Mt. Lebanon launched its Ad-hoc DEI Committee in January and the decisions around how it will operate are becoming increasingly problematic. We already knew members of color were being tokenized since their committee roster was published but we’re now finding out that these meetings are also not conducive to allowing marginalized people to feel safe in participating.
What is Tokenism?
Tokenism is a type of behind-the-scenes racism. It is a tactic used by those in power to use people of color as racialized props. This often gives the people in power the appearance of being non-racist, even champions of diversity.
Examples include, but not limited to: recruiting people of color to formal leadership positions but keeping all the power; paid staff is white while volunteers are people of color, and; the organizational culture that was created and maintained continues to promote white dominance.
In the Community Relation Board’s (CRB) detailed document of their working groups, it was only mentioned under the Community Conversations section for two working groups, Community Building and Police Engagement, that Mt. Lebanon Police Chief Aaron Lauth with an invitation to two police union representatives shall be in attendance. Either accidentally or by design, this will not lead to open and honest feedback from the members in these groups, especially from those who do not feel comfortable working directly with the police. Frankly, if everyone felt comfortable working directly with the police, then we wouldn’t need a working group called “police engagement” in the first place.
“In the first DEI On-Boarding meeting, I was put in the room with my oppressor: the police. Not just one policeman, but three. This is a condition the police chief had been pushing for. He wants his representatives in the room. Yet insists that we call him by his first name. Umm…no, thank you. I felt unsafe and said so.” wrote one of their committee members to M.O.R.E.
A DEI committee member that brought this subject to the commissioner’s attention was told that if they didn’t like it [the police chief’s presence at the regular meetings], then they could vacate their position on the committee. This is a passive-aggressive ultimatum and creates an environment where the Committee’s leaders’ decisions are not to be questioned and their authority is absolute. This will lead to a powerless committee if criticism from the members is consistently shut down.
A group dedicated to coming up with recommendations to resolve issues around our police department’s engagement with people of color and other marginalized groups such as those with different gender identifications, non-heterosexual orientations, and disabilities cannot be successful if they are being influenced by the very people that will be receiving their recommendations. It does not make logical sense for the police to be directly involved in that work. If they were going to come up with these DEI ideas themselves, then why aren’t they already making DEI efforts? Why bother outsourcing this emotional labor to unpaid volunteers?
If Mt. Lebanon’s ad-hoc DEI committee is to be successful, the leadership needs to foster an environment where all of the members feel comfortable to speak their mind and share their relevant lived experiences to assist in identifying our community’s DEI problems. They wanted as many viewpoints as possible, so help them feel safe so that those viewpoints may be expressed. Then listen to them.
Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash
Continue Learning
Helen Kim Ho, “8 Ways People of Color are Tokenized in Nonprofits” (Sep. 18, 2017). Medium.
Laura Zarate, “The Effects of Tokenism on Women of Color” (May 2001). ReShape.
Emil Kresl, “The Big Problem with Saying ‘If You Don’t Like It, Leave’” (Jul. 23, 2019). Raison Living.
Mikki Kendall, “The police can’t police themselves. And now the public is too scared to cooperate with them.” (Apr. 10, 2015). The Washington Post.
