Stephanie White’s Post

I recently made a post about DEI in the fire service and how it can be harmful because of how we’ve incorrectly applied it to hiring standards. In reality this practice is aimed at getting more female firefighters in the fire service. DEI standards in the fire service are an irony because we incorrectly use them to attract more women, but struggle to have functioning pregnancy policies - policies that are in fact considered DEI. Reading through some of the responses across social media platforms, I was struck by the reminder of the analogy of the starting line and how not everyone starts at the same place. Let’s use my own home turf as an example. Ten years ago - ten. Not one hundred, not two hundred, ten - the Commonwealth of Virginia agreed to pay the survivors of forcible sterilization compensation. These people were very much alive, and living daily with the fact that in 1924 the Commonwealth passed a Eugenical Sterilization Act. Coincidentally that is the same year they also passed the Racial Integrity Act which prohibited interracial marriage. Ten years. Forcible sterilization in the Commonwealth of Virginia ended ten years before I was born. We do not all start at the same place in this rat race of life. I feel confident in saying that because of the history I know of my own home state. So, we created programs, and we attached labels to programs. We love our labels here in the US because we can clearly point to someone and know exactly where to place them on our scales of worth. DEI programs were created as a bandaid. An attempt to right unspeakable wrongs, but they never stood a chance of actually working because for that to happen: we would have had to admit what human beings are capable of. That’s the starting line we never arrived at. As we see programs dissolve I ask us to remember one thing: we don’t all start at the same spot in the race. Some among us pause and have children. Some among us step away and care for aging parents. Some among us served in the military and have brains that bear the scars of that. Some among us still deal with the fact that busing ended one year after I was born in some parts of our state…I have yet to turn 40. Bandaids are temporary measures. They get dirty and need to be replaced often. I think it’s safe to say that this wound has still not had the chance to even form into a scar considering how little time has gone by. I would say that we can all simply promise that we’re going to do the right thing, but if we won’t even acknowledge and learn our own history…how can you promise we won’t repeat it? (Image used purely as clickbait to get you to read all this, sorry, I don’t make the algorithm rules.) #fireservice #leadership #virginia #dei