I try my best to not judge without knowing all the details….but I recently became annoyed after looking at the panelist profiles for an upcoming environmental discussion. I was annoyed because it visually seemed that all of the panelist were from the same ethnicity.
This annoyance happened because
- this isn’t the first time seeing a lack of diverse panelist speakers on an environmental topic;
- I know that positive and negative changes in our environment impacts all; and
- I am fully aware of people from other ethnicities that could provide insight on the topic.
This raises several questions – did the curator(s) of the panel not want to have a diverse group of speakers; did they not feel the need for a diverse group; Or are they not knowledgable of people outside of their demographic that could partake in the discussion?
No matter the reason – not learning about a topic from all perspectives is wrong. It perpetuates the idealogy that only one subset of the population can provide insight and make a difference. Which clearly is not true!
If you reviewed the list of folks you follow – would they all be of the same demographic profile? I challenge you to start following someone that is different from your demographic profile — make the conscious effort to learn from all perspectives on the topics that matter to you.
Maranda's World 