Evolving Metaphors: Salad, Silo or Sailboat? We need discussion - not gag order.
Equity: Children peering over fence - two on boxes.
Evolving Metaphors: Salad, Silo or Sailboat?
We need discussion – not a gag order.
Through a recent Executive Order our President is attempting to abolish Diversity Training all across the country. His narrow-minded order acts as a gag regarding any discussion of the racist history of our country and the well-documented phenomenon of White Privilege. These issues deserve free and full discussion if we are to achieve justice, equity, and harmony among the citizens of this country. Hailey Fuchs has described the effects of the administration’s action in a recent New York Times article: Trump Attack on Diversity Training Has a Quick and Chilling Effect. I have spent most of my adult life participating in such programs and am currently involved in anti-racist activities in my community. I have learned so much through this process of self-education and community advocacy, that it is extremely upsetting to see such hostility coming from the highest levels of our government.
Since the gag order targets federal contractors, those of us who are not directly affected by its reach need to speak out loudly on these issues to keep conversations alive and generate support for the repeal of this mis-guided order. In this blog post I’m sharing some of my involvement with diversity issues and my view of how concepts and discussion have changed over the years of my participation.
A modest house in an older middle-class neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, was my home for my first ten years of life. We then moved to an even older rental home on Capitol Hill in Seattle, followed by life in suburban Mercer Island for my junior high and high school years. There was nothing about those experiences in the 50’s and 60’s that would cause me to question the notion that our country was a melting pot of immigrants.
E Pluribus Unum (from many, one) was adopted by Congress in 1782 as the motto for the Seal of the United States. It has been used on coins and paper money since 1795. The original intent of the phrase E Pluribus Unum was to recognize that the 13 colonies, each with its own government, had combined to form one country. The motto could be viewed as a reflection of Federalism, a system of government that includes a national government, with designated powers, and states with the powers not given to the national government.
The phrase E Pluribus Unum is associated with the idea that the United States is a melting pot of people from around the world, conveying the idea that people come to this country from many cultures and speaking many languages. After a generation or two, most have adopted English as the common language and taken on many shared habits and attitudes, uniting as citizens of one country.
Growing up, there were very few people of color in my life and I had few, if any, friends who publicly identified themselves with a foreign culture. My own family included ancestors from Ireland, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Austria. I assumed this was probably true for most of my friends. The idea of our country as a melting pot perfectly described my family and I continued to accept that notion well into adulthood.
I now realize that the melting pot analogy works best when immigrants are mostly white and from Europe. It doesn’t work as well when considering many different skin colors and immigrants from non-European cultures, such as countries in Asia or Africa. Today we talk about White Privilege, as an advantage automatically received by every person in this country with white skin and the appearance of a Western European heritage. Persons with White Privilege, including myself, have found it easy to see the United States as a melting pot of persons who look similar to themselves, ignoring the fact that persons of many other backgrounds are excluded from that image.
In the 60’s and 70’s there was a renewed concern in this country about civil rights, especially in regard to housing and employment. Businesses and organizations advocated for “equal opportunity” and “open housing.” Fairly soon, these concepts transformed into a demand for “Affirmative Action” which recognized that it’s usually not enough to just open a door to opportunity. Often extra effort and support is needed to off-set generations of discrimination. The “melting pot” metaphor was increasingly outdated, but some of us were slow to recognize it. I personally benefited from this push for equal rights, as one of a small number of women admitted to the University of Chicago Law School in 1970, and, in 1973, when I received a job offer to work for a well-respected corporate law firm in Seattle, which never before had hired a woman attorney. At the same time, the law firm hired a Japanese American man, presumably the first attorney at the firm who could not easily fit into the melting pot image.
In the 1980’s, with a recognition that the push for equal opportunity was not working out well for everyone, and that the melting pot image was dated, a new metaphor emerged: The Salad Bowl. Now, instead of talking about equal opportunity, the goal was diversity and I found myself attending numerous training sessions in which we were encouraged to recognize and celebrate the differences among the many people making up our country, with emphasis on African Americans and immigrants from around the world. Instead of expecting everyone to adjust to the model of the successful White person, we were encouraged to appreciate the variety of gifts offered by people of many different backgrounds.
I responded to this challenge by helping to organize and present a Diversity Workshop for community leaders in Federal Way, where I lived at the time. An outcome of that workshop was advocacy for a Diversity Commission, which the City of Federal Way established and still has. In addition, I organized conversation classes for immigrants that provided a chance to practice English and also learn more about the various functions of the community, such as the school, police and courts.
During that time period, the melting pot image was rejected. We now saw the community as a salad bowl. Ideally, many different types of people will respect one another’s differences and mix together to make a greater whole, just as the parts of a tossed salad combine to make a delicious and nutritious dish. Dressing enhances a salad and shared ideals keep our diverse citizens united, each individual making a unique contribution to the whole.
Diversity continued to be a goal throughout the 90’s, but pushback was also occurring. There were many efforts to stop Affirmative Action, with claims that it provided an unfair advantage. African Americans seemed to be getting less benefit from the diversity movement than some others in the diversity salad.
Jumping ahead to 2020, we are in an age that some people called “identity politics.” Our efforts to encourage diversity have morphed into advocacy groups that seek attention, power, and funding for their own group. Almost every day there are protests and demonstrations by one group or another demanding that their concerns be honored. The notion of a diversity salad seems quaint when we recognize how little progress we have made in integrating schools and housing. Disparities in wealth have gotten worse rather than better, despite many efforts to expand opportunities. Gun violence has made the conflicts even worse.
We have a new metaphor: Identity Silos. In other words, the salad is no longer mixed up – each ingredient has located its own kind and they cling together and compete against the other silos for the benefits our country has to offer. Some silos are wealthier and have more political influence, aggravating the differences among the groups. This is potentially a dangerous development, because our country is less united when there are fewer common interests and some groups appear to be favored over others. Violence has sometimes broken out between these groups.
None of these metaphors offer a desirable future: melting pot, mixed salad or identity silos. Do we still have shared values holding us together? Are there other ways to visualize our communities and our future?
Our country first adopted a Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. The words have changed a little over the years, but they have all included allegiance to our Republic combined with the words “with liberty and justice for all.” In other words, as citizens we should all embrace the right of the people to elect their government leaders, since that’s what makes us a Republic. In a democracy, the citizens hold political power, not aristocrats or businesses. We all agree with the ideal of liberty and justice for all, we but we may not have a shared concept of what that means.
You may have seen an illustration of the concepts of Equality, Equity and Justice. Equality is shown as three people attempting to look over a fence, each standing on a box. The two taller people can see, but the shortest person is not tall enough to see anything but the fence. In the Equity illustration, the boxes are moved. The tallest person can still see with no box. The middle height person can see standing on one box and the shortest person can see because the little person is standing on two boxes. The Justice illustration shows the fence changed to a chain link fence and all three people can see through with no boxes needed. Does our commitment to liberty and justice for all require that we go beyond equality or equity and provide justice? In our daily lives, do we even come close to offering liberty and justice for all?
Can the shared values of Equity and Justice lead us into the future, so that we can leave behind the idea that everyone needs to melt into a common identity, that people with different characteristics need to be equally scattered through a salad, or that everyone needs to retreat into a silo of similar people?
Consider the example of eyesight. Each of us has a different capacity to see, regardless of skin color or ethnicity. The government could provide us each an identical pair of reading glasses, but only those who were farsighted would see better. If we provide everyone the opportunity to purchase prescription glasses, some people won’t be able to afford them, yet without clear vision students can’t learn and it’s difficult to advance in a career. Embracing the concepts of liberty, justice, and equity, everyone should have a fair opportunity to see and to pursue their dreams. Society should provide glasses for all who need them. What about healthcare, a healthy diet, and shelter from the elements for those without the money or ability to obtain them?
Is there a way to combine these concepts to create a new image? What if the melting pot is a sea of shared values, including the values of education, liberty, and justice, among others? At the bottom of the sea are anchors holding the structures of government, including police, fire protection, schools, public health, libraries, a court system, parks and environmental protection. The people are on boats instead of in silos. Boats sometimes come together to share information and experiences, but they may also separate to trade or socialize with people on a different type of boat. Through personal skill, personalities or trade, people can move to a different boat. If a boat starts to sink or has other problems, volunteers may come to the rescue, but there is a government safety net to fill in the gaps. Government representatives, selected by the people, ensure liberty, justice and smooth sailing for all. Each individual has a fair chance to reach their personal goals and no boat has an unfair advantage.
I’ve always enjoyed the song Blue Boat Home by Peter Mayer. His vision is a little different than mine, since his Blue Boat symbolizes the earth as part of the universe, while I see the boat as a group of people traveling through life in our country. Despite that difference, many of the lyrics still fit:
Sun, my sail and moon, my rudder
As I ply the starry sea
Leaning over the edge in wonder
Casting questions into the deep
Drifting here with my ship’s companions
All we kindred pilgrim souls
Making our way by the lights of the heavens
In our beautiful blue boat home
Let’s strive to be a nation with many common values and a commitment to justice and liberty for everyone, allowing for both independence and cooperation, held together by services, resources and opportunities available to all and providing equitable opportunities for each person to achieve success, as they may define it. We might even go back to E Pluribus Unum. The many boatloads of people sail on one sea, sharing the values of equity and justice. From many, one country and one set of shared values.
Don’t let a mis-guided Executive Order stifle discussion of these issues.
E Pluribus Unum slogan on Half Dollar coin.