{"id":22449,"date":"2018-04-26T18:44:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T18:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=22449"},"modified":"2018-04-26T18:44:08","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T18:44:08","slug":"the-fire-hazards-of-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/the-fire-hazards-of-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fire Hazards of Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the truth: diversity is hard. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Do we let our child cry herself to sleep or comfort her because she’s expressing irrational fear over the sounds of the radiator? \u00a0This is a\u00a0question that two different parents, that would be Darcie and I, come at from two different angles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our last play at\u00a0Teen HYPE<\/a>, focusing on the deep challenges caused by the over-incarceration of parents in Detroit, sparked a range of conversation and dialogues. \u00a0So for next year’s production, do we go deeper into the school-to-prison pipeline? \u00a0What about school shootings and gun violence? \u00a0Or should we turn away from the “confronting barriers” of our mission statement and focus on “celebrating youth?” \u00a0These are real questions that our staff is wrestling with today, but beyond that, what do the young people have to say about all of it? \u00a0Literally, hundreds of ideas are bouncing around right now.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>At\u00a0Challenge Detroit<\/a>, my team is currently working on imagining how the Detroit Historical Museum can harness the successes of the nationally recognized\u00a0Detroit67\u00a0<\/a>exhibit and related events (detailing many perspectives on the uprising in Detroit during the summer of 1967), and move forward with new themes and structures that invest teenagers and young adults for the long haul. \u00a0If Mayor Mike Duggan truly wants\u00a0Detroit’s youth to “stay in Detroit,”<\/a>\u00a0what kinds of investments and plans do we have to engage their interests, ambitions, hopes and dreams? \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As much as I celebrate the active pursuit of expanding diversity, I recognize how tempting it is to want to just work alone, or seek out people who think exactly like I do.<\/span><\/p>\n

******<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early days of\u00a0The\u00a0Table Setters,<\/a>\u00a0Marvin and I were working on a presentation for\u00a0DOOR Los Angeles\u00a0<\/a>about racial reconciliation. \u00a0We knew that we agreed that using the text commonly known as The Good Samaritan (though Jesus never uses the word “good”), was the right foundation. \u00a0We wanted to underline that sometimes\u00a0the best idea,<\/i>\u00a0the most compassionate solution, comes from\u00a0the person you might be inclined to look down upon, the person you might see as the enemy, or in the case of DOOR, the person you came to “serve” in your mission work. \u00a0But where to go from there? Marvin gave me a few weeks to put together the flow of a presentation that we would review together, while he was sourcing video content and other material.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>I started. \u00a0Then I scratched my head. \u00a0A lot. \u00a0Was I going to focus on reparations? \u00a0Was I going to focus on the loophole in the 13th Amendment that repackaged slavery into the modern prison industrial complex? \u00a0Was I going to keep the conversation centered\u00a0around\u00a0black and white issues, or should I weave in dynamics of\u00a0injustices done upon Native, Latinx, Asian, and Arab-American peoples as well? \u00a0If I do so, will it just water everything down into the basic “tolerance training 101” that we had both grown so tired of?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But on a deeper\u00a0level, I wanted to have something to show Marvin that I had truly been listening to\u00a0the issues he was most concerned about. \u00a0In short, I wanted to present him something perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marvin asked me to show him what I was working on. \u00a0I hemmed and hawed,\u00a0uh, gimme another day or two.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

On the morning of the third day past my deadline, he texted, “CALL ME.<\/b>” \u00a0I was walking along Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles to catch the bus into Hollywood. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I called him. \u00a0He asked me if it was ready, and I stalled with rifling through some of the questions I wrote above. \u00a0He interrupted and a huge argument erupted. \u00a0I’ll spare your eyes the curse words.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“Why are you trying to shut me out of this plan?! \u00a0Why won’t you show me pieces of what you’re working on?!”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“You can see it, but you said you wanted me to have a full draft ready!!”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“Oh, I’m about to call you\u00a0the white devil! \u00a0Just like always, white people take the story from people of color and shape it how they think it should be.”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

“You kinda just did call me the white devil!”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By this time, we are yelling near the top of our voices. I’ve just watched the bus roll by and I’ve stepped into an alleyway. \u00a0I failed to notice a man, I presume living\u00a0homelessly, sitting on some crates alongside the building. \u00a0He gets up, taps me on the shoulder, and scoffs, “man, keep it down, some of us are trying to rest in this alley!” \u00a0<\/span>My\u00a0face was hot with a new embarrassment amidst my anger. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Marvin thinks I’m talking to him,\u00a0“I don’t need your apologies anymore, I’m sick of this waiting on you, I’m ready to just be done….”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

I interject,\u00a0“No, I was saying sorry to the homeless man I just woke up from our yelling.”<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n<\/span>Pause. \u00a0One or two beats. \u00a0And then, Marvin\u00a0just busts out laughing. \u00a0So hard I think he might be crying. \u00a0But it’s clearly laughter. \u00a0And it’s contagious, starting to catch a fire inside me as well. \u00a0Both of us gasping and trying to come up for air, he’s joyfully working to convey that he’s standing on his porch in Burbank in his boxer shorts, yelling his head off at this white guy on the phone, and his neighbors must think he’d lost his mind. \u00a0It’s a pretty epic scene. \u00a0A story we love to tell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then Marvin starts to reflect on how\u00a0this is just what makes it hard:<\/i>\u00a0one person trying to get it perfect to impress another person, meanwhile shutting that other person out of the decision making process, even\u00a0unintentionally. \u00a0It threatened to upend our entire project. \u00a0We decided to meet up at a coffeeshop and just hash it out. \u00a0We decided instead of calling it quits, we bring everything we’d gathered up to then. \u00a0We decided to come back to the table. \u00a0I’m thankful for that man who interrupted our argument, I looked for him later, but I think he actually caught the bus I was supposed to be on.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Diversity initiatives are indeed a good thing, but so many stop short of actually considering the challenge that will come when diverse ideas collide.<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0Ideas that come from our experiences of being diverse in genders, religious beliefs, countries of origin, and how society has treated us based on our skin color and other things we have absolutely no control over. \u00a0Who gets the final say? \u00a0Who gets the veto power? \u00a0Marvin and I realized how critical it was that our own workflow was a microcosm of the challenges every organization faces when they claim to honor diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

So: our honest solution was that we\u00a0just have to keep showing up and doing our best. \u00a0Listen, reconsider, and come to the best conclusions we can make when everyone feels like their contribution has been respected. \u00a0The perfectionist in me has to constantly learn\u00a0there is\u00a0so much work, so many bad and unjust habits to dismantle, and so many true opportunities for incremental healing embedded in the process alone<\/b>. \u00a0Which means that sometimes, the\u00a0process employed might be more important\u00a0than the end product.<\/span><\/p>\n

I bring\u00a0this forward with me in today’s work.<\/span><\/p>\n

******<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve come to see Challenge Detroit as a place where we whittle big questions down to, hopefully, usable “idea kindling.” \u00a0Some of us bring our talents to focus on the small but very necessary twigs, while others contribute larger sticks as structural support. \u00a0As we only have six full working days with each project, this is what we can realistically provide. \u00a0We invite the partner to light the match and hope that our concoction of ideas,\u00a0generated by a diverse bunch of individuals, actually\u00a0catches some fire. \u00a0Of course, the partner will have to supply the logs for sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our aim is to present something balanced and effective, that can be stoked to generate more and more warmth and energy. \u00a0But if anything is out of balance, the fire might not start, or the fire might explode into something destructive that threatens future processes. \u00a01967 didn’t just happen. \u00a0That bonfire was building for decades and decades and might have been prevented if the major change agents in the city actually took time to value the input of each member of the city, not just their highest paying customers and constituents….<\/span><\/p>\n

So how can we honor everyone’s ideas and still produce really good results? \u00a0How can Detroit move forward in a sustainable way for everyone who calls this city home, for everyone at this table? \u00a0There is so much energy, so many sparks flying right now, that I’m thankful that the Detroit Historical Society is working on how to come together in new and sustainable ways to prevent the\u00a0fiery summer of 1967 from happening again. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe change might have to happen slower than many people like to consider, but I also think that there can be healing in the process if we commit to staying at these tables and making sure we value the thoughts and perspectives of each person sitting next to us. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It will not be easy, but I\u00a0believe it will be worth it. \u00a0If we commit to keep coming back together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow my blog at www.DismantlingWhiteousness.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the truth: diversity is hard. \u00a0 Do we let our child cry herself to sleep or comfort her because she’s expressing irrational fear over the sounds of the radiator? \u00a0This is a\u00a0question that two different parents, that would be Darcie and I, come at from two different angles. Our last play at\u00a0Teen HYPE, focusing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":21790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,17,18,26,25,19,64,282,30],"tags":[619,614,615,620],"class_list":["post-22449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-givedetroit","category-leaddetroit","category-livedetroit","category-workdetroit","category-community","category-community-outreach","category-detroit","category-detroit-lives","category-reflection","category-work-detroit","tag-detroit67","tag-dismantling-whiteousness","tag-teen-hype","tag-thetablesetters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}