We have to begin healing our own communities.  That is the message I have been delivering to a neo-diverse set of audiences.  Yes, I speak with student groups, but I also speak to older adults in specialty classes and in churches. 

    I am asked to speak by these varied groups because they too are experiencing the press of neo-diversity.  That neo-diversity press creates anxiety that comes from knowing you have to interact with people from different American-groups everyday of the week.  What are we supposed to do, how are we supposed to interact is always the question.  Sometimes though the question is how can we help “…them”?

    Truth is, though, that before anyone can help another group, you have to heal your own community.  Church groups want to help, to reach out to various groups in need.  Yet many members of those groups have not faced up to the neo-diversity problems in their own community.  How can you reach out to others, when there are members of your community who suffer because of your silence?

   So has your community addressed the use of stereotyped language by your group members?  Has your community set a new standard that forbids tolerance of intolerance in language?  Or are members of your community still getting away with whispering or speaking out loud about “…them” and “…those people.”  Whenever people in a group think “…we can talk this way because it’s just us,” an awful mistake is being made. With neo-diversity, you see, it is not always easy or possible to know who is a member of a “…minority” group within your group.  And so in the presence of a vulnerable person, letting your group members speak in stereotypes or use anti-group slurs lets group animosity live on in your community.

    Last week was a very busy week for me.  In addition to my regular teaching, I was involved in a number of diversity events on campus.  One of those events was called, “These Hands Don’t Hurt.” I was asked to participate as a “…prominent man on campus” who stood against violence against women. You see violence against women is not a woman’s problem.  Violence against women is most often perpetrated by men.  How can men let that go on?   Violence against women is a problem of my male community; we have to begin healing our own community.

    A neo-diverse group of men (students, staff, faculty and administrators) stood out front of the D.H. Hill Library on the brickyard.  We put our gloved hands in colorful mixtures and then made our handprint on a big sheet.   Then we gathered for a group picture.

    We men stood to say that we will speak up against violence against women.  We stood in public to say that we will also support and help anyone we know is being abused. 

    We stood to begin the work of healing our own community.

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