Community Diversity and Tokenism with Crystal Byrd Farmer

Encouraging diversity

Crystal Byrd Farmer, a polyamorous writer and speaker, joined us this week to speak about tokenism and diversity, which she also covers in her book The Token: Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Organization.

Throughout this episode, Crystal covers the following topics:

• What it means to be a token, as well as tokenism specifically in non-monogamous spaces.
• How some common advice for encouraging diversity can also backfire and how to encourage people to put marginalized people in positions of power without tokenizing them and/or encouraging more tokenizing behavior.
• How to handle resistance.
• How community leaders have balanced a need to help people feel included while not endorsing harmful behavior.
• Advice for privileged people in uplifting marginalized people’s experiences and struggles.
• Using privilege to educate instead of shame others.

“ Instead of shaming, use your privilege to help others understand harm.”

-Crystal Byrd Farmer

Crystal’s book can be found anywhere books are sold, and visit her website to learn more about her and her writing. Follow her on Facebook at @crystalbyrdfarmer or Instagram and Twitter at @crystalbfarmer.