Equality and diversity training was certainly not at the top of my agenda as we set about clearing a foot of snow from our driveway last Sunday afternoon. As we shovelled, the neighbours kept popping out and doing a bit then going back into their houses to get warm again. Anyway, the snow presented a nice opportunity to meet our new neighbours from two houses up the road. Gaby and Cader are of Chinese origin and quite a shy and retiring couple, which is probably part of the reason why we had never got to meet them properly before.
As we chatted Len, a veteran of our estate, wheezed into view with an equally wheezy Bruce, his Labrador retriever (I doubt that Bruce has retrieved much more than a dog biscuit in the last 10 years). Len being the gentleman as always, stopped for a chat, about the weather of course. “I bet you’re not used to having this sort of weather where you come from, are you?” he said with an air of clumsy political politeness, “No, we never had it this bad in London”, Cader replied innocently. I’m sure Bruce put his paws over his ears as he cringed in disbelief at the remark, but as I looked at Cader he chuckled and Len continued his march, apparently oblivious of the underlying inference of his comment (or of the wit in Cader’s reply).
Our biases and prejudices are deeply engrained which makes it a challenge for all of us; Equality & Diversity Training can’t fix everything but, as they say, every little helps.
By John Freshney| Righttrack’s Operations Manager