Both-siding happens because we think we’re being fair and intellectually curious and encouraging “diversity of perspectives,” etc. But many perspectives are awful and should never get any exposure. This is not to say we should no longer hear different sides or have rigorous debates. But those should be designed to engage with essential truths, not to argue about whether an overwhelmingly proven fact is valid or not. For instance, we can debate about how to respond to human-created climate change, NOT debate whether humans create climate change. We can argue about Kamala Harris’s records, NOT do what Newsweek did, which is give racists a platform to advance their birther conspiracy theory, in the name of “diverse perspectives.”

In nonprofit and philanthropy, the both-siding we do is more subtle, but it is pervasive. For instance, a colleague tweeted asking an organization to put a salary range on its job posting. There is so much research on how the lack of pay transparency disproportionately harms Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, women, disabled people. It also wastes everyone’s time and is a clear signal that your organization is stuck in the past.

A leader at the organization tweeted back: “This is an important issue. Do drop me a line so that we can have a wider chat about it & perhaps look to organize some sort of session/forum to facilitate a conversation?” The colleague wrote back, “I don’t really see what there is to talk about. Not publishing salaries increases the gender pay gap. Your agency agrees to do this.” Other folks chimed in with “no need for talk, just update your policies and job postings” and “seriously, read the room.”

That is an awesome collective response, and one that I wish we would use more. Whatever arguments you have to conceal salary range or ask for salary history have been thoroughly considered. The threshold has been reached to conclude that disclosing salary in job postings is an equitable practice. Either you change your practice when it is well-proven to be harmful and inequitable, or you are in denial about the harm you are causing.

Read the full article about both-siding by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.