Celebrating Diversity Month at a time when efforts illicit a four-letter word

Woke is a word that has taken on new meaning in recent history. So too has the notion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. Programs to support this effort are being cut on a massive scale in both the private and public sectors, with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cutting $1 billion in funding to DEI programs since January.

Perhaps that’s why honoring diversity this month can feel hard.

“I know it may seem like an odd thing to say amid the attacks against diversity these days, but as recent as 2004, Celebrate Diversity Month was initiated to recognize and honor diversity in this country, as well as the world as a whole,” said Lambers Fisher, licensed marriage and family therapist, award-winning author, and national speaker on the topic of multicultural awareness and diversity.

Fisher said that widely held beliefs about diversity are not always correct. “Many people associate diversity with being a person of color, a member of a minority group. That’s not what diversity means.”

Fisher explained, at a basic level, diversity means being different. But the ways we can be different are varied and endless.

“You can be different from someone as it relates to race or ethnicity, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation, age, or abilities. Not only that, but you can also differ as it relates to your socioeconomic status, political affiliation, faith belief, educational level, geographic region, or primary spoken language.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Fisher explained that celebrating diversity isn’t about celebrating “those people” but celebrating the uniqueness in all of us. As a marriage and family therapist, Fisher said he sees this play out often in sessions when a frustrated partner doesn’t share similar, or as they perceive, ideal traits, only to learn how beneficial it is to have a partner with different tendencies and abilities.

“Similarities are convenient because less work is required to get multiple people on the same page.” Fisher added that the downside of this often plays out in office or work settings.

“Similarities are inconvenient when it comes to brainstorming ways to accomplish something new or solve a problem if everybody has the same ideas.” Innovation thrives when collaborators have diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions.

Fisher says differences are often perceived as inconvenient because they require learning something new about someone and even yourself to move forward together.

So, how do we celebrate at a time when a war on diversity is being waged and the notion of being woke (defined as being aware and actively attentive to important societal issues) is characterized as negative?

“You have to find your own personalized way to acknowledge in word or in action that the world is better because of the diversity within it, not worse,” Fisher explained.

Fisher added that it’s not about prioritizing the celebration of a particular minority group. “It’s about creating a world in which everyone is made to feel as though their presence, with all of the similarities and differences that may bring, is less of an inconvenience and more of what makes the world a better place.”