Last week, I attended the First Annual Diversity Roundtable, sponsored by the Tompkins County Diversity Consortium, and held at the Hilton Garden Inn. The Diversity Consortium is a coalition of local governmental, educational, and civic groups working together to make Tompkins County a more inclusive place for all of its citizens.

The idea behind the Diversity Roundtable was for the Consortium to show the community ways in which our county leaders and agencies are working on diversity issues, and ways we can improve. Lynette Chappell-Williams, Chair of the Roundtable, told me the goal of the conference was to "broaden the discussion and to see where we can share resources."

The Roundtable began with keynote speaker Ayanna Epps, who is a conflict resolution mediator with the Department of Justice. She spoke about diversity within a business model and how businesses and communities function in similar ways. There was also a panel presentation by some of the leaders in our community, and several break-out sessions designed to get people talking about the issue of diversity.

For me, the first sign that this was going to be a long day was during the keynote address. Epps first made the case that we need to honor diversity in our businesses because businesses are the lifeblood of the community. Fair enough. But when she went on to offer up all the various dollar figures of how much each racial, ethnic and gender category spends on consumer goods, she lost me. So now we need to honor diversity because African-Americans have a lot of spending power?

There's something deeply unsettling about viewing diversity through the lens of capitalism, as though it's only in our best interest to be inclusive because of how our money flows. Sorry, but I happen to think that people are valuable because of their unique contributions to society—their ideas, their talents—and not because of how wealthy they can make some [mostly white] corporations.  

Has diversity simply become a feel-good word we can use to pat ourselves on the back every time an African-American is promoted in the corporate world? I am not trying to diminish the importance of true inclusiveness in the business world. I am very much in favor of Affirmative Action, of businesses taking steps to recruit, train, and promote people of color, and for our country to implement real policy changes that create a more financially equitable society. It's just that something real gets lost in the discussion when we focus exclusively on business matters and forget the hearts and minds of who we are really talking about: people.

Malcolm X was instrumental in explaining the notion behind so many white people's good intentions, that too many think they need to raise African-Americans up to their standards, as though Caucasians have the market on morality and the good life. Quite the contrary, there is much that white people can learn from people of color. Sometimes whites just need to shut up and listen.

I have to admit I'm tired of endless talking about the issue. I want to see some real policy changes, not just in our businesses and schools, but in our communities, in our relationships with each other, and in our hearts and minds. I am fairly certain that most attendees at the roundtable conference feel the same way, and that many of the attendees are working for real change. But I don't think we're going to see real change until people start talking about the flip side of diversity: racism. 

White people need to stop acting like they know what people of color need and want, and start listening. I am not sure exactly what the process for that kind of open dialogue would be, but I do know this: it needs to start with discussions about race and racism, and it needs to be open, honest and real.

Equality is not about all of us being the same; it's about all of us having our unique needs met, and being able to celebrate our differences in ways that remind of us of our common humanity. Before we can pat ourselves on the back for celebrating diversity, I think we need to experience some healing from racism, both personal racism that we've experienced in our lives (whatever color we are), and institutional racism that has kept so many from achieving their goals and living their dreams.

To that end, I've been participating in an open dialogue about racism, held every Tuesday in Ithaca in a downtown home, called Unraveling Racism. The group is relatively new and so far still in its initial learning stages. One thing I hope to see happen is a larger group form out of this weekly discussion, where we get into the heart of who we are and who we aspire to be as a human family, and to find ways of demonstrating that commitment to diversity in some real and tangible ways, including business, government and education, but mostly in our everyday lives, and in our personal relationships with our neighbors and friends.

For anyone who's interested in the meetings, please contact Caleb or Sareanda at 277-1799.