These days there is so much talk about diversity. It is kind of a vogue thing for companies, organizations and groups to talk about being diverse. In no way am I saying that it is or is not a genuine desire. But what I am saying is, I don’t really see the desire producing much, which makes me question the depth of the desire.
Here’s the thing. I have had many conversations with many of my friends of varying racial and cultural backgrounds and I am really tired of talking. I am also tired of seeing weak attempts on all sides to include one African-American, one White, one Asian, one Latino or one woman as part of the panel or speaker line up for an event dominated by one group. One minority face included on the marketing material does not mean much.
Personally, I do not feel uncomfortable going to an event, working in an organization or interacting in an environment where I am under-represented. (I’ve been in the minority my whole life.) But I would like to see a genuine attempt at diversity that is more than including one minority face in a line up (or a less significant role like singing or performing).
The one suggestion I will offer today is this: Diversify the seats around the table where the decisions about the event or organization are made, then there will be a better chance of creating the diversity we say we want.
EPIDRO 
Ben Arment
May 19, 2010
Josh, as a conference organizer, I’m equally frustrated. This is a great post. I’m tired of looking around and only seeing one color in the seats. But I need some help. This is going to be a long comment, so bear with me:
Most of my attempts at diversifying have failed. I invited 3 African American leaders to speak at STORY 2010, and all of them turned me down. Same happened in 2009. Praise God for Princess Zulu and Stacy Spencer. When I asked a local African American friend to perform the opener of STORY, he suggested it was a token offer, when in fact it was a premium role.
At STORY 2009, I offered to give away 400 free tickets to inner-city pastors in Chicago, thinking it was a major step toward diversity, and very few accepted.
Last year, I offered to run a national fund-raising campaign (under the banner of STORY) to provide a hip-hip ministry in Chicago with state-of-the-art recording equipment and high-def cameras because they didn’t have good equipment, and they didn’t return my e-mails.
I don’t ask anyone to help me brainstorm events because my conferences provide my livelihood. It would be like you asking me to help you do your job so you can make more money. =) But I invite everyone who offers to help a seat at the table. I’ve never been offered help by anyone other than people of the same race.
I just spent the past month contacting African American churches in southeast Virginia, asking if I could offer them a pass to Whiteboard this Friday. Only 1 church took me up on it. I gave them as many tickets as they wanted.
Can you help me figure out what I need to do to bring true racial diversity to conferences?
jmsymonette
May 19, 2010
See my response below.
Brian Russell
May 19, 2010
In my opinion, you need more white guys guest posting on your blog 🙂
In all seriousness, I appreciate your perspective. Part of the solution at the organizational level (I think) is to strive for diversity in our relationships, friendships, partnerships as individuals. I’m thinking of a board or leadership group of all white guys striving to make their team more diverse. If on an individual level those guys all only have relationships with people who match them ethnically (and I would say culturally), then the organizational “integration” will be contrived.
So let’s at least start by being intentional/proactive about building relationships with people very different than us.
This is part of the reason I recently moved to Oklahoma City 🙂
jmsymonette
May 19, 2010
Brian I responded below.
jmsymonette
May 19, 2010
@Ben – I love your heart for the Kingdom and I appreciate what you are doing, that is why I support you. I also appreciate your effort to diversify. I can respect the fact that you invited speakers and they turned you down. It is better than the common response of “it’s hard” with no discourse on what was done.
@Brian is exactly right. We need to diversify our relationships. We need friends very different from us. And I am not talking about being friends on Twitter and FB. I am talking about real friendships where you can openly talk about real things.
One last thing. There are some serious trust issues on all sides. @Ben – You were probably turned down and receive low responses for that reason. You get past that by taking time to build deeper relationships. And by the way, I would love to be apart of your team to help you advance the Kingdom. The right people with the right heart won’t be concerned about money.
Sara Wilhelm Garbers
May 26, 2010
Thank you for your post. You address some important issues that are central to the heart of reconciliation. Often I have found that in my own life I often like reconciliation if it means I get to keep power and/or if I don’t have to deal with the difference that various cultural backgrounds/socio-economic realities/religious streams bring with them. Yet in reality, the wonderful challenge and richness of reconciliation’s promise and power actually comes though the places where people who are “other” than me actually have the power to push back into my assumptions, lead things in a way that makes sense to them, and are determinative in the direction we head, etc.
Let me give an example: I go to a church in the NE corner of urban Minneapolis, MN. I am a woman preacher. I am not on staff at my church. My church says that we value reconciliation…it is one of our core values. We are doing pretty well at working on having gender reconciliation in our community, and also reconciliation along socio-economic lines. However, our greatest growth is in our racial/ethnic reconciliation (we are in a very diverse part of the city but are largely racially a white church). We have two lead preachers. One is a white man; one is a white woman. I thought to myself last year what would I want should the woman pastor move on. Would I want her position??
As I reflected on that I had to admit to myself that if I really, really want there to be racial reconciliation in my church then my invitation may be to stand to the side and let one of my sisters or brothers of color stand up and lead instead.
The reason why? because unless and until we have people in positions of leadership and determinative power who are truly diverse (and this does not mean just or only trying to find the one woman or person of color who agree completely with the dominant culture of the organization) then we will not really be moving into the fullness of the beauty of reconciliation.
Reconciliation invites us to all have power at the table and be part of dreaming together what might be in a truly reconciled community.