What is DEIR?

DEIR = Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Repair

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DIVERSITY

…is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment, or political perspective.  Populations that have been-and remain- underrepresented among practitioners in the field and marginalized in the broader society.

EQUITY

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…is promoting justice, impartiality and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources by institutions or systems.  Tackling equity issues requires an understanding of the root causes of outcome disparities within our society.

Note from April: The difference between equality and equity is equality is about everyone getting the same thing/treatment and equity is about people getting what they need (in a manner that accounts for systemic oppression).

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INCLUSION

…is an outcome to ensure those that are diverse actually feel and/or are welcomed.  Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution, and your program are truly inviting to all.  To the degree to which diverse individuals are able to participate fully in the decision-making processes and development opportunities within an organization or group.

REPAIR

Also known as: Restorative Justice / Reconciliation / Reparations / Repentance [Teshuva (Hebrew), literally translated as “return” (to one’s inherent goodness & Divinity)]

Lasting justice and true collective and individual progress cannot happen without repair and healing. Repair and the healing it facilitates is what enables post-traumatic growth. It’s what makes better individual and collective realities possible. And it is the step most frequently skipped. Ultimately, lasting and true progress cannot occur without repair that acknowledges and tends to the harm that was historically—and is often still currently—inflicted.

Harm doesn’t automatically heal with time: Time does not heal all wounds.
Time, in and of itself, is benign. Time, alone, heals nothing.

What happens within time can suppress, exacerbate, or heal harm.

Healing (repair) can heal all wounds.

Healing/Repair: Honesty; compassionate and mindful attention; and safe spaces to express, redress, and release the damage the harm has inflicted contributes to healing.

It’s hard to face the “unfaceable,” but it is the only way forward.
Often, it isn’t as awful as people fear it is.

As is said, “the truth shall set you free.”

Repair takes work, but it is also freeing and empowering when done well.
Ultimately, repair is a necessary component of a sustainable pathway forward to a future that is dramatically safer, more equitable, diverse, just, and inclusive than our past…and present.


Sources:

  • DEI definitions sourced from: https://dei.extension.org.

  • Repair segment written by April N. Baskin, and inspired by her abolitionist mother’s observation in 2020 that DEI “needs an R for reconciliation, repair, and reparations.” Not a J (justice), which is pretty well-covered by Equity, nor a B (belonging), which Inclusion…includes. ; )