Inclusion Is NOT a Zero-Sum Game

For our next segment, Dr. Aparajita Jeedigunta of AJ Rao LLC and I are going to talk about inclusion. The topic of this episode is that inclusion isn't a zero-sum game. Could you elaborate what you mean by that?

Dr. AJ: Absolutely. There’s this concern that by including more people, you're actually taking away power and privilege from those who already have it. Like when we talk about white privilege. There are white people who are not affluent saying, “I grew up poor.” I’m not denying that at all, but you're still white. There's still some privilege that comes with that.

Just like me being Indian American; people assume that my parents are filthy stinking rich, but they're not. I do have the privilege of having the support of my parents, a stable family structure and a commitment to family. Those are my privileges.

That's really where this “inclusion is not a zero-sum game” comes from. When we think of inclusion, we tend to think of these sacrifices and privileges, but it's not like that. The universe theoretically started from the Big Bang, and it's still expanding. The power and energy in the universe is still expanding. That's sort of how inclusion is. It's still expanding. By including more people, we don't destroy that energy. We just convert and amplify that power exponentially by adding more voices. It's not even linear. When we look at it like a win-loss, zero-sum game, we're just shooting ourselves in the foot.

Read the shownotes: https://defythestatusquo.com/2020/07/21/inclusion-is-not-a-zero-sum-game/

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