A Note From the Publisher

First Things First: Defining "Diversity"

Two key questions would occur to me as a reader upon first encountering the cover of this new magazine:

What does the publisher mean by “diversity”?

What does the publisher hope to accomplish by representing “diversity” within these pages?

I am grateful our inaugural issue contains columns by two writers, thinkers, and community leaders whose work points to the answers.

James McKim, business owner, consultant, DEI coach, and president of the Manchester NAACP, digs into this timely term in his column “The Future of Diversity.” He notes that while new census data shows growth in New Hampshire’s diversity, it “fails to show the true diversity in our state. It does not tell us about the change in people with disabilities, sexual orientation, religion, education, thinking styles, or many of the characteristics that make up our personalities.” Check out McKim’s column and “diversity wheel chart” on page 40. It makes clear the range of people who might warrant coverage in a magazine about diversity is vast.

While planning this publication, we heard from the many we interviewed that it shouldn’t be just about racial diversity, or ethnic diversity, or diversity of gender identity or sexual orientation, and so on. But if we include income or wealth diversity, diversity of access to education, and such, we may soon come to a point where we are producing a magazine about everyone. As beautiful as that sounds in theory, it doesn’t seem to represent the original spirit of the project. So how do we move forward without answering this definitively?

“Perfect is the enemy of good,” they say, and if we wait until we have an indisputably right answer, we’ll never start. So we’ll start, and count on you, our readers, to recognize the sincerity of our intent, and provide feedback as we continue to refine and improve: what to add, what to include, what stories to tell.

We do have a litmus test of sorts. It’s contained in the answer to the second question: What do we hope to accomplish with a magazine about diversity?

Deo Mwano has provided a wonderful piece of writing on his experience both as Congolese immigrant, and as a consultant helping businesses to accomplish diversity, equity and inclusion goals. He points to the value of really getting to know someone — co-workers, neighbors, fellow citizens — in breaking down barriers, solving problems and defusing toxic, unwinnable-feeling wars in social media.

We see this magazine as an opportunity to help the people of our state get to know their neighbors — specifically those neighbors not so well known to the broader population because they are newer here or aren’t represented in media as frequently.

People I’ve discussed this project with have emphasized how important representation is. I understand this personally. I grew up in a small town in southern Vermont in the early 1970s. There was nobody who looked like me, or had a name like mine. There weren’t even many Latinx people on TV at the time (nor was Latinx even a word). It seemed to me then Eric Estrada was the only one. Kids made a lot of CHiPs jokes at my expense. This note, however, is not the place to unpack that experience or compare it to anyone else’s. I mention it only to underscore how much it resonated with me to hear members of our community express their desire to be seen and their hopes this magazine could play a role in that.

With that, I’ve answered the two questions I posed at the outset as best I could. I’ll get out of the way now and let the work of our talented writers and photographers (who all represent diverse communities themselves), and the stories, lives and successes of our subjects, tell the rest of the story. — ERNESTO BURDEN