Rhino Ramblings

Make-up Bag Rhino overlooking the Hilton Head Beach

(FYI: I wrote the first paragraph (now the third one in this blog) early in January as a prelude to a blog titled “Where do we go from here?”  Turns out that blog went nowhere; then I copied the paragraph to start a blog titled “The Other” – it went further but I was unable to grasp onto a coherent line of writing (ok- now I know that you could rightly say none of my blogs are coherent, but in this case, I was stuck in a whirlpool of incoherence).  I do mention “The Other” below and I hope it will be my next blog and be done sooner rather than later and with some coherence.  Anyway, third times a charm and with the title and some thoughts I pretty rapidly, for me, wrote the first draft.  This is a long one- consider this a two parter packed into one part).

(One other note:  I hope I do not come off like I am anti-white male.  Some of my best friends are white males, and, heck, for much of my life I was considered and presented as a white male.)

Happy New Year!   For those who are paying attention (and who care), there has been an unusually long time since my last blog. I would have to rank the past month and a half as the one of the most intense professional and personal periods. But this blog will not be about the busyness of my life but instead about the business of life (sorry, I could not resist).

In college I had to take a general studies course each quarter.  In three quarters I selected a series of philosophy courses from the same professor.  In each course, he had the same basic philosophy in terms of the final paper.  The paper had to be split into two parts.  The first part laid out a convincing and researched discussion opposed to the student’s actual position.  In the second part, the student had to provide their position taking into account the points made in the first part.  For example, I wrote a paper on pro-choice and pro-contraception. I started by articulating the Catholic Church’s position on the subject. I received an A in all three courses, and enjoyed the “take the opposing side” process. I am noting this exercise because this blog is = essentially a philosophical paper and if I were to follow those college course guidelines, I would start with a reasoned, researched and convincing argument against Diversity, Equality and Inclusion.  But I would fail that course.  While I will note some reasons for anti-DEI sentiment, I find none of them reasonable or convincing.

I also want to be clear that this is not about a specific person, a specific action, a specific political party or Governmental action.  This is not new and is not about any singularity.  We just happened to be bombarded from multiple arenas by actions that to me seem inexplicable yet fully in our reality to face.

And finally, I want to note that I suspect I will not have anything new to say on the subject.  There are many writers, podcasters, philosophers, etc. who are able to provide a researched, well-thought out, fully edited viewpoint.  I am afraid you are stuck with just reading my flow of thoughts and feelings.

When I first took my current job, I was a white programmer and scientist who had spent my career primarily in association with white male (and an occasional female) programmers and scientists.  I had a difficult time understanding why the new group I was managing that included a diverse set of people – in race, color, background, work experience, education background, etc. – did not all just think and act like me.  Life would have been so much easier if I could give vague direction, and everyone would understand and just act (correctly – which meant the way that I would act).  Twenty-five years later, I have come to realize (well it was a few years ago that the realization occurred) that the strength of the program was the diversity of the staff. It was not my job to make them all be like me but for me to find the strengths in each person and change my expectations and actions to make them successful.  And by any standard, the program has thrived and succeeded.  This is why diversity, equality and inclusion is not some harmful concept that needs to be wiped off the earth.  DEI requires work, requires change in oneself, requires acceptance and understanding of others. And in exchange it provides a fruitful bounty and a strong foundation for internal and external success.  If everyone looks, thinks, and acts like me, then I will not grow, and success will be limited to the narrow strengths of the narrow constituency that think and act like me.

Then why all the DEI backlash?  (Reminder, I am not going to try and justify or provide positive reasons. I can only provide my explanation of what I believe is the underlying causes).   There are two related human characteristics at work here.  Characteristic 1 is to seek out sameness.  Yes, I am a better person and have built a better program in part due to DEI.  But I am not going to lie – it was so much easier to not have to take other people’s differences into consideration.  It is work and it is frustrating and it requires change and patience.  Go with what you know and you do not have nearly the difficulties to encounter (and then the opportunities are equally curtailed). Characteristic #2 is to seek out a reason for failure that is not your own.  Deflecting fault to The Other is actually the blog I started to write on as mentioned above.  All the troubles in the world are because of people who are different from me.  If they are different, they cannot be the perfection that I bring to everything I touch so their imperfection is at fault. Obviously, at least to me, these are two characteristics that need to be resisted and not embraced.

Some will state that DEI needs to be removed in order to level the playing field.  In an ideal world where there was a level playing field upon which we operate, that would be, well, ideal.  But the field is not level and is exceedingly uneven.  Levelnesss is only for those who meet the sameness criteria. I will focus on the white male sameness, but depending on the situation there could be white sameness (i.e. male and female); male sameness, religious sameness and even in rare cases black or Hispanic sameness or many other variations.  But it takes very little observational aptitude to recognize the enormous playing field tilt in favor of white maleness with the right white “Christian” a close second.  I will admit that at my agency and in Government-related technical and acquisition arenas there is diversity that, at least until recently and perhaps no longer for the near term, is less white male focused than much of the rest of the world. Take a few steps away and the whiteness and maleness can be blinding. To be clear, this is not the fault of white males (WMs)in general or even specifically. But for the part of the world we inhabit and many other world parts also,  the culture, values, interactions, background, music (see my 2023 blog https://rhinotalk.blog/2023/04/02/not-for-you/)), social media, mass media, etc. etc. etc. along with built in biases based on how one looks or appears are dominated by the WM culture. Differences create an easy out to pick the sameness over the different leaving those with differences on the outside, below the ceiling and forced to be extraordinary to be seen as ordinary. 

Before I go far too long on this (and I have so much more I could say), let me note the clearest world-wide offender – sports. It is easy to pick on the NFL, and I will. But every American and European major sport, whether male or female, is dominated by WMs. Let’s take a peek at the NFL.  Head coaches are making millions (tens of millions?) of dollars.  A few actually are top notch leaders, thinkers, planners and adjusters. Mike Tomlin (the token who is not a token because of his talents and good fortune to be part of a strong organization in Pittsburgh), Andy Reid, maybe Bill Belichick, and … hmm.  Most coaches seem to me to be mediocre at best considering their position and salary. And yet if a white coach fails, he is given more time to improve or more often than not given another coaching job.  If a black coach fails, he is immediately fired – so many instances, and rarely given a second chance. For any individual circumstance and person, reasonings can be made.  But look at the team makeup and then look at the coaches and tell me there is not an inequity.  But unless it is faced as an institutional failure through a true DEI viewpoint, it is not right to simply take it out against all of the white coaches and deny them an opportunity.  But all of the great or. in line with most coaches now, mediocre minds in the football sphere has to include opportunities for more than the same group of whiteness.  This also applies to sports announcers.  Women are sideline reporters where they can look pretty and ask inane sideline questions (have to give it up to Mina Kimes who breaks the mold) and if you’re a black male, you clearly do not belong in the announcer box but are welcome to be pre-game.  I am sure there are underlying reasons that I do not have the time or quite honestly the insight to explain for the in -game representation being different from pre and post-game, but it is glaring how level playing fields are based on different levels for different people and situations.

Ok – I need to stop. Now more than ever, if you need support or know someone who does or you just need to reach out and write, chat, or whatever feel free to contact me and to pass on my contact information, And if you find this blog at all worthy of being read, please forward, like, pass on share, etc etc.  I am here to be heard not to be silenced.