Avoiding Pity Politics When Speaking and Engaging With Minority Groups
When engaging with minority groups we don’t need to treat them with pity.
It’s pretty clear to me that The Olympics is simply the warm-up to The Paralympics. The sporting achievements of these superhuman individuals never fail to amaze me, especially when you think about how society has historically treated them with pity and disregard.
Sheetal Devi, a 17-year-old archer from India, was born without arms due to a rare congenital disorder called Phocomelia. Devi was the first and only female archer without any upper limbs to claim an international title, courtesy of the two gold medals she won at the 2022 Asian Paralympic Games. A few days ago she added a Paralympic Bronze medal to her list of accolades.
The money that sponsors pour into the Olympics but don’t seem to find the ‘space’ or even a fraction of investment to do so with the Paralympics is short-term thinking. Similar rhetoric exists in the conversation surrounding women’s football where the focus is on needing to track ROI, lack of eyeballs and optimising costs.
Why when it comes to historically marginalised groups do brands and agencies only see the risk of getting it wrong and not the potential opportunity of getting it right?
According to The World Health Organisation, 1.3 billion people across the world (16% of the global population) currently experience ‘a significant disability’.
This isn’t a tiny, insignificant part of society–just like every other protected demographic when thinking about including all, there are intersections and influences that are scalable beyond the group itself.
So where do we go from here?
Reframe cost savings
In-depth convo for another day, but any idea that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) is an extra cost to the Profit and Loss (P&L) without thinking about revenue potential is quite frankly stupid. Isn’t the whole point of marketing to reach as large a percentage of our target audience as possible?
Work with the right partners
Specialist agencies will be a better fit to de-risk, and give you credibility and confidence in ensuring that in a desire to represent, you don’t misrepresent. For example, the Purple Goat Agency within the disability space.
Balance short-termism with long-term impact
Nothing will change if we stick to what we’ve always done. Yes we want to achieve things in our job tenures but there’s not enough defined space in our day-to-day to think creatively about long standing problems which often have far more long-term value.
Here’s to prioritising the positivity over pity–and letting the risk of losing relevancy with audiences spur you into relevant action.
Want more unfiltered insights straight to your inbox? Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest trends, bold takes and tips on how to resonate with diverse audiences. Or, if you’ve got a project in mind, drop us a message—we’d love to chat!
don't be shy, say hi!
