The Language of Diversity

Dimension: All

I grew up speaking Spanglish with Ebonics. My mom's native language was Spanish and we lived in inner city Cleveland in a black working class neighborhood where most folks came from Alabama and Mississippi and spoke what academics then noted as Ebonics. After a few embarrassing mishaps with the English language at my all-white high school, I decided to master the language and majored in English in college. Later I taught English at the high school level to a lot of white kids. Although I understand grammar and syntax much better now it is not surprising to me that it does not solve the problem of communicating across differences.

There is much that is lost in translation in our county even among those of us who speak the same native tongue. It is not just because most Americans only speak English but much of the confusion is due to the increasing diversity in our society. We must now learn to speak the language of diversity.

Glenn Beck of Fox News has repeatedly called President Obama a racist with a "deep-seated hatred of white people." I believe he has also said this of Oprah. One age-old definition of racism is prejudice + power. President Obama undoubtedly holds the highest seat of power in our nation. Oprah is pretty powerful as well. I definitely do not agree with Beck but if he believes that President Obama and Oprah hate white people (defying most people's logic) then by Beck's "logic" they would be racists. Using the term racist is explosive. Perhaps Beck wanted his ratings to explode. Yet, understanding the language of diversity as I do, it is sometimes difficult to discern some one's intention. One can only speak to the impact. In this case, a very negative one for many people including a number of sponsors who have pulled the plug on their advertising.


Caster Semenya, South Africa's new 800-meter world champion, is now subject to questions about her gender because of her boyish looks and deep voice. For this case study, even DNA cannot provide us with answers since as many as 1% of the population have a different genetic pattern than simply xy or yy. We do not have the language to speak fully about gender identity. Perhaps those who are uncomfortable with women excelling in sports need to claim she must be man. Moving out of one's comfort zone is a pre-requisite for speaking the language of diversity.

Just as with learning any new language, the language of diversity requires practice. America is such a wonderful learning laboratory. We can only hope most of us will learn the language.