Impactful Inclusion Toolkit

ACTIVITY 7Widen Your Perspective

“We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which we were given to us by our society.”

—Alan Watts

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We are living in an unprecedented time of profound and positive shifts in attitudes toward race and culture with many of us being awakened for the very first time to the deeply embedded racist views and systems that have existed for centuries. The overwhelming reaction to the murder of George Floyd, the support for Prince Harry and wife Meghan over concerns from the royal family about how dark their baby's skin tone would be, or the uproar in response to states banning critical race theory in education are on the world's stage for all to see. This shift in perspective is long overdue, and we can no longer claim that we didn't know. Most of us alive today are not responsible for the creation of the systems and institutions that have disenfranchised so many; however, we all have a responsibility to do something about how they continue to impact our lives today.

As the workforce becomes more diverse, it's important to widen our perspectives in order to change our frame of reference in relationship to others who are different from us. Our eyes open to a new point of view as we question the validity of belief systems and ideologies that cause harm. Systems and institutions have built a toxic culture based on the ...