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You're busy. Your file is a priority, and it needs to be ready for this committee date. You've skipped town hall consultations in favour of a two-week online questionnaire. You don't really have time to go through all of the comments. Perfection is the enemy of the good, right?
You quietly skip the ones with the spelling and grammar mistakes because you're having a hard time understanding what they're talking about. You make fun of one to a colleague but then feel bad on the bus ride home. There's a few that express real concern, but they're a minority.
These minority concerns are further diluted as briefings go up the chain of command. Now it's a bullet "Undertook consultations; received 700 comments, mostly positive." People pat themselves on the back. You got your big file done.
Only years later, there are news reports. The program you created is furthering inequities. You're surprised, defending the decision, though you've moved on to another job now. The program has made things better for most, but harmed a few.
This is how we in positions of power inadvertently create systemic obstacles for oppressed populations. We skip the work. Even when we're well-meaning, we absolutely cannot skip the work. And the work isn't one time only, it's ongoing, and it requires heaps of humility.
So for those of us who work in the public sector, it's incumbent on us to do the work, and to speak up when we're told that it isn't important, or that there's no budget for it, or that time doesn't allow for it. When we don't speak up, we become polite, well-meaning oppressors.
