Claiming Racial and Cultural Baggage
After a four day visit to D.C. in which I was both participant and presenter at a two-day diversity and inclusion conference, I was standing in front of the rotating carousel at the Atlanta airport waiting for my baggage to come around. I watched the various bags in a multitude of styles, sizes, and condition work their way around to their owners who reached with timid hands and questioning faces as if unsure if the respective bags truly belonged to them. I could not help but connect this experience with the conference in which there had been a conversation about the racial and cultural baggage we all carry. Sometimes, just like the blue Samsonite bag that seems a bit foreign to our eyes as we earnestly wait for it to appear, our racial and cultural baggage can seem unfamiliar, outside of ourselves, then suddenly recognition begins to dawn, we reach out with timid hands, grasp it quickly to our bodies as if defying anyone else to claim it.
Just as each of the travelers standing there waiting for their luggage to appear came from various places where they had differing experiences, so are all people when it comes to our perceptions and ability to recognize and respond to bias and microaggressions. For example, what may seem like a common idiom, such as “Don’t let me leave you hanging” to one, can sound like a racial slight to another. What may seem like a common picnic food item to one, may seem like a subtle dig to another. In either case, the individual responsible for the comment or action is the only one who knows for sure and can be accountable for his or her intentions. However, the one affected by the comment or action is also responsible for reactions or responses. Both would benefit from awareness training, as the need to discuss what was said vs. what was heard is essential. All need to develop an awareness of connotative language and context, as well as developing an awareness of the origins of negative feelings or reactions to certain trigger words, phrases, or actions.
Diversity training is often perceived as being directed primarily toward White people, to educate them on how to work with people of color. This is the perception, but it should not be the reality. All people within a work environment make up the diversity; all will benefit from increased cultural competence.
· Diversity and inclusion initiatives should be focused on everyone being included, not one group including the other. There is a difference.
· Inclusion is not on the outside hoping to get in, inclusion should be in the middle, not just inviting, but welcoming all to come in.
· Diversity and inclusion is not about accepting others.
· Diversity and inclusion is about welcoming all.
· Diversity and inclusion education is not to teach “insiders” to accept “outsiders,” its purpose is to provide training, raise awareness, provide skills and resources to work through external and internal cultural conflict, and to provide these on a continuum.
We all have our racial and cultural baggage. Often this can be as negative a force in the work or learning environment as bias. Like mounds of unclaimed baggage at the airport, each in its own way creates a barrier, leaving us to stand on opposite sides with no ability to move over or around it. The only way to get past the barriers created by our racial and cultural baggage is to recognize, claim it, and unpack it. Unfortunately, this does not happen organically and requires a professional with the training, researched methods, and insight to not just navigate diverse and weary travelers around the baggage barricade, but to guide them through the necessary task of unpacking and discarding.
