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| NYC July 4, 2012, C. Wark |
In my last blog entry I asked, “What’s in a word?” I examined
words used in hateful, specifically racist ways. Now, as we begin a new year, our thoughts
tend to focus on how we want this year to be an improvement over last
year. We wish each other good health,
prosperity, happiness, and peace. Being
in the diversity and inclusion business, I wish people greater diversity and
inclusion. These two words do not come
without their own baggage. The word diversity is rife with double entendres for
those who resist inclusion and is sometimes misused as code for ‘workplace
representation quotas’ or ‘political correctness.’
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| New York Botanical Garden W. Wark, 2012 |
Diversity
Why am I wishing you a year filled with diversity? Well, first, I would think that without
diversity your year might be pretty boring.
In wishing you a diverse year, I am wishing you more diversity in terms
of your experiences, thoughts, and relationships. This may seem incredibly
simple and obvious; however, many people still cling to old, familiar ways out
of habit and sometimes this means sustaining an ‘us and them’ culture. How many
times, for example have you heard someone say something like, “If it were not
for those people ...?” People would
likely find other things to cling to, in terms of their personal comfort and assigning
blame if their engagement with diversity increased, but the more diverse people’s
relationships are the more likely they are to accept different opinions, ideas
and lifestyles. So I wish you an incredibly diverse year!
Inclusion
Why wish you inclusion?
Well, being inclusive requires an action on your behalf. One cannot sit at home and expect inclusion
to come to them. It may in very, very
small ways, such as the person delivering the Thai food who is from
Guatemala. But, we would not know where
the person was from without asking them as they would not be likely to
volunteer that information. So, we need
to be proactive if we are to be inclusive. There is so much that we can learn,
enjoy, and gain by extending invitations. I hope that you are reaching out and
inviting inclusion into your life!
History
Throughout these blog entries I have carried a thread, or a
theme. I am always wondering how to take
this complicated and rather arduous subject of diversity and inclusion and
break it down into digestible segments or bites, but more than sound bites, I
am trying to nurture thoughts and discussion about sensitive and challenging
subjects. I believe that we can only
move forward if we explore and respond to our past. Reading history and checking a box or filing
away the information without learning from it or applying what we have learned
to the present is, in my humble opinion, worse than not learning at all. What if a doctor studied biology, but forgot
most of what they learned? Would you
want to be treated by that doctor?
No! Similarly, we all live in a
complex world with relationships made even more complicated by our
history. This is why I take an
educational approach to diversity and inclusion and have provided you with
historic context through this blog.
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| School of Athens, Raphael Fresco (1509-1510) |
Rhetoric
I want to discuss one other word – rhetoric. Rhetoric or buzz words tend to dominate the sound bites about diversity and
inclusion. When I think of the word rhetoric, I often think of the word
bluster, which is really the opposite of the original meaning of rhetoric –
which Aristotle taught us was the art of persuasion through the development of
arguments based on logic. Bluster on the other hand, is loud, pushy, empty
talk. Those who use bluster to distract us
from the main argument and point of discourse or rhetoric are often successful,
at least in the short term. Rhetoric has
become commonly used to mean exaggeration, or hyperbole, using words that lack substantive
meaning. I usually begin educational workshops by asking the participants to
define diversity and inclusion. The
results are often fascinating. These two simple words - diversity and inclusion
- represent a wide range of things to people, sometimes emotionally charged
things. So, as I have stated for years, words matter. Words are actions –
actions that have meaning for us. We need to develop a common vocabulary where
the meaning of words is understood by all parties; then we can begin to have
constructive conversations about difference.
Organizations need to do more than recruit diverse
candidates, such as create inclusion strategies if they are to experience
organizational change that is reflective of our society as a whole. Our society
as a whole, whether locally, regionally, nationally or globally, needs to take
assertive action if diversity is to become recognized as the precious commodity
that it is. The transition to an
inclusive world begins with you and with me.
This may sound like rhetoric, but having witnessed and benefited by the
words of individuals such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Sojourner
Truth, I know that my argument is sound.
So, I wish you all things wonderful in this New Year,
especially diversity and inclusion!
Onward!
~ Wendy
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