Is Inclusiveness Still a Thing?

Our ‘call out’ culture may have originally been aiming for inclusivity but seems to have warped into ‘prove you’re not excluding’ instead.

Photo by Dil on Unsplash

Vigilance and speaking up are essential. If we want to see real change we need to draw attention to harmful actions and the damage they cause. Calling for respect and acknowledgement is rarely an easy path, especially when it involves confronting long standing societal norms. Change is difficult, even change we truly want, and being a catalytic thorn is all too often a draining and thankless job. So it’s important for our own psychological, physical, and emotional health to make sure we are putting ourselves through it for the right reasons. Are we truly battling for change or are we lashing out because we’ve been hurt? Are we genuinely trying to usher in lasting change or are we trying to settle old scores?

My first, and admittedly optimistic, impulse is to credit everyone over the age of two and half with the understanding that our actions have impact on the people around us. As our societal consciousness and awareness expands we have no choice but to realize and acknowledge some of our most seemingly innocuous habits of language and attitude can have shockingly harmful effects, intentional or not, on those outside the general norms. It is an important realization, a confusing and painful adjustment, and an incredibly…