Diversity at Work
Today I was involved in an excellent discussion on racism and diversity in my workplace, prompted by a colleague who is our branch representative on the department’s visible minority community. After a bit of a challenging start where some wanted to “call out” colleagues, one of my team (my brilliant, geeky, engineer who is an amazing people manager) spoke about embracing awkwardness and finding ways to bring about change without shaming. That led to a really good discussion about ways to be an ally, concrete suggestions on setting goals and measuring results in everything from training to hiring practices and promotion exercises, and who could help the department achieve its goals - everything from the Canada School of the Public Service to our MPs to the woman who used to be responsible for tracking diversity results and promoting best practices in another department but now works in ours doing something else.
It is interesting to see how much awareness and attitudes have changed over the years. A friend recently wrote about reading Gone with the Wind, still one of the most popular books in the USA. She said she could barely get through it, because there was so much casual racism. She felt compelled to do it just so she could have an informed opinion. I remember reading about Whoopie Goldberg’s reaction to seeing Nichelle Nichols as Lt Uhura on Star Trek for the first time. She was astonished to see a black woman in film who was not a maid. I remember watching Star Trek and not having any clue that the fact she was black was revolutionary; I was annoyed because she seemed to be the ship’s receptionist. Why couldn’t she be an engineer, science officer or something similar? I listened today to my young colleagues who who simply won’t accept that there has already been a lot of change. Partly it’s because there hasn’t been enough, and partly it’s because they don’t know the history of what came before. The truth is, few of us do. Just tonight I learned about Juneteenth. I had heard the word earlier this spring, but didn’t know where it came from. Now I know, and I am horrified by he circumstances that made June 19, 1865 so important - a full two years after the declaration of emancipation was signed.
It is interesting to see how much awareness and attitudes have changed over the years. A friend recently wrote about reading Gone with the Wind, still one of the most popular books in the USA. She said she could barely get through it, because there was so much casual racism. She felt compelled to do it just so she could have an informed opinion. I remember reading about Whoopie Goldberg’s reaction to seeing Nichelle Nichols as Lt Uhura on Star Trek for the first time. She was astonished to see a black woman in film who was not a maid. I remember watching Star Trek and not having any clue that the fact she was black was revolutionary; I was annoyed because she seemed to be the ship’s receptionist. Why couldn’t she be an engineer, science officer or something similar? I listened today to my young colleagues who who simply won’t accept that there has already been a lot of change. Partly it’s because there hasn’t been enough, and partly it’s because they don’t know the history of what came before. The truth is, few of us do. Just tonight I learned about Juneteenth. I had heard the word earlier this spring, but didn’t know where it came from. Now I know, and I am horrified by he circumstances that made June 19, 1865 so important - a full two years after the declaration of emancipation was signed.
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