Diversity Training

I had my hair party yesterday and I feel it was a success. Many of the "white" women from work came, and a few of the "black" ones did as well. "It was fun and educational," in the words of the Y'ats that showed up. I was a little disappointed that many of the "black" women I invited didn't come, and this was echoed by one of the "really in" supervisors who came. Only two of the "black" women I invited replied that they would come, but neither of them did. The "really in" supervisor asked me about this. I told her that I wasn't surprised. It reminded me of a conversation I had recently with my Brazilian friend from work when I mentioned that it was very noticable to the rest of the plant that plant leadership go to lunch together almost every day. She said it was because no one invited them to lunch. I thought that reminded me of how "black" folks don't generally invite "white" folks to social events, and vice versa. Sounds to me like segregation is still self imposed.

Here in the US, "black" people and "white" people generally don't socialize, and I thought the "black" women may have seen that I invited "white" women and decided not to come. I shared this with the "really in" supervisor and she said there could have been other reasons (like family, other commitments, etc.). I also thought that the older "black" women didn't come because they may have seen it as me putting myself out there as a circus side show for the "white" women.

The "really in" supervisor from work stayed after everyone else left and we talked for a couple of hours about race relations and our prejudices. I rattled on and on about my family and our deep roots. I showed her the Bible written entirely in Kikuyu that my father gave me as the keeper of the culture for the next generation, and the several hundred paged family tree album that's currently being updated world wide (mostly by the clan in London). I showed her how our naming system is a major key to our heritage and was feeling pretty good about the party in general after she left, in spite of the lack of "black" attendance.

Epiphany I: There's no such thing as "really in". Often times, we exclude ourselves from another group simply because we assume they don't want us there, or because we don't like our differences from "those" people (whoever "those" people [aka "them" and "they"] are).

Epiphany II: Being "black" or "white" is a human distinction. God doesn't see color, sex, or any other difference we as humans have created to highlight our differences.