Yesterday I took a compulsory online
course on Equality and Diversity. I don't know why I had to take it –
apparently as a step in my Professional Development. Frankly, I had felt
I was sufficiently Equal and Diverse, but a subjective feeling doesn't
get you a course certificate. The intro said it would take an hour,
but apparently I am a slow learner, it took me an hour and a half.
There was a test afterwards, and I had to score 80% to pass. I did
quite well with the exercises, but I always get stressed about any
kind of tests, exams and quizzes, so I only got 85. I missed some
intricate legal nuances between discrimination, harassment and
victimisation.
It was quite interesting and useful,
especially learning about all the legal particulars. Not that I
expect to be involved in any, but who knows.
Where I grew up, a professor could say
to a student: Don't bother to apply for PhD, you are Jewish. Where I
grew up, a professor could say to a student: If you want to pass the
exam you'll have to sleep with me. Where I grew up, homosexuality was
a crime. Where I grew up, women were expected to work and take care
of the family. Where I grew up, there were no wheelchairs, and you
wouldn't see a disabled person in a public place. Where I grew up,
people were discriminated, harassed and victimised by each other and
by the authorities. Where I grew up, some people were more equal than
other people.
In Sweden, I was a member of equality
committee at my work place. I spent hours and hours trying to
persuade the other committee members that equality was not only about
gender. They thought that I was making too much of being Diverse. I pointed out that there were other Diverse people in the
department, staff as well as students. I was useful by being Diverse
when diversity was the slogan of the day, but being Diverse didn't
make you Equal. In fact, the more Diverse, the less Equal. Perhaps we
should all have taken courses in Equality and Diversity. It's easy to
be Equal, but very difficult to be Diverse. If you are Equal, you
don't think much about those who are Diverse.
Perhaps I should go back and revise until I get it 100%
right.
1 comment:
Very well argumented and very interesting. In the 8oth or maybe the 90th there came a very interesting dissertion from Åbo University and Claes Jansson . If my memory still functions the title was "Outsiders and censurfriends" and he caracterized very much the psychology of the Equals and the Diversionists
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