What does Diversity look like today?
This is a pause for the cause – a different way of viewing the dimensions of diversity. Diversity, it has often been said, goes beyond race and gender. It includes generations, race, gender, organizational diversity, nationality, culture, recreational habits, personality and more. At the heart of it, regardless of their dimensions, is a human being with a passion for something and someone(s) who wants respect and in most cases want to make some kind of difference.
As a diversity expert, I tell my classes how I look forward to the day when I will be out of a job because the race that we are talking about is the human race…a group that willingly and intentionally shares a bond above and beyond what is dissimilar. There are many such groups occuring in every community.
The group at the right for example is one such group. They include women working in high levels of city government, founders of significant nonprofit organizations doing good, marketing professionals, global entrepreneurs, corporate consultants, producers…several wearing all of those dimensions at once. What they have in common beyond their friendship is a caring for community and a positively powerful connection with like minded others for causes that matter. This is what diversity looks like today…a mixture of generations, etc. working together.
Positively Powerful Friends left to right: Linda Walton, Diana Gregory, Pam Gaber (Gabriel’s Angel 2009 Positively Powerful Woman Award Recipient), Fatimah Halim (Life Paradigms – Blueprint for Womanhood Positively Powerful Woman Award Recipient), Christine Breeze, Maria Arnold-Haydn, Dr. Joel Martin, and Shelle Cleveland.