I love the cul-de-sac where I live. I have wonderful neighbors who are kind and loving and ready to help each other. They are a diverse group that seems to prove the idea that having many different kinds of people can make an organization or community stronger. It is in their individual uniqueness that they bring much joy and kindness to our daily interactions. Ours is a beautiful street filled with a cross section of educational levels, races, cultures, religions, sexual preferences and ages. We embrace each other just as we are and learn from our differences. We are a happy bunch who understand implicitly that help is always nearby when we need it. Being in the midst of diversity is such a lovely way to live. It is like a rose garden filled with variety and color.
A few summers ago my husband and I visited Maine with the purpose of helping our granddaughter move from the apartment provided for her internship into student housing on campus. It was still two weeks away from the arrival of most of the students so the area felt oddly empty save for the many retired folks who inhabit that part of our country. Everywhere we went we saw mostly grey haired white people who had retired to the lovely state filled with trees and ocean views. it felt strange to be in such a monochromatic bubble even though it was of the kind that existed in the time of my childhood in the south.
My granddaughter explained that part of her internship duties had involved determining how to attract more diverse populations to the state. It seems that businesses were languishing in the absence of the kind of vibrance that I take for granted where I live. The concern of industries and the government in Maine is that without the vibrance of many different types of individuals and families the economies will not grow and may even become stagnant as the older people die.
There are some in our country who seem to believe that diversity should have no prominence in our government or corporations or schools. They somehow equate diversity with an evil ploy to make it difficult for white men to achieve the highest levels of success that they once enjoyed. I hear folks saying that it is common for a white man to lose a job to a female lesbian of color. Such beliefs make me realize that a large number of people do not fully understand the nuances that result in the hiring of someone for a particular job. They do not remember or know of the prejudices that impeded all but white males in job placements of the past. Nor do they seem to realize that when searching for the best applicant for a particular job there are many characteristics that lead interviewers to rank one candidate over another, none of which boil down to meeting some false set of quotas.
As a Dean of Faculty and Instruction in a high school I participated in a group selection of new teachers. Most of the time those invited to an interview were already culled from multiple resumes and applications that came to our desks. Our first process was to use the information that they provided to find individuals with the education, experience, and recommendations that made them stand out as persons who would be best qualified to teach our students. After that we interviewed each of them to get a feel of their personalities and how well they would mesh with our faculty, our students and our school culture.
Sometimes the high grades from college and the outstanding essays outlining their goals were not enough to convince us that each person had what it would take to interact with our students. There really was a kind of “it” factor that would tell us that one person was more suited than another. To be certain that we were on the right track in our selection, the finalists would be asked to teach a sample lesson in a classroom that we would select. It was always in watching them interact with the students that we were able to make our final decisions and never was that made simply in some artificial effort to create diversity rather than to look for the best candidate. Sometimes the person with the degree from an ivy leagues college just did not click with our student population. Such persons were not passed over because they were not diverse enough but because they just were not right for the environment in which they would have to work.
I myself began working at that school as an older white lady because I had years of positive experience working with children of every kind of background and intellectual ability. The principal who interviewed me was wise enough to gather that I was earnest when I told her that kids are kids to me. I have but one job and that is to teach and nurture them so that when they leave my classroom at the end of a school year they will be ready to move to the next level. She soon learned that I was also someone who was sought out by the younger teachers who sensed that I was willing to help them to adjust as well.
I think we give the idea of diversity in organizations a bad rap because someone who did not land a job needed to find a reason for being rejected in favor of someone who seemed to be less qualified. It is certainly painful not to win the prize and I understand that as well. I have been passed over many times and I generally consider myself to be lucky in that regard. I know that if my philosophies did not mesh with the boss I would no doubt end up being miserable on my job. Being selected for a position in any organization is a matter of many different reasons, the least of which is artificially creating diversity. When diversity finds its way naturally into an organization everyone gains and we should all celebrate, not attempt to officially and legally push it out based on numbers rather than the whole person.
When deed restrictions, segregation or laws kept certain people out of certain neighborhoods in the time of my youth I was isolated from the magnificent beauty of the many diverse ways of living. My cul-de-sac resulted because everyone who lives here had a chance of buying one of the houses. Diversity is organic and natural when we take away the prejudices that make us believe that only certain people should be allowed to do anything. We may try to wipe it from websites and history but it cannot be rubbed out. We have moved on from that.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 