Perhaps coming from biology, perhaps pushed through the hard reality of mass migration, we all agree in that some sort of diversity is beneficious. Or unstoppable. No matter which of the two you choose, you know that diversity is there and perhaps is a good thing to understand how to manage it. So the epidemic, or rather the pandemic, of diversity consultants. Once upon a time, even I did consultancy from that role.
Which, when you come to think about it, is kinda weird. Do we really need a person that tells us how to deal with somebody else? Is that not the whole process that we call growing up, becoming an adult? To realize that other people are, actually others? Or is it, really, that adults need to be told: look, he is different. So... take this diversity workshop, this privilege walk, read this examples from IBM and look also at the video with the gorilla. ANd then... then you will known how to manage diversity.
I keep thinking that faced with diversity we all have become the caricature of a millennial, all scared of the hard world out there, trying to cope with an emotionally complicated landscape not managing without a coach.
And perhaps that is the core of the situation. Perhaps the whole diversity thing is just scary. As Michell Obama put it in their first inauguration “and to realize that they are scared of us!”
Of course, right now you might think that I am saying that others are scary. That a latino like me is threatening, that a moroccan in the netherlands is a potential criminal, that anybody with a long beard is a terrorist waiting his chance. But that is not what I think at all.
I think that, if it is true that diversity is scary, it is simply because we, the others, remind you that there are others. Because we are a mirror, but a mirror only slightly bend. YOu don’t quite get your image, but a bit. If I would be really different than you, that would be easy. But I am not, not quite.
And to know, to remember! that you are surrounded by people that is almost like you... that is scary.