Feb 13 2006
here’s a novel idea for the emergent conversation
truth-seeker reports idea for emergent’s future that she shared with Jason Clark. Among other thing it included this “novel ideas”
1) Emergent should provide scholarships for women and ethnic minorities to attend ‘core’ gatherings, like the one in S.F. last year, and the Glorietta get together. If you truly value minorities and want to have them as a part of your core leadership, you have to count the cost and get them there. This will change Emergent in a myriad of ways that we can’t even begin to concieve of yet.
2) Emergent should make sure women and ethnic minorities are in on the planning stages of things. Men organize things in a certain manner, and that encourages male participation because it seems logical to them. But women and people of color would lend a different flavor to how events are formed, which topics are chosen, etc. (Just ask someone of a different ethnic background from you to describe how decision making worked in thier family and you’ll see how varied the approaches can be!) Also, recognize how your inherent societal power as men influences the power balance in the room during planning sessions. Height, title, voice volume/depth, etc. all influence a discussion and can quickly communicate “I’m in charge,” thus shutting down the discussion.
I hope Rachelle knows how insightful she is on this matter. For the sake of the emergent conversation I hope her voice gets listened to.
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