Diversity Is Not WYSIWYG
by Jenny Lawton, Techstars COO
I learned from some responses to my post that my view on diversity is through the narrow lens of my own privilege. My guess is that everyone has the bias of their position in the world when viewing it — mine is, admittedly, privileged.
My intent in writing this post about my thoughts on diversity was to share my perspective, from my lens in life, on diversity. Unfortunately, I offended people in the process which is never a hoped for outcome. One of the hard things about inequality and diversity is that if we don’t have the discussions and share our points of view, we can’t learn and grow.
It’s been a painful lesson — I am also grateful to have learned as a result of sharing my thoughts.
We’re all Different
One thing that I learned as a kid is that we’re all different. I moved 15 times before I was 8 — and by that time had lived with my grandparents in Virginia; in Oxford, Mississippi while my mother finished school and my father was in Vietnam; on military bases in both California and North Carolina; on my grandparents’ dairy farm with my cousins; in New Jersey and then Pennsylvania.
My parents were both first-generation college students — my father from a military family and my mother from a farming family. Living in Mississippi, I learned about being white and being different. My parents went to Ole Miss and were there when it was integrated. They were a part of the counterculture, rode freedom buses and taught me to be color blind.
A Fierce Pursuit of Dreams
My mother — being a part of the 60s counterculture — always told me that I could do whatever I wanted. I had a life to live and there was nothing standing in my way. She brought me up to be a strong, independent minded person. I was aware of the biases against me as a young woman — and was fierce in my pursuit of my dreams.
I became an applied math major in the face of my tenth grade geometry teacher telling me that I would fail his class because I was a girl. I worked my way through a programming position at MIT Lincoln Laboratory despite the men on our team who didn’t think that women belonged. I took “fatherly advice” on appearing less confident so that I wouldn’t be intimidating. And I learned to not serve coffee to the men around the meeting table, and not to take notes, when I was the only woman in a room full of men.
I did not grow up wealthy, yet I’ve had a life that is full of privilege and opportunity. I traveled to Europe as a teen and lived in Oxford, England. I attended Union College in the first decade that women were admitted. I played Rugby there the first year that Rugby was allowed as a women’s college sport.
I Wanted to Make a Difference
I watched the world around me. I collected all the better parts of my life experiences and brought them to bear on my first job.
I wanted to make a difference so that everyone in my circle could grow and learn and have opportunities without barriers in all aspects of their life. I made sure that everything that we at work did was an available opportunity for everyone.
I made sure that our employees were comfortable and safe — and that they were set up for achievement and accomplishment. I always made sure to #givefirst and to respond to asks for help, a hand, an empathetic ear. I never put a high heel in any woman’s face. When I got to the top, I turned around and made sure to help whoever asked for a hand.
Diversity is important. Our world is not a black or white place — it’s complex and colorful. Our perspectives, views and ability to learn and grow are enhanced by ensuring that we are surrounded by people who are ever widening and deepening our perspectives. The more diverse a team is, the richer the experience that is created.
Diversity can be Invisible
Diversity is invisible and visible all at the same time. Visible diversity is represented by the stuff we can see, like race, ethnicity, age and gender. Equally as important are in the invisible factors of diversity, including experience, education, thinking styles, socio-economic levels, values, beliefs and more.
Diversity isn’t only about how you look — it’s also about who you are and the experiences that you can share.
It’s better in Technicolor
Remember in the Wizard of Oz when the movie switches from black and white to Technicolor? To me, that’s a great visual to carry forward in evaluating whether you’re in a diverse environment. Can you see things in Technicolor? If not, search out the elements that are going to turn your black and white world into a more vibrant, diverse place.
We’d like to hear from you about why diversity matters in business. Let us know in the comments or tag us on Twitter.
Correction: This post has been edited from the original — in part to remove the sentence “A group of white men can be as diverse as a room full of women and men with obviously distinct ages and origins.” I realized, after discussion with a person of color from our network who was deeply offended, that this was a very poor example. My intent was to point out that while a room of people can look homogenous it still can be diverse. It’s been pointed out to me that I used the most privileged class of people — white men — to make a clumsy point.
