It was Thanksgiving in the States, and my friend was coming home from college. His first real time away from home. His parents picked him up at the airport, and he noticed an unfamiliar smell when they hugged.
In the car, it was stronger, and walking through the front door of his childhood home, it hit him like a freight train. “What’s that smell?” Cigarettes. Of course. Actually, he couldn’t remember a time before his parents were heavy smokers, but he’d never really noticed before. When he was living in it, it was his normal, so he couldn’t perceive it. I suppose it takes a little distance to gain some perspective.
That’s how culture works too. No, not that it’s a known carcinogen. What I mean is that we can’t even perceive what defines our own culture until we experience others. Growing up, we don’t recognise our culture as “culture” at all. It’s just “the way it is”. It’s our normal. Which makes everything else, well, abnormal.
But through travel, your exposure grows, and you learn that not only if your culture not normal, but that there is no normal. And that, right there, is the moment when you finally get a real look at your culture and yourself.
Travel is a mirror. But this post isn’t just about travel. That’s just the metaphor to take us to this next part.
There’s a lot of discussion right now around diversity and inclusion, especially in the creative fields. I’ve been mostly listening, and hearing posts that, well, sound nice. But my take on it doesn’t sound as prosocial, or as selfless. In fact, my perspective is pretty selfish.
Selfishly, I want to work in the most diverse office I possibly can. I want to be surrounded by people who challenge, inspire and question me. People who make me question myself and look critically at my ideas of what’s normal or expected.
Selfishly, I want to be exposed to perspectives, beliefs, backgrounds, mother tongues, stories, struggles and successes that don’t mirror my own.
Selfishly, I want to better understand who I am. And the only way I know how is to try to better understand who you are.
Not all travel requires a plane ticket or bus fare. Travel is just connecting with a new person and a new perspective.
A diverse office isn’t optional; it’s optimal.
Because, if I’m surrounded only by people just like me, we probably won’t smell the cigarette smoke we’re so used to, or the racism, or the prejudice, or the injustice that we haven’t had to notice.
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