusion through exclusion” is: the act of consciously including certain groups by focusing solely on them. In doing so, we have to exclude the majority.

This month, we feature Isabelle Santiago-Nuqui, Senior Manager at Storm3. Within the framework of the US healthcare system, she writes about why positive discrimination to ultimately achieve inclusion is so important.

🎙️ The hard questions

Each month, I sit down with a group of women and non-binary folk from across the tech spectrum to do a deep-dive into this month’s theme.

This month, I am joined by Natalie Coletta, Chief of Staff at FOLX Health on why FOLX’s mission is so important to the millions of Americans that identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

The full Q&A can be found below, but here’s a tidbit for you!

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Do you think there is a difference between not including someone, and them being excluded?

The general perception here is, of course, that one is passive and one is active. As Natalie says, “there is a difference in intentionality”, but the “end result can be equally damaging”. When I worked in a US summer camp during university, one of the key pieces of advice we were given at the beginning was that “Perception is reality”: it does not matter what your intentions are, it matters how your actions are received.

Obviously, this was in regard to ensuring that seven year old kids didn’t take offence to something, but the idea still carries over here. Often, the idea of “inclusion” – especially in a work environment – is, lets take everyone out for drinks. Which excludes those who do not drink.

In healthcare, Natalie says, “the average medical professional has ~5 hours of LGBTQIA+ specific training over the course of their education.” It becomes a “tick box” that they are competent in providing LGBTQIA+ care, but they are not actually equipped to do so.

Whether it is treatment for a common cold, or gender affirming care, members of the LGBTQIA+ community are routinely denied access to the care they need.

“95% of FOLX members did not have an LGBTQIA+ competent provider before joining FOLX and 40% of members actively avoided medical care due to discrimination by providers.”