Oh, No! What Have We Done?

The phrase "melting pot" was popularized by the British playwright Israel Zangwill in his 1908 play titled The Melting Pot. The play depicted the story of a Russian-Jewish immigrant family in the U.S.A. and celebrated America as a place where people from different backgrounds could come together.

1980s

Growing up in America, I have vivid memories of my youth and my education. I remember attending Multicultural Fairs while in High School in the 1980s, where people from all walks of life would meet, socialize and come together. I remember having exchange students from other countries in my classes and getting to learn what their life was like in their home country while helping them to assimilate to their new life here in America and all the while learning what it takes to become a true friend to a person from a completely different place on earth. (Thank you, Khalid, for teaching me about your life and family in the Middle East.)

At age 17, I found myself on the other side of the learning experience as I was an exchange student with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (GBYSO.) This youth orchestra took us to London, England. I played violin.

Looking back on the experience, I remember how being an exchange student labels you as immediately different than everyone around you. In my case, I'm an American boy, and everyone else around me is British. I naturally speak with an American accent, and everyone else around me does not. I use slang and they use slang and yet we both speak English, and we cannot properly understand each other at times.

It was a life experience that impacted me, and I am so happy to have had this experience because it is life experience that shapes you as a human being.

Sure, exchange students are immediately considered different, but I remember other kids in my classes in the 80s that were also classified as "different." We had goth and punk kids that wore makeup, had piercings, tattoos and spiked hair, and there were the effeminate boys and the tomboy girls that were always being guided by teachers to behave in the opposite direction.

There was Steven - the kid that stuttered, James - the boy that wanted to take ballet, and Stephanie - who wanted to study law and politics and run for president someday. My high school was large, and it was comprised of many different culture groups.

I wasn't tall. I didn't play sports, I loved listening and watching Boy George videos, and I didn't fancy girls. I performed in theater club, I played violin, and I worked hard to get good grades. I wasn't considered "cool," so I was immediately labeled "different."

Growing up different in American schools isn’t some romanticized coming-of-age story where you find yourself and everyone finally gets you. It’s more like navigating a maze where every turn feels like a dead-end, and you’re just trying not to lose yourself completely.

The hardest part - well, at least for me in the 1980s - was not the way others treated me, it was the way I start treating myself. I started to question everything: Am I really that weird? Why can’t I just be like them? What’s wrong with me? Why am I this way?

Teachers weren’t much help either. Sure, they were always pushing for us to be “individuals,” but in the end, teachers strived for this idea of normalcy. When I’d answer a question differently from the rest of the class or had an opinion that wasn’t mainstream, they’d give me this weird look. Like, “Hmm, that’s interesting,” but not in a good way. It felt more like, “Wow, that’s a really weird way to look at it, let’s move on, class.”

It's no wonder the "different" kids always felt like the teachers treated them like lost causes.

For most of my teenage years, I lived with a constant battle inside my head, trying to convince myself that I'm okay the way that I am even when everything around me indicated otherwise. Luckily, for me, I overcame the battle. Sadly, some kids do not.

High school in America in the 1980s was like a never-ending loop where you’re constantly trying to fit in or, at least, not stand out (too much.) For me, it was like trying to wear shoes every day that didn’t fit - they'd pinch and hurt. Yup. That was me - limping around while everyone else seemed to walk just fine.

That was high school in the 80s ... it felt unreal at times.

Years later, as a professional working in "the real world" ... diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts surge over time and this strategic approach becomes something quite impactful for schools, businesses, families and society at large. The"different kids" are all grown up and now we're "different adults." It's our responsibility to teach and foster learning delivery for the youth of America and it is DEI work that brings awareness to those that have deep-rooted biases with engaging, embracing, respecting and understanding other people that aren't quite like them for one reason or another.

The work is quite necessary if we care to evolve an America that was once widely known across the world as "the melting pot."

2020s

Forty years later, DEI is a big thing, and I am proud to be involved in this work. DEI is now all around us in some way and that is exactly how a melting pot should evolve. The America of the 1960s, 70s and 80s should evolve into a landscape of intense diversity, equity and inclusion in the 2020s. Many of our ancestors came to America from somewhere other than America and it's our role now to continue to evolve America from the very foundation our ancestors built.

In this day and age, it's refreshing to see children grow up in schools that have embraced DEI in the way they cultivate enriching learning experiences for kids. Yet while some schools are very involved in DEI work, others are not.

The events of George Floyd brought much of DEI mainstream, but the struggle is real. Like most of society in America today, DEI, is a polarizing subject with people often on two very distinct sides of the fence about it. Sprinkle in political influences and platforms and the subject becomes a veritable hotbed of opinions.

I'm told that walking through the hallways of American schools in the 2020s feels very different. It's as if there’s been this shift in the air, a sense that being “different” isn’t such a bad thing anymore. Finally, a step in the right direction for the youth of America.

Life here is not perfect, of course, and it never will be. Take Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This was enacted on July 2, 1964, and it was a landmark piece of legislation that aimed to address and eliminate employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Life wasn't perfect in the 60s and out of it, the necessity of Title VII arose from the widespread and systemic discrimination that was prevalent in the United States during that time period.

DEI grows from Title VII in ways to teach Americans from coast to coast about what they still don't know about their own fellow Americans (that just so happen to be different from them.)

Yes. A lot that has changed, especially with how teachers, school administration and parents are stepping up to foster a culture where kids don’t feel so out of place because they are seen as "different." This work is necessary. Our kids are the future of America, and their differences must be embraced so that they develop with confidence in themselves to embrace the power of what makes them different, unique and special. Diversity makes a smarter America.

There's a lot of work yet to do. Fear, corporate influences, political platforms and the almighty American dollar create a recipe that continues to keep DEI in the hot seat. Activists like Robby Starbuck has a huge following and he uses fear to get companies, like Lowes Home Improvement to revert DEI work and turn even the most colorful environments beige.

Corporate America wants to stay beige. Why? It's safer.

Here's what Robby wrote on "X" recently. (Aug 26, 2024 w/2.9M views by 8/30/2024.)

Big news: I messaged @Lowes executives last week to let them know that I planned to expose their woke policies. This morning, I woke up to an email where they preemptively made big changes. Here are the changes: • Ending participation in the @HRC’s woke Corporate Equality Index social credit system. • No more donations to pride events or other divisive events. • Ending ERG groups in favor of one large unifying ERG group for all employees, no longer designed to focus on race or sexual orientation. They also hint at more future changes. We’re now forcing multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies without even posting just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose. We are winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America. -Robby Starbuck

There's a lot to unpack in Robby's post but the big thing I took away from it is that he thinks we're winning but America is not winning!

On many an occasion, I think to myself "Oh, No! What have we done?"

America is so polarized in so many facets of our society that we can't even see that with our actions and beliefs we are polarizing how it feels for kids to enter "the real world" because we're reverting the real world back to a colorless world. If a scientist were to remove all the color from a rainbow, what would be left is essentially a white or grayscale version of the rainbow. A rainbow forms when sunlight is refracted, dispersed, and reflected through water droplets in the atmosphere, splitting light into its component colors.

If we take the rainbow and remove all color from it - it becomes one big white band free from all color.

This thinking and these actions, I fear, is what will crush America from the inside out year over year. Instead of embracing all the unique spices that make the melting pot so delicious, our country endeavors to be one powerful spice.

My friends, Robby is fighting a losing battle if he thinks spicy young-blooded American kids are going to follow along and succumb to an America devoid of color. Leading people from the place of fear is a dead end, Robby. Time will tell.

We must stop teaching our children that they need to normalize their differences and succumb to this new, real world where DEI is just seen as woke rhetoric. We must stop teaching our children to assimilate and stay away from color, variety and diversity.

The power of colors lies in their ability to transcend language, to communicate emotions, and to transform spaces and experiences. They enrich our lives, providing a sense of joy, comfort, and connection to the world around us. Taking the colors out of our society by continuing to revert policies, procedures and teachings will unfavorably change our connection to the world around us in America.

Moreover, the use of colors extends into cultural and societal symbolism. Different cultures attribute various meanings to colors, shaping how they are perceived and used. In some cultures, white is a color of purity and peace, while in others, white signifies mourning.

America is in mourning and yet, it doesn't even know that it is.

Without color, a rainbow would lose its power to inspire awe, becoming just another ordinary phenomenon in a world that thrives on the extraordinary. Would a colorless rainbow even be a rainbow at all? Or would it just be a ghost of what it was meant to be, a sign that when we strip away the essence of something, we risk losing its soul entirely?🤝