Committing to and actioning inclusion requires awareness and an acceptance that this work, being inclusive, is forever unfinished. That said, there is a level of homeostasis we can each aim to reach whereby the work becomes more about sustaining inclusion versus reaching it — Adaptation. 

Adopting a framework for inclusion

AndHumanity developed the Brand Inclusion Framework and Inclusion Continuum as an assessment and reflexivity tool to help guide organizations in better understanding where their brand might be in its inclusion journey. In addition, the AndHumanity Brand Inclusion Framework and Inclusion Continuum helps brands to take authentic and sincere steps toward inclusion. The framework is informed by the developmental model of intercultural sensitivity (the Bennett Scale) and is specifically designed with organizations and brands in mind.

The Inclusion Continuum can be used to assess individual campaigns, general marketing and communications, and overall brand placement. It’s important to remember that a brand’s perceived placement on the Continuum is not a moral judgment and does not indicate willingness to change. Rather, placement provides critical insights to support opportunity-based actions that increase a brand’s inclusive strengths.

But, what does inclusion look like? 

Firstly, there’s no one way to be inclusive. Inclusion is human-centred which means what feels and looks inclusive will be different for different people and will change over time. This is why authentic inclusion necessitates lived experience, nothing about us without us.

At AndHumanity we define inclusion as an active, intentional, and continuous process to address inequities in power and privilege and build a respectful and diverse community that ensures welcoming spaces and opportunities to flourish for all. It requires deliberate and intentional action.

Inclusion isn’t about including everyone, it’s about being intentional and aware of who is being excluded and included. 

Understanding the states of inclusion.

The Inclusion Continuum is made up of five (5) states; starting with Denial, the Continuum moves through Polarization, Minimization and Acceptance to end at Adaptation. 

• Brand Denial is when we ignore or negatively impact diverse audiences and assume the dominant group or perspective is superior.
• Brand Polarization is when we are starting to recognize and maybe even slightly engage with diversity, but remain resistant to embracing it.
• Brand Minimization is when we begin to embrace diversity but focus on universal experiences or the aspects of diversity that are most palatable for the dominant culture. 
• Brand Acceptance is when we are starting to recognize the unique challenges and needs of different groups and have begun to incorporate these considerations into our practices. 
• Brand Adaptation is when we fully recognize the unique challenges and needs of different groups, including the nuances and intersectionalities within, and fully incorporate this into our operations.

Brand Lived Experience

Key Characteristic: built with diversity and inclusion

Brand Lived Experience identifies brands that were founded with diversity and inclusion built in. The outcomes may look identical to a brand in adaptation, the furthest position on the Inclusive Continuum, however, an important distinction is that these characteristics weren’t learned or developed. They’re key elements of the brand’s history and identity. 

An example of Brand Lived Experience includes the brands Fenty Beauty (inclusive make-up brand) and Savage X Fenty (inclusive lingerie brand) both founded by Rihanna.

A brand with built-in diversity and inclusion can still enter the Continuum at different states for different communities, outputs and processes. Whilst lived experience can be built into a brand, the brand is not then automatically wholly representative of every community and experience.

Denial

Key Characteristic: rigid

In denial, a brand is ignoring or negatively impacting audiences (whether intentionally or unintentionally) and assumes a lens in which the dominant group is presumed superior. In this stage, the brand struggles to conceptualize ways to engage in diverse efforts and inclusive understandings.

Polarization

Key Characteristic: resistance and defense

In polarization, a brand is moving from awareness to understanding. The brand may be set in its current ways. Polarization is an ethnocentric placement, meaning that all other cultures or dimensions of difference are compared to the dominant one. While unintentional, there is often an implication that equity-deserving audiences are different from or less than the dominant culture. Often, in this stage, brands are being called out, their audiences are asking for more inclusion, or they recognize a need to and are seeking to change, but they may not see how change is possible or be resistant to change. 

Minimization 

Key Characteristic: desire and fear

In minimization, a brand recognizes that there is diversity in its audiences but is early in its inclusion journey and focuses on similarities and a sense of unity. Minimization is still an ethnocentric placement and can feel superficial or fall into stereotypes and generalizations. However, minimization can also be actioned in ways that feel inclusive as brands progress through the framework. 

Acceptance 

Key Characteristic: commitment and action

In acceptance, a brand recognizes they have a diverse audience with different needs and communication styles. They begin to understand the need to be able to speak beyond a dominant lens in a way that authentically recognizes difference. There is a move towards  deep storytelling (telling authentic, nuanced, and intersectional stories) with specific equity-deserving people and communities, rather than focusing on generalized diversity. Inclusion starts to be integrated into a brand’s main campaign and marketing efforts, rather than as a side campaign or afterthought. At this stage, brands also have a standard level of inclusive design. 

Adaptation 

Key Characteristic: competence and comfort

In acceptance, a brand is authentically inclusive through committed and sustained growth. Adaptive brands are leaders in Inclusive Marketing. They can navigate between, and authentically include, different cultural norms to deeply resonate with those who have lived experience. They truly understand the challenges and needs of the equity-deserving people and groups they’re representing and engaging with. Their organizational values and actions align with their messaging. In adaptation, brands often advocate for and support the community through their marketing efforts to break down barriers.

Key Takeaways

• The Continuum is made up of five (5) states: Denial, Polarization, Minimization, Acceptance and Adaptation. 
• The Inclusion Continuum can be used to assess individual campaigns, general marketing and communications, and overall brand placement. 
• You may be in different states with different communities and or dimensions of identity (Ex. Perceived as accepting of straight, cisgender People of Colour and in denial of 2SLGBTQIA+ people).
• Similarly, outputs and processes can range from completely non-inclusive to completely inclusive. Inclusion isn’t a binary.

Where to next?

We’ve covered a lot of terminology and definitions in this post, to better understand the Continuum we recommend starting by reflecting on the terms “diversity” and “inclusion” because these two terms can often get conflated.

• Diversity is about the what – it focuses on the makeup of a group, the range of human difference. Whereas Inclusion is about the how – the creation of an environment and culture that provides welcome and enables each individual to thrive.

How are diversity and inclusion showing up in your spaces?

For a more detailed breakdown of each stage in the continuum, utilize our self-serve Brand Assessment Tool (only takes ~5min) and you’ll receive an email linking to in-depth descriptions and examples pertaining to each stage.

This article was written by Ness Murby (he/him) a queer, trans, blind disabled person, Ness describes himself as human first. He is a Dad, Gran’s kid always and Pop’s ‘tiger’ forever. Australian, mixed race and white presenting, grateful to currently reside on Coast Salish Territory on the shared and unceded lands of many Indigenous Nations including the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), qʼʷa:n̓ ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), and Stó:lō (Sto:lo). Ness works as the Senior Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategist at AndHumanity, is a counsellor and competes as a Canadian Paralympian. He is a lover of puzzles, connection and culture.

The post The Inclusion Continuum, A Brand Framework appeared first on AndHumanity.

Brand, marketing and communications need to align with how you’re perceived and experienced. This means process (how they’re created) and product (the final outcome). Performativity and callouts are what happen when they don’t. 

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As marketers, we are the experts of our own lived experience. Not our audience’s. It’s hard to admit we’re not the experts. This can bring about a jarring feeling of resistance. Rather than deny it, we invite you to sit with it and lean into it. Contrary to what traditional marketing education teaches us, we do not know our audience better than they know themselves. In fact, sometimes taking a pause and reassessing who our audience even is can be a great place to start. Too often, we assume sameness or homogenize people rather than acknowledging and celebrating diversity and difference. 

Nothing About Us Without Us

While representation is great, if it’s from a dominant (ex. white, cisgender, abled, male, and other dimensions of identity that hold privilege) gaze, it’s still considered erasure.

You might have heard of or even understood the concept of Nothing About Us Without Us, but what does this mean in practice? It means that the product is a direct result of the process. Amplifying lived experience throughout your approach (behind your marketing, in your marketing, and the marketing itself) will help you create more equitable and authentic work overall. Doing this takes deliberate, intentional and ongoing action, and it starts with meaningful engagement. Every effort you make towards doing your work more inclusively is also a movement toward more equitable and inclusive outputs. 

Behind your marketing

Influential representation (behind your marketing): Are people with lenses of relevant lived experience leading, influencing, and creating the work? Those who self-identify and are connected with the community or dimension of identity you aim to represent need to influence the work, with as much autonomy and in as many decision-making roles as possible.

In your marketing

Authentic representation (in your marketing): Are people with lenses of lived experience (matched to the specific focus or “target” audience) featured in the work? Those with lived experience deserve to represent their own experiences with the flexibility and freedom to portray themselves authentically.

The marketing itself

A great, impactful story (the marketing itself): Is the work itself having a positive impact? Inclusive Marketing should elevate equity-deserving voices, exemplify inclusive and ethnorelative perspectives, and ensure authentic representation (which must be defined and created by those with lived experience).

Understanding Before Engaging

The risks (perceived and actual) and emotional labour are often higher for equity-deserving individuals and communities when it comes to considering engaging. Equity-deserving individuals are much more likely to participate and contribute if we get the sense that inclusion is a core commitment and authentically embedded into a brand’s culture.

To engage an audience inclusively and meaningfully, we need to have an understanding of intersectionality, privilege, power and oppression and we need to integrate this understanding into how we approach engagement overall. We are complete, complex human beings:

• Intersectionality is a concept founded by Kimberlé Crenshaw that considers the overlapping of our multiple dimensions of identity. This is the foundation of our unique lived experience and impacts how we experience the world. 
• Privileges are the advantages and benefits we receive because of the social groups we are perceived to be a part of. Power is our ability to influence and make decisions that impact others. Unfortunately, engagement often involves those with more privilege and power “extracting” input from equity-deserving groups, without consideration for inclusion or equity.
• Systemic oppression is the disadvantaging of equity-deserving groups based on their identity while advantaging members of a dominant group. Those who experience systemic oppression may (rightfully) have less trust or feel less safe during engagement. 

The Meaningful difference.

When it comes to engagement, it’s not as easy as doing or not doing. How we engage people shapes the outcome we reach. Engagement is any time we interact with a person or people in a way we hope will result in learning and/or participation. In marketing, this often refers to engaging audiences in defining content that creates audience buy-in.  

Meaningful engagement, however, is an ongoing process of interaction and dialogue that enables us to hear, understand and respond to interests and concerns with respect, authenticity, compassion, and integrity. In marketing, this means embedding lived experiences into both our processes and products and evolving with insights shared to genuinely meet the needs of our audience. 

Meaningful engagement is designed to build relationships and not just box-checking or asking for one-time input. 

A Final Note

Different projects, or different aspects of a project, will require different amounts of and approaches to engagement. We’ll share more about the levels of engagement in a future post but, for now, remember that it’s important to be transparent about why you’re engaging people, how you’re engaging people, and how much influence those you engage will have in the final outcome. This also involves being realistic and transparent about existing challenges, barriers and obstacles. Try to avoid the desire to sound more collaborative than you can be. If outcomes aren’t overly flexible and power can’t be equally shared, trust can still be nurtured through transparency. When we try to sound more collaborative than we can actually be, especially when engaging equity-deserving groups, those involved feel let down and tokenized.

** When we talk about dimensions of identity this includes areas such as age, culture, disability, education, ethnicity, gender, geographic location, language/s spoken, sexual orientation, socioeconomic experience, etc.

This article was written by Ness Murby (he/him) a queer, trans, blind disabled person, Ness describes himself as human first. He is a Dad, Gran’s kid always and Pop’s ‘tiger’ forever. Australian, mixed race and white presenting, grateful to currently reside on Coast Salish Territory on the shared and unceded lands of many Indigenous Nations including the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), qʼʷa:n̓ ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), and Stó:lō (Sto:lo). Ness works as the Senior Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategist at AndHumanity, is a counsellor and competes as a Canadian Paralympian. He is a lover of puzzles, connection and culture. 

The post Meaningful Engagement Part 2: Why does it matter and what is it? appeared first on AndHumanity.

Sprinkle-laden pink-iced donuts.

Yes, that’s where I’m starting. 

It was August 31st 2021 when I started HRT. Terminology note: “HRT” refers to hormone replacement therapy which is used to align secondary sex characteristics with gender identity. This was a big moment, my wholeness, my whole self, embracing an intimate lifetime of knowing.  These are also things I connected with more so in retrospect. 

Like so many of us I have been told how to feel, I have been told what to feel and told which emotions should be felt in which situations. I’ve been told who I am and how to be. 

“What are you going to do to celebrate your first T shot?” Terminology note: “shot” means injection and “T” means testosterone. The person asking was several years into their own T journey. At the time I had absolutely no idea. I felt misunderstood by the question. I had never considered what celebrating loving myself enough to do this would look like or even considered this act, starting T, in this way (that would come later). 

“Celebrate?” I replied with an ever so slight uptick and a strongly internalised “my life is at the sweet spot of clusterfuck and you’re suggesting celebrating?!” Celebrating definitely wasn’t making the list as I clutched at survival. Thrust into journeying isolation, retaliation, gatekeeping, international debate around the validity of my existence and desires to eradicate me. I’m trans. Existing is heavy, right? Yes, and. It’s never just one thing. 

Let’s go back to the start.

Cartoonishly humongous was the Lard Lad’s “Homer”. It was as big as my head, sprinkle-laden and pink-iced. The donut I chose to celebrate my birthday. I was turning 34 and, amid what I will call a storm of “life being lifey”. I have no idea what compelled me—something akin to an act of internal uprising, taking my power back, choosing freedom—that donut was spectacular. Held in two hands. Every bite transported me. I ate the last of it back at my hotel room and fell asleep with pink icing still on the corners of my mouth. Deeply happy.

Now to skip to the end, also a beginning. 

It was August 31st, 2021 when I commemorated taking my first shot of testosterone. Sitting on a park bench I bit into a sprinkle-laden pink-iced donut. Doing so was the most joyous tangible thing I could think of that was just for me. The average-sized donut was unexceptional, eating it was unremarkable, and the memory of it is indelibly imprinted bookmarking my story. Check mark, and (so many other things).

There was a time when sharing this would have brought about feelings of discomfort and not enough, not queer enough, whatever that means. The Why of donuts felt arbitrary when trying to relate it. Today I feel assured and empowered. For me, donuts are a symbol of resilience. Related to a time when I was learning how to love myself because my life depended on it. They represent joy and a glorious victory for self.

Before me. Before us.

“People around the world will celebrate international Pride Month this June, in honor of the June 1969 Stonewall uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village. Yet, there are few celebrations of the first uprising of this kind, a night of queer empowerment and resistance in the midnight hours of the 1950s.”

“After nearby bars closed, a 24-hour Main Street donut café became the site of a large 2SLGBTQIA+ riot. Two cops, ostensibly checking ID, a routine harassment, arbitrarily picked up “two hustlers, two queens and a young man just cruising” and led them out.” “Bystanders clashed with the police officers over the treatment, pelting them with doughnuts, coffee, paper cups and utensils.” The street was shut down.

”That night is widely considered to be the first gay uprising in modern history, seven years before the Black Cat Riot in L.A.’s Silverlake neighborhood, and ten years before the Stonewall Rebellion.”

—I wouldn’t learn about Coopers until 2022 when I was asked if that’s why I celebrate with donuts. Nope, it’s not, but it brings me joy.

The history that carries me.

On 15 November 2017 Australia said “yes” to same-sex marriage in a historic postal vote. I was 32 years old. The Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017, which legalised same-sex marriage, came into effect on 9 December 2017 giving same-sex couples the same right to marry as heterosexual couples.

Pop, Poppa (my grandfather), a six foot one, light skinned, white (some gray) full-bearded and forearm-tattooed, extra large upper bodied thin-legged man, often told of immigrating to Australia alone in 1949, at the age of 16, to work on a sheep station in Queensland. And, sometimes he’d share about his time in the navy including “I’d swap with some of the men to take night shift so they could spend time with their boyfriends.”

In 2018, a few months after Pop had passed, I took Gran (my grandmother), a “five foot nothing”, dark-skinned, black curly haired and bespectacled, round woman up to our family log cabin in the Victorian High Country. With Alzheimer’s her memory fluctuated between being intensely present and completely absent. This absence destined to increase. The night I showed her my top surgery scars, terminology note: “top surgery” refers to chest masculinisation surgery (removal of breasts), an unexpected TV show played that centered around three trans folks and their journey transitioning on HRT. Gran beaming love, matter of factly said “Ness you should do that”. Shortly after she had no recollection.

Gran and Pop loved me unconditionally, because of them I innately know how to do this for my kid. I am still learning to do it for myself. When I first came out as gay it was to Gran and Pop at age 14. I never came out to them as trans, I didn’t need to.

June, in the US, is also Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, while September marks World Alzheimer’s Month.

End note. Onwards.

Throughout you may have noticed that I have used both the terms commemorate and celebrate, this was intentional. For me, before I could celebrate I needed to first journey commemorating because too often celebrating ignores fundamental context and oversimplifies an event. It is a word that can dictate how we should feel and isolates us when our feelings don’t align. 

There’s no one way to feel about a milestone. There’s no one way to acknowledge a time of significance. Meanings are personal and our understandings evolve. I love being trans. I grew up not being safe to hold hands with my partner in public, closeted multiple times over, confused, and deprived of representation. I celebrate Pride. I understand marching the streets as a form of resistance, symbolic of our uprisings, and an expression of joy. Trans joy.

I’ll be eating a sprinkle-laden pink-iced donut

What are you doing this Pride?

“Coopers Donuts” References and Additional Reading

10 years before Stonewall there was the Coopers Donut Riot

7 LGBTQ Uprisings Before Stonewall

Milestones in the American transgender movement

Gay riot at Los Angeles donut shop

The LAnd Interview with John Rechy

Coopers Donuts : a legacy of inclusivity and community

The post Pride comes from within. It’s our uprising. appeared first on AndHumanity.

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Authentic storytelling and accurate representation are likely to resonate with everyone, and they’re especially important for equity-deserving people and groups, who experience historical and current injustices. Equity-deserving stories are still often told by the dominant culture, for the dominant culture, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and othering. These stereotypes, as well as the attitudes and actions they promote, perpetuate cycles of oppression in society. 

Call out: Equity-deserving stories are still often told by the dominant culture, for the dominant culture.

What this looks like is white folks talking about Black experiences of racism. It means able-bodied folks talking about accessibility needs. It means cis-gendered folks talking about gender dysphoria. To name a few. 

Consider how you would feel having your experiences defined by someone else, having messaging contributing to social norms about your identities coming from someone without lived experience. How likely would it be that you would feel seen and connected with that representation? Considering that, how likely it would be that you would trust and invest in the brand responsible for putting that messaging out into the world?

Accurate representation occurs through nuanced and deep storytelling that resonates. 

Call out: Accurate representation occurs through nuanced and deep storytelling that resonates.

#1. Resonance

At each interaction, audiences are assessing your brand as well as your marketing and communications. While many people may not think about why some content resonates and other content doesn’t, research shows why. Audiences can tell if and to what extent messaging is genuinely informed by lived experience and created to benefit the audience being represented. They’re considering whether your brand is values aligned and if there’s congruence between what you say and what you do. Effectively, an accuracy and authenticity audit is occurring alongside a determination of sameness. The goal is inclusive resonance.

• Resonance, in its most basic form, is how much people connect and relate to your marketing and communications 
• Inclusive resonance considers who you connect with and how. It considers the contexts of intersectionality, privilege, power and oppression, whether your impact matches your intent, and not just how likely an audience is to benefit you, but how reciprocal and mutually beneficial your relationship with that audience is. 

Inclusive resonance happens through inclusive processes that lead to authentic storytelling.

Call out: Inclusive resonance happens through inclusive processes that lead to authentic storytelling 

#2. Authentic Storytelling

Authentic storytelling is more than the story; it considers context. When deciding whether content is genuine and honest, audiences look beyond the story itself:

• Who is involved in telling the story? 
• What is the depth and nature of their expertise? 
• What are their intentions? 
• How collaborative is the process? 
• How accountable are the storytellers to the people or communities being spoken about?
• What are the impacts? 
• How does all of the above influence how the story is told? 

How we answer these questions impacts not only how our audience experiences our marketing and communications, but also how our brand is perceived overall. 

Authentic storytelling happens through meaningful engagement.

Call out: Authentic storytelling happens through meaningful engagement.

#3. Meaningful Engagement

Meaningful engagement is a way for equity-deserving individuals to influence the narratives that represent us and tell our truths. It is the “How” of authentic storytelling; the way we reach the desired outcome of inclusive resonance.

Whether elevating one person’s story or inviting collaboration into the process, how likely individuals feel it is that they will be authentically heard, included, and involved in shaping the outcome influences how willing people are to participate. The only way to co-create is to share power. This means that::

• Those being engaged feel the engagement values them and benefits them. It is reciprocal and relational, not transactional or extractive.
• Lived-experience is recognized as expertise. Individuals who provide this expertise are fairly credited and compensated.
• Multiple lenses of lived experience are engaged to ensure authentic representation and avoid tokenization. 

Putting it into Practice 

• “By” is Best
• “With” is Good
• “For / At” is Harmful

Call out: By is best, with is good, for/at is harmful.

It’s always best inclusive practice to ensure those creating content hold relevant lived experience. Lived experience doesn’t just mean self-identity, but also the extent to which an individual feels and demonstrates accountability and connection to the experiences and communities being represented. The most authentic and resonant stories are told by those who live them. 

Leadership by and co-creation with those who hold lived experience is essential. If content isn’t created “by” (by the person themselves) or “with” (in meaningful collaboration with the person featured), ensure feedback is meaningfully engaged and approval sought (from individuals with relevant lived experience) before the final outcome is socialized. 

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This article was written by Ness Murby (he/him) a queer, trans, blind disabled person, Ness describes himself as human first. He is a Dad, Gran’s kid always and Pop’s ‘tiger’ forever. Australian, mixed race and white presenting, grateful to currently reside on Coast Salish Territory on the shared and unceded lands of many Indigenous Nations including the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), qʼʷa:n̓ ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), and Stó:lō (Sto:lo). Ness works as the Senior Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategist at AndHumanity, is a counsellor and competes as a Canadian Paralympian. He is a lover of puzzles, connection and culture. 

The post Meaningful Engagement Part 1: Whose story are you telling? 3 Components of Authentic Storytelling. appeared first on AndHumanity.

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