MeL’s Point: Diversity. Good for Us.

By MeL on Monday, April 13, 2009 - 18:22

In last week’s episode of the hilarious new comedy show “Better Off Ted”, Veridian Dynamics, the company which employs main character Ted and a lot of strange and funny characters, pride themselves with their diversity management program while at the same time using motion sensors that unfortunately can only see white people and ignore people of colour. Lem, a usually quiet black researcher, decides to finally stand up for himself and starts to crusade against this system of discrimination, even confronts his intimidating boss Veronica (brilliant and out actress Portia de Rossi) about it until the motion sensors are finally replaced and everything goes back to normal.

 
Lem (Malcolm Barrett), Veroncia (Portia de Rossi) and Ted (Jay Harrington)

Whether it was owed to the necessities of storytelling or an intentional omission, what was noticeable about the plot was that the issue of diversity was limited to race, whereas, for example, the question of sexual orientation was nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, it seems to me that this is something that happens all too often.

A few weeks ago, I came across a press release that said that the company I work for had signed the “Charta der Vielfalt” (Charter of Diversity), an initiative launched by the German government. As the official website says, this charter “represents a fundamental commitment to appreciating and treating people fairly in business organizations. By signing it, organizations pledge to provide a work environment free of prejudice and discrimination. The Charter aims to establish an open corporate culture based on inclusion and mutual respect.”

Naturally, I was excited by these news, but then I read on. The press release went on to say that my company promoted diversity and equality of opportunity as part of its corporate culture and that it employed people from more than 30 countries. That was it. No word about other groups of people that were mentioned by the charter, like elderly or handicapped persons, and of course, no mention of employees belonging to the GLBT community.

It seems that, when thinking about groups that have to face discrimination, the first things people usually think of apart from gender are race and ethnic origin, age and maybe even disabilities. When thinking about it a little further, they might also come up with nationality and religion. Sexual orientation and identity isn’t only mentioned last in the list included in the above mentioned charter and in most enumerations of that sort, but it also seems to be last on most people’s personal lists. Also, it feels like that there are various classes of discrimination. A study on that matter that was conducted in Germany recently shows that while it’s widely perceived as being unacceptable to discriminate people because of gender, age or disabilities, that’s still not the case for discrimination based on sexual orientation. For example, 30 % of the interviewees said that they are sceptical about granting equal rights for gays and lesbians. One of the reasons for this result is probably that a lot of people still regard homosexuality as a choice. In fact, the study says that the attitude towards the discrimination of a certain group depended on whether the interviewees regarded the discrimination as being self-inflicted. 

As for my company, I was willing to grant them the benefit of the doubt, especially since it’s actually a very decent employer. So I asked the Human Resources Department whether they were now planning to establish a diversity management program, something that I think is much needed, especially regarding the acceptance of gay and lesbian employees. I know that there are colleagues, especially in customer services, who don’t dare to come out. They don’t feel like it would be accepted and are afraid of resentments, and the establishment of an official diversity management program would be a sign and therefore of enormous help for those colleagues who still feel the need to stay closeted. After a few weeks of insistent inquiries, last week I finally got the answer that unfortunately, at the moment, there were no plans to establish a diversity management program.

That’s unfortunate, but I won’t give up just yet, because I’ve learned that if I want there to be change, I have to do something about it myself. I’ve always been out at work, I’ve never shied away from discussing my “choice” and pointing out the discrimination I’m facing, and I would love to work in an environment where everybody can be so open without having to fear resentments.

After all, if a quiet science geek like Lem in Better Off Ted can do it, so can I. Too bad that my boss doesn’t look anything like Portia de Rossi.

How about you – does the company you work for have a diversity management program? If so, does it make a difference? If not, why not? Let me know in the comments.

Better Off Ted airs wednesdays on U.S. network ABC and is also available online and definitely worth checking out. (And don’t give me the “It’s only available in the U.S.” excuse, you found a way to watch “The L Word” online, didn’t you?) Thanks to maxime who posted the link to the above mentioned study in this week’s edition of The Lesbian News Snatch, and thanks to my friend S. who let me use the screencap she made. Pictures: ABC