Identifying problems or making a commentary on societal ills is great, but I want the three step approach to solving them.

So what do I do with my answer to yesterdays question, which dawned on me late last night, in pondering the census demographics for Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood-(I’m currently working with the Hyde Park Jazz Festival to coordinate volunteers for this amazing 15 hour event of live music, that will bring 15,000 jazz lovers to Hyde Park on September 26)

Hyde Park’s reputation is for being diverse, integrated.  So I suppose I expected to see 50% or thereabouts white, 50% people of color.  But the 2000 census identified 82+% Black/African American.   Hmm, I thought, well that’s a BLACK neighborhood.  But if it was 82%  white, 18% people of color, well, that would clearly be a neighborhood with diversity.

I know there’s something significant in my perception of neighborhoods.  I’m a diversity advocate and professional in intercultural communications, yet my unconscious bias/perception still favors being in the majority-Diversity is okay, as long as there’s not a fundamental shift in the power balance.  Ouch.

Peggy McIntosh laid a foundation of White Privilege with her work White privilege:  Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.  But as a woman, albeit White, I didn’t always identify the power of the privileged people she described.

Tim Wise also identified institutional/societal inequities in “This is Your Nation on White Privilege.”  Again, fantastic points, but I think Sara Palin did get called out on a lot of the things he awarded her, or that many defended or applauded Obama for his positions, and the alignments were not always race based.

So what’s the action?  Diversity Training focuses on changing actions but doesn’t address thoughts/feelings at all (think Solzhenitsyn-One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich-you can control my body but not my mind).  But, unconscious bias/life experience informs actions. 

I like to think a keen sensitivity to recognizing one’s own bias coupled with empathy for diversity of ideas and perspective, translated into a plan of action, can ultimately lead to a fundamental, positive  transformation in how we operate in a multiracial, multiethnic society.

What do you think?

I was searching for demographics for Chicago’s Hyde Park Neighborhood for background information for a call for volunteers I am posting for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival.  Known to be the home of the University of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry, and a very diverse neighborhood, I was surprised to find that 2000 US Census Bureau statistics identified the population for Zip Code 60637 as 82% African American, 13% Caucasian, 3% Asian, and 2% other.  Of that, just over 1% was Hispanic.

It made me curious about how diversity is perceived and defined.  Does it mean matching the overall demographics of the country?  For the US, in 2000, that was 75% white, 12.3% black, 3.6% Asian, with a combination of ‘other’ and 2 or more races filling the rest.  Of that, 12.5% are Latino or Hispanic.

Or does it mean equal balance of different groups in any given situation (e.g. 12.5% each of 8 or so categories on the Census form-or equal numbers within all groups present).

Or is it completely subjective?  If I am the minority walking into the majority, will I feel there is a lack of diversity, regardless of who makes up which group in a given situation?

Or, does it have to do with other factors used for grouping, such as:

Criminals (loved the comments noting how diverse the group arrested in New Jersey today was–although hopefully they haven’t gotten mean by now).

or Weight?  (a la the Surgeon General-I’m sorry I didn’t know about NAAFA-the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance-growing up!)

How do you define diversity?  Is it ‘objective’-a strict set of rules to apply, or ‘subjective’ based on tools to allow you to operate in any given environment?

A few years ago I was with a group of women socializing after work, and we were talking about experiences of going camping growing up.  Each shared her memories, and then turned to me for ‘my turn.’  All I could think of was “We’re Jewish.  We don’t camp.”

Such was the reaction today during a workshop I led on Networking and Diversity for the Jewish Executive Network in Chicago.  We were doing an exercise on Dimensions of Diversity, to help get out of the ‘black/white’ paradigm and embrace multiple dimensions of diversity to help illuminate opportunities for connection to people who,  on the ’surface,’ might appear different.

Birth order, time management styles, dominant learning styles…and daring.  Go to this corner of the room if you’ve ever been skydiving, this corner if you haven’t but would like to, and this corner if you couldn’t be paid enough money to go sky diving!  And thus within our ‘homogenous’ group of Jewish professionals, we discovered the one brave soul, Steve, who indeed, had been sky diving.

The point, as relates to intercultural communciations, is that we never know what we might have in common with others to serve as the basis for communication and networking.  For this group, the objective was to network to find a new career opportunity.  The point of the workshop was to make sure that individuals were not inadvertantly closing off contacts with preconceived ideas of who might or might not help them (based on racial/cultural identity, position, or other superficial indicators).

The outcome was a fun way to explode the idea of diversity into multiple dimensions, creating exponential opportunities to connect.

Have you ever found something unusual in common with someone very different, that surprised you?   What was it?  How did you discover your connection?

photo by Darren Johnson

The Whopper Virgin ads echoed an era of Imperialism, and while I have not seen the farmer/Burger Shots ad mentioned in the article, others I have seen completely objectify and degrade women. 

With such a small percentage of the world’s population being Caucasian males, it just doesn’t seem good business sense to create ad campaigns that offend entire groups of people.  A miniature caricature of a Mexican dressed in a Mexican flag, doing subservient service type work for a big, strong, white man (who also is represented as a stereotype), seems to me to far surpass offense and move into the realm of racism. 

It makes you wonder what the ROI is for the ads.  Is the resulting controversy anticipated…part of the strategy to get broader reach for an ad?  I noticed many of the comments both on the Diversity Inc. ad as well as the You Tube piece found that ad funny.  What do you think? 

It reminded me of the epiphany I had 5 years ago, about the time 19 years ago during my first trip to Brazil to meet my husband’s family that my new sister-in-law threw a turkey leg on my plate while she carefully carved pristine slices of breast meat for everyone else.  “She must hate me,” I thought for 14 years until I found out that in Brazil the dark meat is prized and that her intention had been to pay me the highest honor in serving me the best part first. 

The problem with telling the above stories is that even I have to say “you are such a fill-in-the-blank” when I acknowledge the underlying feelings of presumed affront.

It was a phrase in the book Art and Upheaval:  Artists on the World’s Frontlines by community arts pioneer William Cleveland, however, that has made me come clean.  He was talking about Amde Hamilton and Richard Dedeaux, poets and members of the Watts Prophets who have done phenomenal work with youth in LA’s Youth Correctional System starting in the late ‘90’s, saying they were “committed to helping these kids change the way they saw the world and themselves in it.” 

While the work they are doing is clearly far more important than yogurt and turkey legs, re-framing how we see ourselves in the world and in relation to others, and embracing our power as partner rather than victim in life is a critical step.  Being able to evaluate others’ actions aside from our feelings about them also is a huge step.

With my husband of 20+ years I still sometimes want to extend my hand and say “Hi, I’m Deanna.  Have we met?”  But for today I will use the exchange as a lesson in intercultural communications and workplace diversity.

1. Diversity in the workplace is about behavior.  Learn to evaluate others actions as separate from your feelings about them.

2. Understanding intentions can make all the difference in the world, either to modify our own perceptions or at least to empathize and understand from where another is coming.

Is there instance in your life that you might re-visit with rose colored lenses?  How does your re-interpretation re-frame the conversation?  How do you like the new outcome?

While many multicultural ads still seem to stereotype or tokenize cultures, this ad playfully and consciously represents a variety of groups.  What do you think?

1. If your company is targeting multicultural/multiethnic consumers, hopefully you already have a good diversity program in place and have diverse representation among your senior managers.  Do start here; otherwise more ‘team building’ type programs might not be viewed as sincere.

1. Assuming number 1 is good, then host a Brown Bag Lunch or morning coffee series with senior managers and invite all staff to attend.     But, please, while you purposely will make sure your speakers are of varied backgrounds, don’t say “and today we are speaking with African-American leader John Doe”-speakers should speak about their area of expertise, about projects or initiatives that are of interest throughout the organization.  Their cultural background or race is part of their identity, not the content of the presentation. 

1. Start a company wide book club.  Many cities have the “One Book” program, where the library promotes discussion of a single book across the city.  In Chicago authors reflect the diversity you want to have in your company book club.  By hosting your club after your City’s, you might be able to get free books as an added incentive (call your local library).  Have your CEO or top management participate for an added morale booster.

1. Does your company have a cafeteria?  Schools for Philippino dance or Ballet Folklorico abound for parents who want to teach cultural traditions to their children. Many of your employees might have children involved in classes to learn ethnic dance or music.  Why not invite them to perform during lunchtime, perhaps on day when kids are not in school?   

1. Host a “Potluck Lunch.”  Invite employees to bring a dish representative of their cultural heritage.  Ask each to write the name of the item, the country or culture it represents and a sentence about its significance to the culture on an index card that can be posted next to the food item.  During the lunch, let each employee say something about their dish and its relationship to their heritage. 

What does your company do to showcase your commitment to diversity internally?  What would you like to see your company do?