The View From Here

I used to work at a college that often hosts conferences and lecture series with speakers for which all of them are usually White and if lucky, perhaps a woman. What is disconcerting about the most current one is that the topic is  moral and ethical leadership in American society . Without saying a word, what's conveyed is that people of color nor women are leaders for this kind of leadership. It stuns me to think that they could not find ONE person of color to address this topic especially in light of the history of the Black church in Civil Rights both past and present. It's also interesting (and sad) that they have a White woman addressing millenials when this generation is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse to this day. The truth is that this college has a pattern of choosing all white speakers and makes me wonder if this is actually intentional. Ignorance can only go so far. However, I can't limit my critique to a Christian liberal arts college. I must ...

When my quantitative stats class (I know, it sounds horrific - at least to me!) started, the professor wasn't able to make it to the first session. Instead, the professor sent an assistant to go over the syllabus and so on. At the next class session, the professor walked in and lo and behold, the professor was (is!) a woman. Not only a woman but one who is younger. Even though one would presume that her first name would indicate a woman, I realized that my stereotype of a stats professor is of an older man overrode the somewhat obvious indicator that the professor was a woman. Malcolm Gladwell discussed in his book, The Tipping Point , the strength of stereotyping while also making clear how we can be intentional in changing stereotypes, which is often about exposure and engagement with difference. I found this be true as I spent more time with LGBTQQ colleagues and friends and had my stereotypes busted years ago. Even so, those moments that remind me of my own biases are such ...

Last month while waiting in line for the airport security check, I heard a child's voice and thought she may have been lost. Having young nieces as well as all the news reports of kidnappings of kids, well, I'm attuned to responding to kids who may seem lost. Rather than ignore, I usually try to find out who the kid "belongs" to and help locate the parent(s). So I turn to a woman that's near me in line and asked, "Is she with the wrong parents?" I know, a strange way to put it but it just came out my mouth that way. In any case, the woman glared at me and said in a cold voice, "Oh, she's with the RIGHT parents." I looked at her and saw that she was White and saw the child (who I didn't see before; I only heard her voice) who, guess what, was Black.  Yikes.  I clearly was misunderstood and I clearly offended her. I simply froze even as much as I wanted to apologize to her (I really wish now that I did). I'm sure she was thinki...