When "Them" Become "Us" - Page 8


A few days later, I traveled to Illinois to facilitate a diversity-training session for 25 program directors and supervisors of a large county department of community mental health. At midmorning of the first day, a deeply religious Latina had just shared a story about her struggles with what she thought was the inherent sexism of her church, which routinely denied advancement to women while it promoted less dedicated men. I acknowledged this apparent unfairness and suggested that this was what institutional bias looked like—and that in our work, we need to be sensitive to these issues.

At this point, Vinnie, who'd been quiet but highly expressive—sighing deeply, rolling his eyes, and sucking air between his teeth—decided he'd had enough. "Maybe it's Scripture that says women shouldn't be church leaders, not sexism!" he barked. I replied, "That's an interesting view, which in all honesty I'd never considered." I asked Sonja, the Latina, what she thought of that view. "I think it's a bunch of bull," she said. "Yeah, maybe Scripture is wrong or at the very least, misinterpreted," I said.

Now Vinnie was really mad. "Doctor, Scripture is never wrong!" he practically yelled. "You know I've been sitting here for hours now, and I don't know why. I'm getting nothing, not a goddamn thing, out of this training! What is your endgame? Do you even have one? Speaking of bull, you know what bull is, Sonja? This training is bullshit!!"

As is often the case with outbursts like this, the room went quiet, and the participants anxiously waited to see what would happen next. Vinnie was sitting upright, red-faced and breathing heavily. To my surprise, instead of feeling under assault, I felt that this could be a moment of redemption, an opportunity not to "allow the show to get in the way of the game."

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
(Page 8 of 10)