Why We Should Strive to Achieve What We Cannot See
A call to action to reject DEI rhetoric that tells us otherwise
I listened to an online lecture, whereby the speaker passionately advocated for more diversity and representation in the workplace. More diversity in the Board Room; more diversity in the C suite; more diversity in high places.
In making a case for quotas, she proclaimed, “Because you cannot aspire to be what you cannot see!”
To that, she received an affirming round of applause. Meanwhile, I hoped that there was no child or young person in the audience listening to her words of myopic wisdom.
I imagined JFK rising from his grave, grabbing the speaker’s microphone, and belting: “But we chose to go to the moon! We chose to go to the moon!”
The late President gestured to the audience as if asking them what happened to our cherished values of cultivating ambitions? What happened to the empowering notion that one can be a protagonist of one’s own story?
According to this speaker, ambitions are limited to what is in front of one’s eyes, and forever hemmed in by a web of hierarchical privileges, defined by race and gender. Instead of hearing him out, the audience boo-ed JFK off the stage, for he was foolish enough to have dared the…
