Tolerance is outdated. Let’s try actively promoting the safety, respect, and voice of others.
Across the United States, there has been a notion that tolerance is the key to diversity and equality. This idea has been drilled into the minds of our children in schools and continuously comes up in our diversity meetings in the professional world. However, how many of us want to simply feel tolerated? If I asked a group of people to describe how they want to feel in their home, work, public spaces, and society at large, chances are that nobody would confess they want to be “tolerated.” Instead, I would guess that most people want to feel safe, accepted, respected, and heard.
Thus, the idea that we must “tolerate” groups different from us actually plays into the current patriarchal power dynamics that exist in the United States. If those in power must simply “tolerate” minority groups, we are essentially allowing those in power to maintain the status quo. Furthermore, tolerance does not require any effort from anybody. If I am “tolerating” someone, all I am doing is accepting that they exist in a certain space. But this is not increasing diversity or respect for others in any way. In fact, tolerating somebody brings along a tinge of power language as well. For instance, if I claim I am tolerant of somebody else, it holds the connotation that the other person is some sort of external person, outside the confines of my own little world. It builds an invisible wall between myself and that other person because the idea of tolerance alludes to the fact that those who must be tolerated are not equal to those who must tolerate.
Rather than promote the idea of tolerance, let us promote the ideas of safety, respect, and allowing one to be heard. If I have been taught from a young age to actively promote the feelings of safety, respect, and being heard in those around me, I will be acting very differently than if I was taught from a young age to “tolerate” those around me. Tolerance of others requires no effort. Promoting others’ safety, respect, and voice requires action.
In other words, tolerance is taught to give everybody equal assurances. However, everybody comes from different backgrounds, cultures, and environments. People belong to different levels of socioeconomic status. People have different levels of physical and mental capabilities. Because of this, everybody needs different types of assurances from society. This is illustrated by the comparison of equality and equity. Equality fosters the idea that everybody should have the same tools for the same opportunity. However, as we can see by the image below, this does not always work out. Equity encourages the idea that everybody should have different tools so that they can truly have the same opportunity.
Thus, tolerance does encourage equality, but what we really need is equity. Going forward, we must teach values based on action, rather than inaction. If we can all learn to actively inspire the safety, respect, and voice of those around us, the world will surely start moving from a realm divided towards a place of universal respect and peace.
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