ABSTRACT
There is widespread agreement that a racially diverse and inclusive mediation field is of paramount importance for everyone: Practitioners, users, and the public. More so than many other fields, it is important that mediation is seen as a process where its practitioners bring different lived experience and all participants feel welcome. The well-known approaches used by other fields to achieve racial diversity and inclusion are not readily replicable for mediation since it does not have features present elsewhere like pipelines, clearly defined career pathways, media access, compensated opportunities, among others. Confidentiality, neutrality, and voluntarism are so embedded, internalized, and normalized that they are taken for granted and have become invisible. For the mediation field, its structures, policies, practices, and values create barriers to addressing and expanding diversity and inclusivity. New approaches are needed to tackle mediation's unique characteristics so that it can showcase a racially diverse and inclusive field.
