You Ask, I Answer: Why Representation Matters?

In today's episode, Renee asks a uh non-marketing question. Renee asks, what is the deal with representation? I keep seeing it all over the place. What is it and why should I care about it? Okay.

This is an important question. Representation, particularly within the context of um, well, really any industry, but especially things like and uh entertainment, representation is all about making sure that that the people who are portrayed in uh entertainment, or really just given the spotlight at all, are a diver a diverse group of people. So suppose you go to a marketing conference and you notice that every single speaker on stage is a middle-aged male, right? That sort of sends a message to the audience that the people who are held in highest esteem is that group of people. Representation says, let's find a good mix of people.

People who are gay, people who are straight, people who are black, people who are white, people who are Christian, people who are Muslim, people who are Buddhist, people who are short, people who are tall, etc. You get the idea. It's it's about creating diversity so that um more people are represented. Okay, cool. Again, why does this matter?

Well, here's the thing. We are attuned to what we see. When we see someone who looks like us in a position of power, that is an implicit message that people who are like us, we can achieve that, whatever that is, right? Think about it. When um a black girl sees Oprah Winfrey, she sees someone who's an enormously successful business person, you know, entertainer and things like that, and doesn't just notice that you know Oprah looks like her, but it says, I could be that.

I could be that person. Oprah did it. There's a there's clearly a path for me to do that. Maybe I can do that too. When a gay boy sees someone like Tim Cook, who's who's openly gay running one of the largest corporations on earth and doing a decent job of it, says, My sexuality is not an obstacle to success, right?

There is a path to a leadership position where I could be running a Fortune 10 company, right? When a trans girl sees Nicole Maines uh landing big parts on films and TV shows, that says to that person, I could do the same thing. I could I the possibility exists. And this is why representation matters. We care about getting the most out of people, right?

We care about unlocking potential in every field. Entertainment, banking, uh, science, mathematics. We want logically and rationally, we want the very best people possible in the field. If we are business owners, we want the very, very best people we can hire on staff. Um, and if we have a group of people who are shut out because they don't see themselves, so they don't even try.

In that group of people, we could very well have some undiscovered talent that could have been really useful, right? If someone like me who's uh of Korean heritage looks at an industry and I don't see anybody um who's Korean uh you know in any kind of position of power, that kind of tells me that industry is not the right place for me. Right. If I went to a marketing conference and I did not see other uh people of Korean descent on stage, or hell, I'd settle for any East Asian descent. Um again, I would say, wow, this conference really isn't for me.

This conference is not uh an event that um I'm gonna get anything out, even if that's not true, because I don't see people like me. Now, is this um is this true or is this sort of just you know wishy-washy touchy-feely stuff? No, it actually is true. Um, the this is how people make decisions. Uh, neuroscience and psychology uh have proven this a long time ago, that uh representation is how people make decisions, right?

It's one of the reasons why you have popular people endorsing things, right? It's part of a marketing strategy, or influencers endorsing things because they attract a like crowd. It's one of the reasons why you see um you know companies taking certain social stands because they know that that social stand is going to be supported by the people that are gonna spend the most money with them. Right? That's that's literally it.

This is really important, particularly in entertainment, right? Thousands, thousands of black girls had written to Nichelle Nichols in the decades after Star Trek aired to say how inspired they they were to pursue a career in science, despite you know, crazy amounts of bias and discrimination in the field because they saw Lieutenant Uhura on the bridge of the USS Enterprise as a peer, as an officer, uh, as a member of the crew and not a maid or a servant, right? Thousands of uh you know, lesbians have written to Alison Hannigan over the decades after her portrayer of uh Willow on uh on Buffy on the TV series in a in a healthy, non-objectified relationship, when uh Willow and Tara was the the relationship that helped those women accept themselves and come out despite a culture that really didn't accept them, right? Every time, every time we open the door to someone else's race, orientation, background, etc., we create a world that's better. We create a world where people can fulfill their their potential, right?

More artists, more scientists, more thinkers. We advance humanity as a whole, and we are at a turning point right now in our civilization as a species, as a species on this planet, and we desperately need the very best talent we can find, the best people to solve the world's biggest problems, you know, like uh climate change and the world just sort of you know going off the off the uh it's off the rails. If today a girl sees uh a scientist character on screen who happens to be a lesbian, that might inspire her to be that, to become that, and that girl tomorrow might act solve carbon sequestration, right? Which we need uh for our continued survival as a species on this planet. We cannot afford to close the doors to human potential, you know, now more than ever.

So this is why representation matters. It isn't just to make some uh one group of people feel better, it is to tell everyone, regardless of your background, that the door is open. If you've got talent, if you've got potential, the door is open. But each group of people needs to see one of their members represented in that conversation, whether it is on stage at a conference, whether it is in a newspaper, whether it is on social media, whether it is um in a TV series, any place that where attention goes, representation has to flow there so that people see themselves, see the possibilities, and know that the door is open for them to play their part and to live up to their potential as human beings. So, good question, tough question, very tough question.

Tougher hard, tougher more to uh to actually do it, but worthwhile if we do. Thanks for asking. Talk to you next time. If you like this video, go ahead and hit that subscribe button.