and go on just a short trip and we will
transport ourselves to September or
early October in New England you’re
walking down a wonderful path you might
have your dog or you might have your
special snookums with you as you walk
you start to notice but it’s beautiful
out here and you start to look around
and you see the Magnificent colors you
see that nature is putting on a show
just for you and your snuggums are your
dog people come from all over the world
to see the beauty of New England in
autumn they pee they look they stop they
take pictures they are amazed at how
nature is showing off its colors have
you noticed that that the thing that we
crave most is this diversity in nature
and what I want to do here is say that
we are a part of nature and the nature
is a part of us that we start to realize
how connected we are to all that is and
was in the world and we realize that
part of it is because things are diverse
things are different and it’s the
natural order of life and we can accept
that in nature can’t we we take it in we
say wow this is great I doubt if the
redwood the majestic redwood is bragging
about how much beautiful more beautiful
it is than a simple pine tree so nature
gets it and we are part of nature so
today I’m here to tell you a story when
I was a little girl my sister
back and if you would have to know Pat
to understand why this story is pretty
amazing but my big sister Pat bought a
book for me and what’s called the
Emperor’s New Clothes I love that book
again I don’t know if I love the book
because Pat gave it to me and Pat is so
amazing even until this day I think
she’s amazing but she bought me this
book called The Emperor’s New Clothes
and I used to love reading it and having
it read to me so today people I’m here
to be that child in that story if you
don’t know the story the child pointed
out something that was obvious so I’m
here to point out that obvious thing to
hear you I’m here to tell you that as
humans we’ve been fooled we’ve been
snookered we’ve been bamboozled into
believing that difference is something
that we should fear that difference is
something that we talked about division
among us that there’s so many ways that
we divide ourselves up based on
characteristics that we hold that we say
some people are superior some people are
inferior that we come up with all of
these ideas around characteristics that
people hold that’s a part of their
natural being and we add value or
devalue it again remember that redwood
and the pine tree so again we have to
start to understand what are some of the
lessons we can take from nature how can
we since we are part of nature we’re
part of the natural order of life how do
we as humans understand how essential it
is for us to value this thing called
diversity the other thing I want to tell
you that that little child would tell
you is that all these things are
socially constructed aka made up those
things are made up by humans to say that
certain characteristics certain
assumptions certain beliefs
certain beliefs and assumptions and
attitudes that we hold about people it
was made it’s basically made up so when
we talk about things like gender when we
talk about race we would talk about
class even when we talk about ability
it’s made up and the little kid has said
he got all no clothes
that’s my Louisiana talking so here I am
today is to tell you that we have been
snookered we’ve been bamboozled we have
been fooled into believing this based on
those social constructions so one of the
things that I often think about is this
particular quote if all of these things
are socially constructed then what comes
of those social constructions select
racism classism sexism heterosexism
those are the things that come up from
something that is made up okay and as a
result of those things being made up and
us buying into them it’s limiting our
capacity as humans to be as beautiful as
that autumn day to be as productive as
at autumn day to bring about the joy
that people have as a result of that
beautiful autumn day and it took the
vision of the child to point out the
obvious I remember the first time I
realized I had been snookered in
bamboozled and I remember thinking this
must be the way Dorothy failed and I
want mean Dorothy and my mother because
that was her name but I mean Dorothy
from The Wizard of Oz when it took total
to pull back the curtain and reveal the
truth
it took Toto to put did you hear that
total and total was little bit all total
was as I call a little bite-sized dog
okay so it took toto to pull the curtain
back and expose the truth and then I
started to realize I’m buying into a
narrative that’s a fantasy and not only
am i buying into this fantasy narrative
but I’m allowing it to rule everything
that I do the way I feel about myself
the way I feel about other people the
way I engage with my natural environment
and I said no more no more would I be
willing to do this no more but I be
willing to allow other people to define
me in a way that isn’t consistent with
who I am and so now I’m on a journey I’m
on a mission to do the same with other
people I don’t know how many of us it
will take to say that we will no longer
buy into the social constructions that
we have been led to believe to be true
we’re no longer buying into it we are
going to be like that redwood and say
I’m okay with that pine tree because we
look good together no longer am I
willing to buy into those things that is
at the core of every movement that has
led to the destruction of other humans
fear I am no longer going to bind to
constructions that people have of other
people and give it to me and act out of
my fear when I interact or engage with
people who are quote different from
myself because I know that some of the
social constructions that are about me
are not true I know that there are
nowhere near the core of Who I am and so
what I have to do is believe that in
others and y’all we are at a critical
point in our culture we are literally at
a tipping point that more of us have to
take the courage to engage in this type
of understanding of one another
of being able to reach out to one
another and feel as though we can create
a world where we can embrace each
other’s diversity see again nature
nature has it down nature understand in
order to being sustainable we have to
have diversity diversity of thought
diversity of ways of being diversity of
attitude assumptions beliefs
perspectives the list goes on nature
gets how important diversity is around
sustainability around growth and most of
all around repair we have some repair to
do based on the social constructions
that we’ve created about one another and
I think we can do it it is not too late
for us to do this when we think about
all of the creative people just in this
room I bet we could probably do a
variety of things that we never thought
were possible if we were working
together with those multiple voices
being heard and again I’m not telling
you something that I read about I’m
getting I have a lot of boring slides
but a lot of words on them I’m telling
you about something that I know to be
true that I feel it to be true that when
I’m truly interconnected and understand
my interrelatedness with other people
I’m at my most productive and most
creative if we were continue to do this
things that we did a hundred years ago
we would not have the innovation that we
have now it took that diversity of
thought to say what if we do it this way
or what if we do it that way that was
covered to what was do being what was
happening at the time so that’s about
diversity diversity to me is the mother
of innovation I know the other things
are the mother of innovation but this is
the real dorothea meaning my mother of
innovation is this whole idea of
diversity the whole idea of thinking
creatively the whole idea of thinking of
what my colleague Michael antonucci
always says
is that ours take compound solutions for
these companies complex issues we are
dealing with today and we cannot do that
with a single mind we cannot do that
with a narrow way of thinking about this
work we have to come from it from a
variety of ways we have to have many
people at the table and there’s a rule
we live with the illusion of scarcity
but if we work together if we really
understood the value of something
greater than ourselves operating if we
really understand our connection to one
another and our natural environment
coming up with these compound solutions
would be easy I know this to be true
because of environments where I have
been in where we didn’t think we’d make
it and it was that long voice that said
have we tried this and everybody’s like
and it wasn’t because you should have
had a v-8 for those of you so this whole
idea about how do we do this is
important so let me give you three tips
that I went through in order to do this
for myself the first one was self
reflection I think that there’s nothing
greater than being able to reflect and
to be able to understand what’s
operating so when I first realized that
I had been snookered I had been
bamboozled what I did was I set and I
thought and I felt and I cried and I
cheered and I celebrated as a result of
understanding that so I always tell
people what came out of that was this is
that I was able to look at things that
had once been ashamed of that they had
engaged in some self-loathing about and
I was able to reframe it into something
positive so the slave narrative for
example had always been ashamed of that
narrative but out of this self
reflection came a lot of proud pride and
now I say to people I’m a proud
descendant of African slaves brought to
this country that’s that’s what the self
reflection did
allowed for that to happen so how do you
engage in self-reflection that’s deep
enough for you to understand who you
truly are the second thing is whenever
you’re in a situation you want to
analyze and say what perspective isn’t
being entertained you always have to say
what perspective isn’t in fact if you
would say everybody else thinks the way
I do that’s when you know you’re going
down the wrong path okay so that’s the
first time you’re going down the road
path but what you want to ask yourself
is what perspective is missing and how
might we creatively bring those
perspectives to the table the second the
last tip I had is to realize how you’re
interconnected with others and again if
you’ve heard my story you could tell
that that was part of what brought me to
where I am now I know that I am a part
of everything and everyone when I look
out at you I see a reflection of myself
in each one of you and therefore it’s
hard for me to engage in separating or
other in you seeing you as the other so
this whole idea of how do I understand
that I’m part of something greater than
myself and then interrelatedness now how
many people will it take I don’t know I
don’t know what’s the critical mass
that’s necessary for us to shift the
culture and to decrease the negative
impact of those social constructs but I
do know we have to ask ourselves two
questions how do i blast pass my
illusion of separateness that’s one
question you really have to answer and
the last thing is how do I reduce the
amount of uttering I engaged in since I
know that I’m a part of you and you are
part of me let’s take our lead from
nature because isn’t it magnificent thank you