Cultural Diversity: The Sum of Our Parts | Hilda Mwangi | TEDxUCSD

So before we start today I would like you to take 10 seconds and look around and say hello to the people around you. Great, thanks for doing that. It's actually quite interesting to be here to see them all do that because it was a mixed bag. of waves, handshakes, some people smile and laugh, so I want to ask you one thing, what did you see? You noticed someone wearing their hair color, probably their gender, and a couple of other things, but what did you think of them? Now look around you. You again and look at that person don't say anything you don't have to tell them what you think of them I don't want to embarrass you but I know you're probably making decisions and conclusions about the people around you right now All of that was like a kind of delay in giving them the opportunity to look at myself and make judgments about me.

I know they are judging. I would do it too. I can't really see them all clearly right now, but I would be. Judging by what you see, it's these things we do that help inform how we see each other and the conclusion of this experiment is something you probably already know, it takes us on average about 7 seconds to make impressions on others and in assimilate the impressions of others. then take those impressions to draw conclusions and determinations from each other, so that you have probably seen that I am a cool woman. A black woman, fantastic black hair color, a couple of gray streaks there, I can't see my eye color from up here, but I have brown.

Now I want to tell you a little about myself. I was born in Kenya in Nairobi, but I actually grew up in a small town outside of there. I guess it's not really small, it's its own town anyway called ner. I moved to Baltimore. When I was 10 years old with my family we have been in the US ever since. I have had the privilege of living and working in more than three countries and traveling to dozens more places. You see, all of these things have influenced who I am. I have also been lucky to have very diverse friends, people from all walks of life, different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds.

You see, it's these things that are hard to know within the first 10 seconds of meeting someone now if you look around this room again. Would you know who is in this room just by looking at them in the first seven to 10 seconds? Would you have known all this about me? Probably not. Throughout my life, culture and

cultural

diversity

have been at the forefront again. I have been lucky. have such a wonderful group of friends and through our friendships we have taught each other about our Traditions through shared meals, celebrations and also just talking to each other.

This is a photograph that was taken a few years ago at a ceremony welcoming a baby that in my culture we are called Ana and these are my friends, people who had always asked me what they look like and one day I told them why don't they come and They experience it and they did it, all of this was to show them how diverse we are. everyone now imagines your life as a puzzle what would be the pieces that make up who you are to me would be my faith my family my heritage my travels my favorite foods again I am from Baltimore my friends my godson and my love for philanthropic education and the arts now , if all these pieces make up my little one, what would be the pieces that make up this room today?

Imagine the pieces that would fill this room, your workplaces, your classrooms, even your local coffee shop, so I ask you who they are. you and what the pieces of your puzzle would be, that they were wrong and that they should see it how they saw it, but the fact is that they were all right, it was really more about biology and how your eyes and your mind interpreted this image, but It was also about the perspective where your eye first focused for me. I looked directly at the dress because we are trained to focus on the image that is in the foreground, but for those who focus their gaze on the background color, they really saw. a different color, no matter how many times I tried, I never saw black and blue now that we've covered what people see on the outside, it doesn't always reflect what we see and what we know people are on the inside, let's get to it Next topic moves on to

diversity

, this concept is in everything and everywhere today, the concept of increasing diversity is all around us, it is in the mission and value statements in corporations, companies even have points sales, they have positions that are intended to help increase diversity, they are diversity.

Champions are diversity officers and if you are Serena Williams, you are the newest member of Survey Monkey's board of directors with the sole goal of increasing diversity not only in that corporation but also in the tech industry as a whole. You see, my point is not to dismiss diversity as a concept or belittle it, quite the opposite, what I want to tell you today is that we must look beyond who the outsiders are, it is not just about hiring more women or more people of color, But rather than hiring people who have a diverse background, diversity of perspectives, we should ask ourselves more about what people go through when they reach a certain point in their lives.

The adversities, triumphs, and tragedies they have experienced. These are the things that really make up the true identity of the company. Who we are, it's pretty easy to just say yes, you're a woman, yes, you're a man, yes, you're this or yes, you're that, but we have to go beyond the strengths and weaknesses and really ask those deep questions, so let's wanna. think again about the pieces of the puzzle that make up your life think about your work and your classrooms think about where you spend most of your time do you know that the people in those places, I mean, do they really know them? do you know the pieces? that make up their lives, you see, in this day and age we again make such quick determinations about each other without giving much thought to who the people are, we have stopped having deep conversations with each other, all in favor of 140 character chats, now you see people frequently calling each other friends and best friends on Facebook and celebrating anniversaries for things but surely people don't know who we are and that can only be achieved if we share our experiences many times, when we ask these questions people think we are nosy or we are just trying to get too close, my challenge to you today is that you must get closer, you must pry respectfully and genuinely because there is nothing worse than falsely prying, get to know each other, you will really discover that you have There are many things in common with people who you like.

Otherwise you wouldn't even give a second glance to that quick greeting you said today, which could even turn into something more like a friendship, so take some time after this to say hello to each other, not just in 10 seconds, but also in 10 seconds. Ask something else, this brings me to my next point. As the person who introduced me mentioned that I come from a policy making background and throughout my experiences in this process I realized that culture doesn't really influence this much and I often wonder why a lot of times there isn't an argument culture for or against a certain policy, but there are times when it is justified and this often comes up in health policy because health care, more than anything else, serves the heart of who we are and affects. us directly, you see, health policy is not just black and white or, as I like to call it, chicken or beef, if anything, it's more like a soup because once it's said and done, the things that There are more of them taken into account and we can't even separate them later.

I can't get the ingredients out later, so I'll give you another example. Early in my career I worked for a non-profit healthcare organization that served the Hispanic and Latino communities and my job was to work with other minority organizations to make sure these groups were represented and our primary job was to educate legislators not only about these communities and their needs, but also about why a certain policy or law would disproportionately or negatively affect these communities, but the greatest education was not teaching these legislators that it was the The education I received not only learned how Similar was my culture to the people I served, but I also learned that I don't have to be from these cultures or be from these communities to understand them, to empathize with them and be sensitive to them and, ultimately, represent them in the speech.

So what does this have to do with you in this beautiful nation of ours? We all have a voice, but for that voice to be heard, you must be willing to share it. willing to talk about your experiences you must be willing to listen to other people's experiences you must be able to ask the questions those experiences raise you see today politics is everywhere around us every day and every night we are surrounded by decisions that make us surround news about policies, laws, debates taking place in Congress or even here in our own states, we all have a role to play in this, like I said, legislators are not experts and they too need to be educated about things, and A lot of that happens only if we share our stories and our experiences, so if you imagine again the voices that are in this room, if we all brought our perspectives to the table, imagine what a beautiful, complete picture we could all paint about the experiences in this room. today in our communities and our world in general, so again I say to you, take advantage of all the various places that you walk, where you live, where you work, and where you go to school, because it is possible that Discover again how much you have in common. you have with the people you see, I took it for granted a little bit, not for most of my college career, but what a wonderful experience it was to be with people from all walks of life with different experiences and as soon as I realized that I began to take more advantage of your knowledge of the people around me and I encourage you to do the same.

You see, the most important lesson I have learned so far in my young life. I'm not going to say how old I am, but it is anyway. that as I walk through life I do not walk it alone I do not simply walk it as myself, you see, I walk it as myself as a daughter, a sister, a Kenyan and an American, a black woman, a lawyer, a philanthropist, a godmother. You say I am a proud godmother and a friend, you see, these are the pieces of the puzzle that make up my life, these are the people and things that make up the essence of who I am, they make me a rich person, a wealthy person, and they influence in what I am.

What I do in my life and how I react to events, so once again I ask you what makes you up. You see, we all have a unique identity, a unique perspective and we all have a voice to lend to making this world a better place for the last ones. The missing piece again can only be answered with the question, Who are you? Kind of like that CSI song. Who are you? Well, I'm Hill Wongi and I'm the sum of all my

parts

, thank you.