Diversity is Valued When It Is Quiet
The conference room is set. Staged at the front are the diversity panel speakers. The speakers are eager, ready to tell the audience of the statistics, the data, the research and their lived experiences. Yet the moderator asks very limited questions and we understand very quickly the intent of the session. “Let’s keep it friendly. We’re here to ‘open the conversation.’ But not too much that anyone gets uncomfortable.”
Diversity I̶s̶ ̶O̶u̶r̶ ̶S̶t̶r̶e̶n̶g̶t̶h̶ Is It.
I once shared with someone that I immigrated to Canada under Trudeau’s “Diversity is Our Strength” initiative. As a newcomer, this message felt like a refreshing departure from the negative views I’d seen in the U.S. A national leader was talking about diversity as a strength—imagine that!
We Tell Stories
I remember the day my son saw a frog for the first time. His eyes were wide, his smile even wider. He was two and a half, and to describe the new amphibian wonder he included words like “sleeemy” and “gweeen.” When we got home, he ran straight to his dad, bursting with excitement. “Dad! I saw a gweeeen fog!” And with each question my husband asked, my son told his story, weaving his tiny, magical world into words.