Diversity isn’t just about differences between groups
GROUP DIVERSITY
There’s a lot of diversity within groups too
A group’s experiences may overlap, but they won’t always be the same.
We should factor in these differences too. Examples:
NATIONALITY
Asian includes Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese and a host of other nationalities with different customs, languages and ways of seeing the world. Likewise, Hispanic/Latino covers over 20 nationalities.
Experience
A Black person whose ancestors were enslaved will have a different perspective than one whose family more recently immigrated from Ghana or Nigeria.
Gender
A Chinese-American woman will have a different perspective than a Chinese-American man. A transgender Latina will have a different perspective than a cisgender Latina.
Age
Younger generations within a group won’t feel the same way as older generations.
The way a person’s group identities intersect and overlap each other to form their individual perspective and experience is called intersectionality. (Credit goes to law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw who coined the term/idea of intersectionality.)
STEREOTYPES
Avoid stereotypes
We should all know this by now. But just in case…
At Best
It’s super boring and unoriginal to write and cast a “sassy Black best friend,” “spicy Latina” or “smart Asian.” Same goes for the “hot airhead,” “super mom with a lazy husband” or “feeble old person.” Yawn.
At Worst
Stereotypes are racist, sexist and/or ageist and really damaging to people’s perceptions of themselves and others.
Either way, it reflects poorly on the brand.
Despite what you might see in some ads, suburban families come in all colors, shades, sexual orientations, gender identities and combinations thereof. So do businesspeople, scientists, teachers, lawyers, doctors, artists, farmers, hotel guests and all the other types of people we might include in our work.
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