I sometimes struggle with this blog. If you have been following it for a while, you’d know that I went through a “Ranting Phase” and it was exactly that…a rant, which of course is never “positive”! The trouble is, of course, always being “positive” can appear to be contrived and an avoidance of the negativity that runs rampant in our world. So what’s a happy medium? Well, I thought I’d address the subject of diversity, something I could, should, and may write a book about some day so brevity will be tricky but that is going to be the point…keeping this complex subject “simple”.
Question! “What if someone is viewed as falling under the umbrella of diversity but they are in fact nothing of the sort?” In other words, and there is a buzz around “diversity”, what if diversity doesn’t actually exist? The dictionary says it does. “Di-ver-si-ty”; The state of being diverse. Variety
Okay, that’s a pretty good way of seeing it. Our society has a “variety” of human beings so diversity exists in that context. I was fascinated to have a plane ride conversation with an executive from IBM who honoured me with his time and frankly, asked me more questions than I did of him. We talked a lot about my work as a speaker and he was quite perceptive in understanding that if I was an employee of IBM, I would qualify for their “Diversity Project” which is an internal, unofficial function of his departments he oversees. I asked him if it was an exercise in the politically correct with a focus on optics for the public (I actually used that sentence). He laughed and suggested it happens more than you think but then had a great observation. Allow me to paraphrase his comment; “Diversity isn’t about race, it’s about varied points of view that allow product design and development to represent views from all segments of our population and target markets”. Brilliant. He further explained his view of his team’s diversity indeed represent race, but also gender, age and sexual preference.
I was asked to be a guest speaker at National Diversity Day in Toronto last year and as you might imagine, it was a “diverse” crowd. In fact, white folk like me were the clear minority in attendance. Weird, huh? I actually opened my talk with a provocative line…”I don’t believe there is such a thing as diversity! I believe everyone is living their normal and we should all be called children of planet earth!” There was an audible gasp. Of course, I didn’t leave it there. I actually brought the talk around to where I acknowledged that thinking like that may never occur but isn’t it worth pursuing? To get there, we must also acknowledge the very real presence of racism, bigotry, mysogony and down right ignorance and that these elements may never disappear. But can’t we try?
It seems the latest target is Transgender. I will not get into it here but you may have heard about North Carolina, Mississippi and other assorted states who are refusing to acknowledge the need for gender neutral washrooms or allowing a Trans person to choose which facility to use is just the tip of an ugly iceberg. Again, this subject is not my expertise but it like the iceberg, the real story is beneath the surface. Why, you may ask, am I bringing this up?
Can you imagine how I have been labelled? I started out being a Thalidomide Baby, Thalidomide Victim and in general, Freak of Nature! Then I was Crippled, but political correctness was invented and we became Disabled, then Handicapped, then and now, Person With Special Needs! I truly wonder what’s next. By the way, I get this intellectually, but honest, honest, honest…isn’t it all just stupid? I am Alvin! I am completely “Normal”! So is someone black, brown, or yes, white. Someone male, female, both! Someone heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, non-sexual! I am truly perplexed at this subject. I don’t know why this is so hard for some people when the new reality exists everywhere.
Lets be blunt and pick something specific for a moment. When Olympic athlete and celebrity, Bruce Jenner very publicly transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner, it changed everything in a community that has been fighting for acceptance for decades if not longer. Today in the news, the American Family Association (AFA) is taking aim at retail giant, Target, who are publicly acknowledging transgender humans by allowing the transgendered to use the washroom of their choice. They have launched an online protest asking people to sign a petition to boycott all Target stores because they are creating an environment that encourages pedophiles, predators and voyeurs and endangers women and children who will be targeted and victimized! Last count…167,000 have signed it in 24 hours and the number will likely hit 500,000 in no time. REALLY??? This organization claims it isn’t against transgender people, just promoting family values. Whose family values? Not mine! Frankly, this is the exact ignorance that I am talking about. Ironically, this kind of dialogue has been overheated by claims that Christian values are being compromised by everyone attacking them. “Merry Christmas” vs “Happy Holidays” is a perfect example. My wife and I have been very vocal about supporting saying Merry Christmas but it’s not because of religion for us. True, the AFA absolutely has a right to exist, state it’s values and protest what they disagree with. I totally get that. But here’s another angle.
My wife and business partner, Darlene, has a cousin on her dad’s side who is gay. He is married to a man and they have a son, who is approaching three years old. Their son was born by a surrogate who was artificially inseminated by one of the men’s sperm (which one doesn’t matter and is private) and I have had the very good fortune of getting to know this family. Make no mistake…they are a “family”. In fact, they are one of the most loving, caring and authentic families I know. The American Family Association would disagree. That makes me sick! But, that’s my opinion. By the way, I arrive at this from a life of struggling to be me and getting to know others who have had similar battles inspire me. I find the celebrity of Caitlyn Jenner a bit annoying but I applaud the courage it took for Bruce to become Caitlyn. I will never understand it but I will always support people who live this fight.
So here’s the question. Where do you land? Have I offended you? Are you confused? Are you in agreement? Do you have any personal examples either way? What does your workplace look like? Are you supportive of diversity? Do you have your own story? Do you understand where my passion for this subject comes from?
See what I meant at the beginning? I never know whether I sound angry or if it is what I call…”A Tone of Challenge”! I am in the business of telling stories and challenging people to raise their own personal “bar” so we can make our world better. What that looks like may be very personal for each of us. But I am eternally grateful it’s 2016 not 1960! Been there…didn’t like it!
4 Comments
It is in our nature to place people into categories. We see white, black, male, female, tall, short, long-haired, bald, tattooed, pierced, young, old, et. al. This process is subconscious and benign but when we become aware of it, it can become an emotional force ranging from compassion to hatred.
Agreed, when we are born we are not programmed. We have no conscious awareness of time, groups, labels, etc… but then, it all starts. We start our learning curve. But what I think (note: I am a Thalidomide survivor as well) is individually we are a complex piece of work, collectively we are a universe of complexity. Now that we have defined the breadth of the issue, then logic may suggest that in order to understand, control and understand such a diverse and large complex pool attention needs to look individuals versus the individual. I mean realistically, out of 8 billion there is no two people more important that you and I – correct?
You kick started me Alvin, as this is an interesting piece; but mate, let’s be fair about this, the 60’s were not all that bad in Canada. For those who do not know, I too am thalidomide; however I have no legs, so Alvin and I were an interesting pair when we were growing up – and we are both here ‘today’. Let me put the ‘today’ plug into perspective. I have been to places in this world were it is unlikely we would have experienced our first 24 hours, or even worse ostracised to isolation for the time we did live. On that end, I say thank you Canada and all Canadians.
The way I recall it, in Canada around the 50’s there started an immense shift in peoples perceptions and acceptance of ‘physically’ different persons. In my observation individuals, communities, and Canada started to rev-up welcoming different persons into the fold, and opening the ‘inclusion’ doors. To the celebrities such as ‘Whipper’, and the brave medical practitioners, passionate teachers, my classmates and countless others who were coming to the forefront to lay foundations for us, they were leading a charge for change. Sure there were individuals who didn’t steam along as fast as everyone else; but I accept humans are a complex lot.
Personally, I liked the 60’s and thereafter as there was many green fields being trodden on. The boxes that once so famously framed what were were in society were being stretched. The wars were over, the music rocked, peace and love movements were popping up all over, and those who were part of it all – well, we defined and built the stage we currently stand on today. As the late Steve Irwin would say “Crickee Mate, that was Awesome”.
Diversity to me is simply – variety. Example-in the 70’s, I was a legless boy who travelled across Canada performing with his high-school’s jazz singing and dance troupe. Even today, this to me reads ‘weird’ – but it was Awesome!
I won the city’s Halloween costume of the year as ET, and turned into a handsome prince from a frog after kissing the princess in my church play. Sure there are sad days in my life and ‘yes’ sometimes it has poured instead of just rain; but most of us share that roller-coaster. These are real examples of variety ‘diversity’.
My feeling on how we are seen, judged or categorised is simple. We have it in ourselves to set ourselves. We can set ourselves how we see others; we can set ourselves how we want others to see us, and we set ourselves how we want to see ourselves. I accept we can be manipulated and coerced; but I also accept that as humans that is what we do, and we deal with it the best ways we can.
I ask your readers, how many people would welcome the opportunity to have a one-on-one chat with Stephen Hawkins and Alvin Law? I sure would, because then there would be 3 wonderful ‘freaks’, each sharing ‘diversities’ – Awesome!
Provocative thoughts, Alvin!!!
We will forever have diversity issues to deal with. Diversity existed from the beginning of time. Diversity of color, trees, flowers, animals, birds etc to say nothing about ethnic diversity, diversity of education, ability, disability etc. etc.
In my previous positions as a health care executive I had to deal with those issues continually. I NEVER chose an individual just for tokenism or to make the organization ‘look good’. I LOVE diversity, but I chose on merit, background and suitability for the position. If everything was equal, I chose an individual with diversity.
We had several with differing physical and mental abilities and they were terrific at what they did. I once spent considerable time interviewing and evaluating and trying to find something meaningful for a lovely young woman who was totally blind. I wanted so much to find something for her to do, because I liked her and wanted to hire her, but there just wasn’t anything or anywhere that was suitable for her or the organization. I was very sad that we couldn’t work something out. Her parents were upset and made quite an issue, claiming we were not diversity sensitive. Absolutely NOT true.
The most important thing is to be open, transparent, flexible, non-judgmental, compassionate and inclusive.
Thanks Annette. Great response to my blog. You know your stuff and that is appreciated.