Diversity is Safety
Nature teaches us we need biodiversity to survive. The arts taught me I needed diversity to thrive.
As a professor in higher ed, it’s been difficult to watch the wave of anti-diversity laws roll into place from individual elementary schools, state wide universities, and up to the Supreme Court. These laws were put into place out of misguided fears and an attempt to say that everyone is equal and that we should not acknowledge, learn about, or celebrate the differences among us. Not only is this untrue, but to deny this hurts everyone. Limiting diversity in higher ed will certainly have a negative impact on climate solutions, which I will share in a later post. Here I share something more personal - how diversity taught me to thrive.
Diversity taught me to thrive
A few weeks ago I dropped my 10-year-old daughter off at sleepaway music camp for the first time. I left with the worries I imagine most parents would have - would she make friends, sleep OK on the camp beds, like the food, would the music be too hard or too easy??? And then I reminded myself of the times I went to music camp as a kid, and more broadly the friends I made attending the Middle School for the Arts, and I knew she’d be OK - she was surrounded by people who understood that every instrument in the orchestra makes the music richer.
That same week I read the news that some school districts in southeastern Wisconsin are voting on whether or not to ban “safe space” signs as well as rainbows, pride flags, Black Lives Matter signs, and anti-racist signage. Those proposing the ban believe that these signs could create a sense that some areas of schools are “not safe” and that they might leave other (i.e. straight, white) students isolated. While the rainbow flag celebrates those in the LGBTQ+ community, it also represents and celebrates diversity in the community. It can represent those who identify as such, but it also represents solidarity, allyship, resistance to discrimination, and violence. This same description can be used to describe anti-racist messaging. To deny the celebration of diversity actually makes all students less safe.
As a kid who grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee, this story hit home to me. In the 1980’s and 90s, there were different concerns about what “safety” in schools meant. In the suburbs, it was staying away from strangers luring kids in vans with candy, whereas in the city it was some guise of gangs, violence, and drugs which we were “d.a.r.e.d” to keep off. Despite my blonde permed hair, white skin, and all the “safety” of the suburbs, I never really seemed to find my place.
Not knowing a single person, like my daughter going off to music camp, in the 6th grade I made the decision to leave my “safe” suburban school and enroll in the Middle School for the Arts that was part of the Milwaukee Public School system. As part of the city’s integration program, I was bused to an inner city neighborhood that many deemed “unsafe”. Yet never once in my three years there did I ever question my safety. Rather I saw (white, suburban) adults around me doing so. Before leaving, the principal of my suburban school pulled me aside in the lunch line and asked me if I knew what I was doing, “there would be black kids there” he warned me. But I didn’t see this as a threat, I only saw the exciting opportunity to do art every day. Other kids' parents would react in shock when my mom shared where I was choosing to go to school - “Is it safe?” they would ask in horror.
Yet bussing my way to the “unsafe” school in the city, I felt seen and celebrated for the first time. It wasn’t just me, it was many others around me. We were kids who could geek out about memorizing monologues, sing in musicals, make art, dance in unitards, and weren’t judged for it. I was safe because I was in a place that valued kids for who they were and celebrated diversity. For the first time in my life, I had teachers who were openly gay, teachers who were not white, teachers who shared they voted for George Bush, and those who voted for Bill Clinton. I met friends who celebrated Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, who had non-traditional family structures, and lived all over the city. I was introduced to Malcolm X, the AIDS crisis (via the news of Magic Johnson), we played music from Louis Armstrong and Bach, and we learned African dance and ballet. For me, this was a safe space because it not only celebrated diversity but lived it. As young artists, we were allowed to be who we were and never told our identity threatened others. Our voice didn’t exclude others, it added to the song. This feeling of inclusion shielded me from any ideas that I was in what many deemed an “unsafe neighborhood.” It was through the diversity of arts, culture, race, and gender that I learned to thrive.
* As an adult, I look back at that time and fully acknowledge that much of my experience was laced with my own white privilege. I rarely got asked for a hall pass and my excuses for being late were never questioned. I had resources and support from two middle-upper class parents to make sure I was well fed, my homework was done, and I could be in as many extracurricular activities as I wanted. I also do not identify as being gay and didn’t have the experience of growing up outside gender norms. (and no, it’s not because there wasn’t a pride flag in the classroom).
Those in favor of banning the “safe space” signs argue that the entire school should be seen as safe and everyone is equal. It’s the same arguments that are made in the recent decisions anti-DEI laws put into place in Florida, Ohio, and the Supreme Court’s ruling to reverse affirmative action. But here’s the thing - everyone is not the same, everyone is not equal. Instead of hiding that and pretending otherwise, diversity should be celebrated and discussions of equality replaced instead with justice. The hard truth is that our country has not historically (or currently) treated people of color, women, and those who identify as anything other than heterosexual as equal. To pretend we do is an unsafe lie.
“In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter… At its core, today’s decision exacerbates segregation and diminishes the inclusivity of our Nation’s institutions in service of superficial neutrality that promotes indifference to inequality and ignores the reality of race.”
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the Dissenting Argument in the Affirmative Action Case
For most kids, regardless of signs or flags, different parts of the school are going to be different. Some will find their safe space in the music room or art studio like I did. For some, it will be the gym or the playing field, for others it might be under the bleachers, or in math class. Some will find it with just one friend, and others will find it with large groups. Going to school is about finding your safe space - and that's not the same for everyone. But beyond these sometimes superficial layers are more complex identities and histories that are also not the same. Some come from privilege, some do not. Some experience institutional racism, sexism, and ableism, some do not. Equality, equity, and justice are not the same.
A sign, offering a simple message - “this is a safe space” - can be a lifeline for kids who struggle to be kept safe emotionally or physically because their identities might differ from those around them. But beyond those that might be seeking refuge, the message that a classroom is a safe space for all to be included - not because every kid is the same, but because they are different - is one that needs to be learned by every student in the class. Just as kids need to learn to accept the jocks, art kids, and nerds - they also need to learn, see, accept and embrace diversity in race, religion, gender, and identity.
Keeping the same privileged voices and narratives in power, without allowing space or discussion for diversity is turning our collective spaces into a monoculture. We know from years of monoculture farming that it degrades soil, increases disease, and has negative impacts on biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and productivity. In regenerative farming crop rotation and diversity regenerates the soil and allows crops to thrive. Nature teaches us that diversity is a necessity. Our ecosystems are interdependent on insects and bees, plants and trees, forests and fungi, plankton and whales, and everything in between. To maintain balance, to sustain our food, water, and shelter, we need biodiversity. Through biodiversity, we know that if we lose all the bees, we will all lose. Yet the space and treatment a bee needs is different from a flower or a fish. They all need space to be separate as well as the ability to work together in an ecosystem.
My daughter had an amazing time at music camp. Playing in an orchestra for the first time, she too learned that each of the sections needed to practice both separately and together. The instruments and their musical parts are all different. When they come together to play they are transformed into an orchestra. At the final concert, the camp director encouraged families to sign up early for next year. “We wish we could take everyone, but we can’t make an orchestra with all pianos”.
Our crops are healthier when diversified. Our ecosystems survive from increased biodiversity. The more instruments you add to your orchestra the richer the sound. The more colors added to a painting the more beautiful it can become. The more diversity you choose to not just include but to embrace - the safer your school will be.
“Notwithstanding this Court’s actions, however, society’s progress toward equality cannot be permanently halted. Diversity is now a fundamental American value, housed in our varied and multicultural American community that only continues to grow. The pursuit of racial diversity will go on.”
- Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the Dissenting Argument in the Affirmative Action Case