D.E.I.

 D.E.I. stands for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

It's a "thing" now, where I work. We now have a DEI committee. What is their purpose you ask?

The purpose of the DEI committee is to develop and promote strategies and best practices within the realms of racial, social, sexual, and gender diversity. The DEI Committee further serves as an opportunity for non-committee members a place to provide suggestions and challenges for the DEI.

Before the committee was created, I was invited to sit in on the discussion about DEI and the need for a committee. We were given handouts. The first is the definitions and the 2nd was part another visual aid.

For now, I want to talk about the 2nd image. We were all asked if we had comments about this graphic. Almost everyone did. But the one comment that stuck out for me was, well this is a nice graphic but why are all the kids black?  Which of course made someone else say, this makes it look like African Americans are always on the outside and they don't have the opportunity to see the game from the stands. In my head, I thought, the big kid is just a jerk for not giving his box to the little guy. My next thought was, boys are stinkers, trying to watch the game over the fence. It didn't even occur to me that were black. Apparently, I'm part of the problem...that racism is so ingrained in our culture that I can't recognize that it's a problem.

The point of the graphic is; Equality = everyone benefits from the same supports. Equity = Everyone gets the supports they need.

A better graphic would have been;

Regardless, I didn't like being told that I was part of the problem because I'm white. I don't like feeling bad for black people because I'm white. I've had a couple honest conversations with black people about this. It's been interesting and sometime enlightening. Clearly, I can't know what it's like to be a person of color. I know what discrimination feels like though - because I'm a woman and now because I'm a senior. But I don't know what racial discrimination feels like. I'm naïve, I know that. I'm not that naïve though. I know there are more people than I can imagine, that still feel negatively towards people of color. I'm not one of them though. And I would be delighted to have conversations about it...but not hateful, argumentative, mean spirited ones.