My View of America - A county in transition by Tony Green

America then and now

I was raised in Philadelphia, as like many of the larger cities on the East Coast, was ethnically divided.  The various races, which included African-Americans, Latinos, Whites and Asians, who resided in close proximity, worked and attended school together but existed separately within their own communities.  After I joined the Navy after college many of my shipmates came from all over the country.  I discovered as Americans we had a lot more in common than I thought. Upon reflection, the America I grew up in before my enlistment and the America I returned to when I began my professional career was changing drastically.

Map of the United States of America

People are people

I realized several of the problems people had co-existing in peace resulted from an absence of culture sensitivity due to lack of exposure to people from different backgrounds than yourself.  People are people if they come together and get familiar with each other on a personal level. With that said, I am observing as a country we are moving toward being a more multi-cultural society.

Transition in Progress

The proof times are changing is clear, the year 2000 census provided choices for the first time for people to identify themselves as being a member of more than once race. The state of Hawaii’s minority population is greater than its non-minority and in California the Latino populace has matched the number of white residents and in a few years, will be like Hawaii, where the non-minority citizens will soon be the majority of inhabitants living in the state.

Conclusion

Our children will need to able to function in a more cultural and diverse world. How we prepare our children to navigate this changing landscape is in our hands. The challenge should be embraced.

Image courtesy of fotolia.us

Heterosexism in our workplace by Tony Green

Image of a lesbian wedding

I attended a workshop in the City of San Francisco earlier this week. As with most workshops the facilitator directed the participants introduce themselves before the meeting. One of the attendees happened to be an accountant who also admitted to being a lesbian.  Since the San Francisco Bay Area is famous for its large number of its residents who are either gay, lesbian or transgender this was not surprising.

The workshop involved addressing the challenges the participants expected to encounter while seeking employment.  The facilitator asked the accountant about her challenges and when she reported her primary challenge to be homophobia and/or hetero-sexism after overhearing anti-lesbian rhetoric after working hours from the HR team at her firm. I found this surprising and alarming.

The backlash has two separate versions. The first one version, homophobia involves an unjust fear of gay/lesbians while hetero-sexism can be described as those who are dogmatic about the superiority of the traditional male/female relationship.

Our facilitator mentioned this blatant case of discrimination violated employment laws and inquired why the incident failed to be disclosed to her manager or any one else. She did not want to bother with the stigma being a whistle blower. Even more alarming was, in her view, no action could be taken against the employer due the perceived superiority of management in the legal system.

The thought which stuck in my mind was, if I am in the San Francisco Bay Area which is well-known for its tolerance and these statements are coming from HR people what is being said in other “less opened- minded” parts of our country? What does this say about how tolerant we (or aren’t depending on your perspective) toward those who are different from us.

I am not lesbian but as a minority, an African-American this makes me nervous. Does this make you uncomfortable?

Image courtesy of fototalia.us