... How can we even envision an actual equitable workplace, where it’s not just controlled by corporate branding and HR? That first year, they had the head of branding for Uber being interviewed on stage. It was a Black woman at the time and she said something about how “we look at all of our employees as family” and someone in the audience shouted out, “does that include drivers?” That was great, but then there was this debate on the conference app about whether that was okay because of her identity. And that brought up for me how marginalized people are used as shields. Some company hires a Black woman to be their brand director because then other people who are marginalized don’t feel like they can criticize; they don’t want to challenge her. So then how do you challenge the company?



At my workplace it’s still often talked about more as inclusion. Diversity is just who’s there and inclusion is, as they told me at work, being able to bring your whole self into the workplace and feel included. That’s an interesting way to think about it, because when you bring your whole self into the workplace, the workplace can also extend into your whole self. But sometimes some aspects of marginalized identity that are not socially appropriate can also provide a space that’s separate from work in a positive way that naturally resists that assimilation.



Once you bring that into work, that identity can be packaged up and sold back to you. In Seattle, your position in the Pride parade depends on how much money you donate. For example, Uber is always in the first 10 floats because they’re a top level sponsor. They donate a lot of money, but does that mean anything about what it’s like for LGBTQ employees at Uber or any other kind of equity there?



The theme of Pride this year is the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. I’m thinking about Uber and other companies out there commemorating when people threw rocks at cops! It’s been so co-opted and branded that you can even talk about Stonewall in a corporate friendly way. It’s shocking. Equity is still in that phase where it can be interesting but it’s starting to get talked about more by the corporate side of things. They don’t want to let anything be driven by workers, right? It’s always, “if you have problems, you should go talk to HR.” LGBTQ employees groups are really ways of the company trying to take any worker agitation and turn it into something they can control. ...



Read the full interview with Carmen here