Amri B. Johnson - Reconstructing Inclusion: Making DEI Accessible, Actionable, and Sustainable

Contents

Praise for Reconstructing Inclusion

Amri Johnson has gifted us with a worthy exploration of the current state of DEI work, and more importantly has challenged our thinking with this substantive and thoughtful work. At a time when tribalism is splintering societies around the world, and when divisiveness exists even within political and social ideologies, Johnson brings a mindset of both/and to a field that is mired in either/or thinking. As a native-born American with significant experiences in Europe and South America, he broadens our understanding of what is needed to bring people into alignment on a global scale. He recognizes the need for individual awareness, collective action, and structural change, and as an accomplished professional who has worked both inside and outside of organizations, he shows us tangible ways to get there. This book is a powerful resource for anybody who is looking at forging pathways to inclusion and belonging.

Howard Ross, author, Everyday Bias and Our Search for Belonging

Reconstructing Inclusion is an invaluable input for leaders who want to go beyond normative approaches to DEI and people issues in organizations, and create substantive and sustainable change. Particularly on-point is Johnsons warning about giving primacy to single dimensions of identity. In a polarized society ridden with a focus on human sub-groups and the divisions between them, this book centres humanity as a whole without losing sight of the need to address racial and other forms of social injustice. If DEI is to really enable progress, this balanced approach seems like the only viable way. There has perhaps never been a more important time for a book such as this, and I highly recommend it. Readers (and their organizations) will benefit from the wisdom it contains.

Sukhvinder S. Obhi, Professor of Social Neuroscience, McMaster University, Canada

Its hard to keep up with the abundance of books being published on DEI. But dont miss this one. Amri Johnson writes as a friendly critic inside the DEI movement. He beautifully weaves together his story as a Black man with his experience inside a massive pharmaceutical company and shares rich insights about what needs to change in DEI. This groundbreaking book brings cultural intelligence to life.

David Livermore, author and leading authority on cultural intelligence

Amri Johnson offers a call for practitioners to break the cycle of waxing and waning and not advancing DEI in the ways we desire. This means being in community to co-create our DEI vision, and being dedicated to changing our methods and patterns of behavior. This book offers the opportunity to think differently, to scrutinize methods and be open to unlearn what has been steeped into our practices and relearn, as a continuous process, concepts such as, othering, meritocracy, intersectionality, and exclusion. I highly recommend this book especially for DEI practitioners who want to be included and inclusive in affecting accessible, actionable, and sustainable organizations through diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Carla Carten, PhD, MSOD, Interim Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Mass General Brigham

Any leader who is committed to fostering a culture of inclusion needs to read this insightful and paradigm-shifting book. As strategic as he is pragmatic, Amri Johnson takes us on a critical journey that will leave any leader rethinking how to sustainably make manifest true inclusion at work.

Susan MacKenty Brady, Deloitte Ellen Gabriel Chair for Women in Leadership and Founding CEO, Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership

Reconstructing Inclusion took me on a journey of exploration and learning. It allowed me to be curious about my personal views about DEI whilst allowing other views to be listened to and explored. The non-binary approach taken brings layers of the subject into view and allows one to peel them away one by one and then put them back together again. Whilst the book is not a tool kit, it has reminded me how intent actions and systemic inclusion are paramount. Creating inclusion as a state of being is not the responsibility of them. We are all guardians of inclusion.

Petra Battersby, FCIPD, Chief People Officer, Envision Pharma Group

Reconstructing Inclusion is a strong message for global organizations who are interested in truly advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in a meaningful way. Amri Johnsons assertion is that deconstructing inclusion allows for expanding structures beyond reducing terms as simply effective vs. ineffective. Instead, addressing the complexity organizations should face to really move the needle. His book clearly amplifies what needs to be done to ensure measurable outcomes and success.

Michael Hyter, President and CEO, The Executive Leadership Council (ELC)

Reconstructing
Inclusion

Reconstructing
Inclusion

Making DEI Accessible, Actionable,
and Sustainable

AMRI B. JOHNSON

Matt Holt Books
An Imprint of BenBella Books, Inc.
Dallas, TX

This book is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services by publishing this book. If any such assistance is required, the services of a qualified financial professional should be sought. The author and publisher will not be responsible for any liability, loss, or risk incurred as a result of the use and application of any information contained in this book.

Reconstructing Inclusion copyright 2022 by Amri Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

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First E-Book Edition: 2022

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022013470

ISBN 9781637741887 (hardcover)

ISBN 9781637741894 (digital)

Editing by Gregory Newton Brown

Copyediting by Michael Fedison

Proofreading by Isabelle Rubio and Ariel Fagiola

Indexing by WordCo

Text design and composition by PerfecType, Nashville, TN

Cover design by Sold Brands Ltd

Special discounts for bulk sales are available. Please contact .

For my father, Larry D. Johnson, Sr. (1940-2017).

Your integrity, wisdom, and compassion are an
eternal flame in my heart and mind.

Contents

But we are all androgynous, not only because we are all born of a woman impregnated by the seed of a man but because each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the othermale in female, female in male, white in Black and Black in white. We are a part of each other. Many of my countrymen appear to find this fact exceedingly inconvenient and even unfair, and so, very often, do I. But none of us can do anything about it.

Here Be Dragons, James Baldwin, 1985