News & Record, Sunday, October 4, 2009
By Leonora Billings-Harris, Diversity Consultant, The HR Group, Inc.

In the Triad, Robert, Faheem, Tracee, Soo Lin, Kewal, Tameka, Hernando and Sarah are typical employees for a mid-sized company. Their ages range from 23 to 59.

Two are single, two are married; three have life partners; two are child-free, three are parents; one is gay; one is blind; one is caring for a parent and two children; and two are single parents.

Among them, there are four languages and six religions. As a group, they exemplify the diversity in our workplace and community today.

Just having diversity in our workplace or community is not enough. These differences only constitute a cluster. Diversity does not insure a fully productive and functioning team.

Without an effective way to engage people in dialogues to share their common interests and differences, biases, stereotypes and misunderstandings will abound. Especially during times of scarcity, our communities have more examples of cross-cultural clashes than anyone would like to admit.
Community organizations, educational institutions, some local businesses and places of worship provide education and opportunities for open dialogue to help Triad residents understand, respect and celebrate our diversity. Yet I am regularly asked, "Does diversity really matter?"

Ponder these questions:

Has a customer whose ethnicity is different from yours ever asked to speak to your manager before discussing anything with you?

Has a store clerk ever given you eye contact to address your needs, even though you know a customer of a different age or ethnicity was waiting for service longer than you?

Have you ever assumed you would not gel with certain people because your age, gender, ethnicity, origin, socioeconomic level or religion was different from theirs?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you experienced what I call a "multicultural mishap."

Diversity does matter. Each time these mishaps occur, even though the "offender" may have had good intentions, these negative micro-messages send a signal to the person who is different that he or she is not important enough to warrant the same respect as others who do fit in.

So what can you do? Face your fears by replacing myths with facts. Learn, speak up and go beyond the easy stuff. The easy stuff includes attending ethnic festivals, feeding the hungry once or twice a year (so you can feel good) and watching a movie or play about a culture different than your own once in a while. These are wonderful activities, so do them and keep doing them, but they are not enough to make a sustainable difference in our community.

Make a commitment to get involved with one of the many local organizations that focus on diversity and inclusion to help us all become better agents of change. Speak up to your neighbors, co-workers and community leaders about ways to make Greensboro's diversity a competitive advantage.

Together, our diversity matters.

I know Greensboro can become a leader and model city in this effort. I am committed to making the change happen. Are you?

Greensboro resident Lenora Billings-Harris is a nationally recognized diversity strategist, author and speaker on diversity and inclusion. She is an affiliate of The HR Group (www.thehrgroupinc.net).