We can take so much for granted, at least I can.
I was with a group recently and two questions were posed from the authors of the book The Business of Race (Gina Greenlee and Margaret H. Greenberg):
- What is the relevance of race in your business?
- How do you identify?
What’s interesting is that as I sat in lengthy dialogue with a table of eight women from around the world, we never answered the first question. We spent more time discussing what relevance meant and it was a fascinating discussion from all worldviews.
The second question offered other surprises as we all presented similarly on the surface, yet when we stopped to answer the question, found many intersections which enlightened our automatic assumptions.
Had we not stopped to ask, we’d never know and most certainly would likely have ignorantly crossed the line with some conversations given our assumptions.
It’s time to ask, listen and learn.
The world needs it.