The Umami of DEI
Is there a missing piece we can name, a missing essence if you will, that could get diversity, equity and inclusion efforts to converge into transformative justice?
You’ve put your heart and soul into cooking a new recipe but the flavor just isn’t right. You go back over the recipe to make sure you included everything and you know your ingredients are quality but the taste isn’t hitting. More salt? A little sugar? Do it like the French and add a pat of butter? Simmer it a little longer to pull out more flavor? You’re looking for the umami, the ‘essence of deliciousness’ that brings out the full spectrum of flavor experience. Think of a dish that hit your umami mark, so good you want to lick the bowl once you are done if only to savor that last drop. Now that you have that felt-sense and body memory recall, let’s explore how this analogy can help us identify the missing piece in our efforts to address diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in our personal spaces, home life, community organizing, nonprofit and for-profit organizational settings.
A lot of well-meaning, well-intentioned people have brought forward DEI initiatives in a flurry of responsiveness to the injustice at the heart of our society. The last decade has seen increased publication of books and other training tools whose intentions are to put essential tools into the hands of the people and get us pointed in a direction of being able to confront injustice in the different venues of our lives and move towards change. No one said this work would be easy and that change would happen overnight. We know that not everyone is interested in our social systems transforming, especially if they have historically and financially benefited from them through multiple generations. Pushback was a given particularity by those who hold power in the social construct of difference.
In the meantime, injustice in local and global spheres is not taking a holiday. It is not rattled by cries for reconciliation, reparation or repair. What will it take for humans to want to change the models that continue to work efficiently at deriving profit on the exploited labor of others? In addition to tools of protest, strike and boycott we have known for generations that a particular power resides in transformative education and yet current approaches to DEI seem to be effective in some cases and wildly ineffective in others. Is there a missing piece we can name, a missing essence if you will, that could get these efforts to converge into transformative justice?
Fundamentally we have to want to do this work. We have to be ok with getting uncomfortable in new ways as we examine this system's origins, how it perpetuates and what catalysts could be activated to be part of its transformation. I recall the series on Netflix, Salt Fat Acid Heat with chef and author Samin Nosrat. As she joyfully tasted, prepared and consumed each dish, she educated her audience on these four essentials in cooking. Her thesis is the simple view that by giving attention to four key elements, “Salt enhances flavor; Fat, delivers flavor and generates texture; Acid, balances flavor; and Heat, ultimately determines the texture of food— anything you cook will be delicious”. By paying attention to these basic components of cooking and understanding how they are interconnected, we can arrive at the unique essence of deliciousness of a dish.
Perhaps if we take a creative approach in our DEI transformational work that allows for an experience of the senses, an infusion of creativity and a generative space that will allow the various ingredients in the learning to mix, mingle and intersperse, we may discover that the missing element we were looking for - the catalyst for change- lives in the folds of your body. Taste is certainly a subjective experience and chefs of the world can agree there are core elements like salt, fat, acid and heat that are universal to the culinary experience.
The salt of DEI is the lens with which we look through. Decolonization praxis presents a process of examination of the systems at work in modern society, their origins and enforcement. It also shares, via the imagination and viewpoints of Indigenous Peoples, the pathway to how we liberate ourselves from these bondages. Fundamentally, decolonization means LAND BACK. On another level, decolonization is an embodied process of how we return our bodies to the land of which we are a part. Indigeneity is the indigenous consciousness that lives within us all, as we are all indigenous to the Earth.
The fat of DEI is active restoration. In our bodies, fat acts as a storage vessel for energy converted from food, insurance for survival, cushioning and warmth. Without the cushion of rest, no healing or transformational process is possible. We find ourselves at a distinct moment of rest-deficit as our sleep too has been colonized. In this process we have been indoctrinated to always be productive in the 24 hour factory of life. If you function on very little sleep (anything under 8 hours in the nighttime) you are praised! Without processing space for the daily sensory overload activity of life, a giant backlog of unprocessed memories is then stored in the body. Thank you fat! Except then we add on even heavier experiences of trauma, stress, racial stress, generational and intergenerational trauma, sensory overload and grief and now the body must continue to consolidate and store to the point of its system overload and that creates an atmosphere of disease and decay. Active restoration embodies rest practices that help us with the necessary processing of this lengthy backlog.
The acid of DEI is creative practice that supports our innovation and problem solving to expand beyond dominant cultural practices of reason, analytics and logic. Fueled by the spaciousness of active rest practice, we discover a greater bandwidth of creative non-linear tools that allow for imagination, play and collaboration to be a part of our systems-design process at the heart of DEI. The goal is more culturally diverse spaces, more culturally diverse leadership, equitable opportunities for growth and profit and spaces where inclusion fosters belonging. With creativity as the balancing influence, new systems can develop that have us exploring decentralized leadership models, accountability practices and shared success models that transcend the limitations of our current systems.
The heat of DEI, the thing that ultimately determines its texture, is the creative landscape of messaging and integration. Through our storytelling, dreamwork, myth- making and futurism, we hold the power of transforming the narrative that traps humanity in a lesser version of itself. How we creatively communicate through various platforms internal and external is how we reclaim the power of the story. Our current social/civilizational construct is a story that 8 billion people are forced to subscribe to. It is an imposition on our collective indigeneity and the systems designed to enforce this story oppress us all.
Ultimately, we want our efforts to transform outdated, oppressive systems to feel like the most delicious dish you have ever eaten and one that leaves you coming back for more. In speaking with people in community organizing, for profit and nonprofit settings, we hear analogies of DEI experiences that are more like trying to eat a box of saltine crackers with a really dry mouth or a super tasteless plain broth. The umami of DEI lives at the intersection of DEI + Wellness.
Part 2 - Reimagining Wellness as a Space for ALL
At DEIcipher Group we define wellness as a generative space for embodied transformation. We bring decades of experience in group facilitation, direct service, case management, community health system leadership and retreat organizing in order to directly impact wellbeing by addressing burnout, mental health, leadership development, longevity and vitality. Our goal is to enrich your ability to maneuver in dimensions of identity, intersectionality and mind-body.
Wellness practice is at the center of how we design transformative spaces. We believe that for transformation to occur, the mind must be rooted in the body. In addressing the historical disenfranchisement of people with marginalized identities, DEI cannot solely be an intellectual endeavor. We must center the body as the tool for transformation through creative, restorative, reflective, celebratory engagement.
At the confluence of DEI + Wellness live intentional spaces for growth, healing and transformation. These spaces are not weekend workshops and one-off training sessions. Here resides an allowance for development of trust and ample room for varied processing needs. Experiences move through curriculum that develop foundational practice and cultivate independence while a support system grows at the speed of trust. The existence of belonging and community are not an assumption simply because a group of people are associated with the same organization. This intersection is a third space, generated by participants and facilitators honest needs and varied starting points. Interdependence is its promise.
We believe that the future of wellness is models of community care where needs are met despite the confines of time and money. This requires tools for navigation and a sense of belonging. We acknowledge the need for a decolonization framework to be at the heart of this work to heal the wound that perpetuates because wellness tools are stolen from their cultural contexts, washed for consumption by dominant culture and sold for incredible profit by actors outside of these system’s origins.
The magnitude of the global wellness economy is staggering. Historically those who have access possess the key factors of time and money. They also have the cultural knowledge of how to navigate the health systems, businesses and practitioners as well as the capability to identify what they need. This consumer approach to wellness utilizes greater resources of time and money through trial and error and creates dependency rather than a guided approach where one is gaining body sovereignty along the journey.
According to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) the wellness economy encompasses industries that enable consumers to incorporate wellness activities and lifestyles into their daily lives. Wellness itself is defined by the organization as,
“The active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health. According to this definition, wellness is not a passive state, but rather an ‘active pursuit’ that is associated with intentions, choices, and actions. Wellness also extends beyond physical health and incorporates many dimensions, including the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and environmental dimensions.”
The financial scope of the global wellness industry is massive. The predictions all point towards continued financial growth and increased consumer demand. We need a new vision that has space for everyone to access wellness and the capacity to navigate its landscape. Wellness is a birthright not an exclusive arena for the wealthy. An ethos of interconnectedness and body sovereignty is required. Decolonization of the global wellness economy is an effort of re-humanizing.
The tools/assets used in the wellness industry are of Indigenous origin. This legacy wealth was birthed in the hands of the people/community and is their birthright. The economy of Wellness acts as a barrier to access. We are calling for a decolonization of the global wellness economy that opens up the possibility of the embodied experience of interconnectedness, belonging, humanizing, orienteering (sacred cosmology), re-membering, possibility & hope, empathy, compassion, crafting your own meaning-making and acknowledgment of cultural origins of wellness practice.
The main belief at the heart of capitalist economics is scarcity. It describes how we live in a world of unlimited wants and limited resources. So long we continue to design our systems with this anthesis to the truths of the natural world, we remain within its contractive stronghold. A pathway to liberation lives within each of us, we only have to lay these tired bodies down long enough to reconnect and remember. We are here to walk this journey with you, in collaboration, to juice and revive past efforts that did not create palatable outcomes.
Are you hearing the call for DEI Reset? Let’s get creative with our ingredients and make magic together!
References & Resources:
https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/industry-research/the-global-wellness-economy/