Reality Check
I spent all day Thursday and Friday in a workshop along with sixteen other folks. The trainer was top-notch and the material she presented was excellent.
The group itself consisted of Caucasian men and women (both Boomers and GenXers) and African American men and women (Boomers and GenXers in this group too); there was one person from Nigeria, one from Nicaragua, and one person of Hopi/Choctaw descent who grew up on a reservation. Now that's diversity, in my book.
The two days were filled with lively group interaction and lots of Q & A. We discussed topics like teamwork, decision making and ethics. Late in the afternoon of the second day, someone made a comment that I didn't actually give a second thought. Making a reference to the moral dilemmas a leader can face, it went something like this: "Consider the actions our founding fathers, whom we all look up to with great respect, yet from the British perspective whose actions were treason..."
I heard at least three participants from the minority ethnic groups represented shoot back, in unison, "Not everyone looks up to them." I was instantly catapulted from my bubble, as a member of the dominant ethnic group in our culture, into reality. I had read newspaper and magazine articles detailing the exceptions folks from various people groups take to the Euro-centric version of American history. I have been sympathetic to their objections to the popular telling of the story. How could the European colonials be perceived as heroic or noble from a Native American perspective? Likewise from the African American perspective?
However, I must admit that witnessing my friends' automatic reflex took my understanding of the issue to a new level. Their personalizing it transferred head knowledge to my heart, helping me "get" it in a new way.
The two days' training was very high quality, but the lesson I "learned" in that moment perhaps eclipsed the formal presentation because it was so real, so unguarded, so illuminating. I'm indebted to our workshop trainer for creating an atmosphere that was safe enough for them to speak out.
I'm going to send her a thank you note as soon as I post this entry...
The group itself consisted of Caucasian men and women (both Boomers and GenXers) and African American men and women (Boomers and GenXers in this group too); there was one person from Nigeria, one from Nicaragua, and one person of Hopi/Choctaw descent who grew up on a reservation. Now that's diversity, in my book.
The two days were filled with lively group interaction and lots of Q & A. We discussed topics like teamwork, decision making and ethics. Late in the afternoon of the second day, someone made a comment that I didn't actually give a second thought. Making a reference to the moral dilemmas a leader can face, it went something like this: "Consider the actions our founding fathers, whom we all look up to with great respect, yet from the British perspective whose actions were treason..."
I heard at least three participants from the minority ethnic groups represented shoot back, in unison, "Not everyone looks up to them." I was instantly catapulted from my bubble, as a member of the dominant ethnic group in our culture, into reality. I had read newspaper and magazine articles detailing the exceptions folks from various people groups take to the Euro-centric version of American history. I have been sympathetic to their objections to the popular telling of the story. How could the European colonials be perceived as heroic or noble from a Native American perspective? Likewise from the African American perspective?
However, I must admit that witnessing my friends' automatic reflex took my understanding of the issue to a new level. Their personalizing it transferred head knowledge to my heart, helping me "get" it in a new way.
The two days' training was very high quality, but the lesson I "learned" in that moment perhaps eclipsed the formal presentation because it was so real, so unguarded, so illuminating. I'm indebted to our workshop trainer for creating an atmosphere that was safe enough for them to speak out.
I'm going to send her a thank you note as soon as I post this entry...
posted by Linda at
10:54 PM
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