ICCJ's Response to HB-261
The Inclusion Center for Community and Justice has been working towards Human Relations in the Salt Lake Valley since the 1960s. As you can imagine, the conversation surrounding social justice has evolved significantly. To be an effective agent of change in the hope of social justice, the Inclusion Center must be mindful of the verbiage we use and regularly reevaluate best practices in our approach.
Earlier this year, the Utah legislature passed an anti-DEI bill that restricts educators and governmental entities from engaging in conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our holistic approach to DEI allows us to recognize that the failure to understand the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion is rooted in a lack of knowledge. Our goal at the Inclusion Center is to educate individuals who are unaware of the impact of privilege, oppression, and systems of domination. Ignorance and the unknown can instill fear in people. This impacts how people move through the world, whether that fear is based on factual information.
At the Inclusion Center, we understand how this fear can lead to tactics that attempt to politicize words. Throughout history, words such as feminism, climate change, immigration, and desegregation have been politicized to marginalize certain groups of people further. Although the passing of this bill may feel like an attack on our work, we recognize that it is a direct result of the importance of our mission. The Inclusion Center's staff and board are more committed than ever to approaching these conversations with grace, understanding, and a firm dedication to our mission to create safe and healthy spaces for conversations surrounding DEI.
