Just want to point out that diversity isnât so much about solving problem of âoppressionâ per se (ie making the problem about the âoppressorâ) but really about âfairnessâ, ie we want to succeed but also fail on equal ground where the superficial distinction donât box us anymore, ie the ideal is that an asshole should be an asshole, man or woman, but the actual situation is that woman (and any minority) are in a context where they are prevented to even be in a situation where they can be judged on that merit, and that put pressure and suspicion on everything they do (are they here because they are woman or because of their merits), imposter syndrome is higher in discriminated group and contribute to bog them down.
I mean a lot of counter arguments is along idea of âwill it change anything? woman can be asshole too!â, and they arenât really counter argument, they actually support the point, if man and woman have no distinction why preventing women in the first place? Itâs like the hiring argument where people say âwhat if the perfect man for the job show up and we are trying to hire for diversity?â, well duh, what about the perfect âinsert discriminated group hereâ? Would Hideo Kojima or Amy henning find a job at your company? But equality is also equality of mediocrity, because not all me in position of power are there on merit alone, so why the standard isnât the same for everyone? Obviously we should aspire for higher standard for everyone too.
And this situation has roots in historical economical asymmetry, minority didnât have any economic power until recently, and they havenât gotten to critical place in critical number to exert significant change, which mean the lead men have is historical and has been maintain through sheer inertia. Thatâs why there is almost any AAA team lead by an ecosystem of women (itâs always a few woman selected and framed by an army of men in powerful decision role. I mean just to take the USA, itâs only from the 70s than women had access to property right and segregation wasnât long before that, thatâs not a lot of year to catch up. The pain we are experiencing now is the catching up taking place.
This make the discussion difficult, because the ideal and the situation donât mix well. And this create difference of culture and ritual, women and minority have created a culture in reaction to the pressure place on them, itâs a culture that value some things only because of the current situation, not because of the merit of each people. Thatâs why so many minority value personal, intimate production, to counter the epic and grandiose story that reduce or erase them.
For example, as a culture, the western world love story about revolution against the oppressor, it make historical sense, it was the american revolution or the french revolution, just to name a few, when they were oppressed by the powerful, they pick up some arms and kicked some ass really hard, and we celebrated that, this is fundamental to the culture and imagination. Now imagine now that there is this group that is telling you to stop oppressing them, it flip the script entirely, what does that mean when you have this perspective of kicking oppressor? what conclusion do you arrive at? It does goes against your identity, it makes you fear of retaliation, because thatâs what we do to oppressor right, therefore you CANâT be the oppressor because that conclusion is simply not acceptable. The thing is that the imagination of being raised under a dominated culture donât lead to the same imagination nor the same conclusion. Perspective matter a lot, imagination is impacted, and so is the production.
For example: The first dreamworks movie directed by a black person was Home, and the story is about alien coming to our planet and displace us, tearing family appart, but not out of malicious intent, but dumb carelessness, they fear retaliation from a stronger alien race they stole something they think has a lot of value. The main characters, a black girl, bond with one misfit alien and she is looking for her lost mother, she is not looking to kick the alien butt at any moment, her motto is that she is âmad sadâ, basically that the action of the alien cause her âdistressâ and in the end itâs all about showing the alien leader the error of his way, and ultimately when the other alien race appear it turns out they were not trying to retaliate but just to pick back what was stolen because it was literally something that hold their children, so the fear of the careless alien were unfounded. And thatâs something that make sense when you look at the history of black people, in the face of oppression we tried to collaborate and make our concern understood, we sought out not to retaliate but to live peacefully devoid of the burden, from Martin Luther king to Nelson Mandela, march rather than arms where the primary tools of revolt, to asset we exist as human.
Perspective matter, it lead to different conclusion, bthatâs why we need to understand each other, to know where we all come from.
I had friends whose experiences were very different from mine and I struggled to understand. ButâŚit was all good in the end. I see my kids and their friends doing it even better.
lol