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CLT Magazine | SUMMER 2022
The "Five Things" and American Dialogue Ron Jones Dialogues on Diversity, ron@dialoguesondiversity.com Historically, in America, we are told there are 5 things that we should never speak about in “polite” public forums: Sex, Money, Politics, Religion, and Race. Though we speak about these things more now than in any previous generation, the way we do it validates why people were so prudish about not doing so in the past. Because we do not have deep and textured conversations about the things that are fundamental to how we are, we default to the narratives of extremes. This happens because the majority get to define how the issue is seen and engaged. That is almost never an honest dialogue. One major exception is The Kerner Commission Report of 1968. It dealt with race, politics, and money, and how it all worked to disenfranchise Black people for generations. When it came out, we hardly spoke about it at all. Because we are rarely thoughtful about how we deal with these issues, the narrative of these topics stumbles into extremes. If you are not straight (Sex), your story can be painted as “perverted”. If you are poor (Money), “laziness” probably has a lot to do with it. If you are not in the political mainstream (Politics), and sometimes if you are, your political beliefs are “radical or un-American”. If yours is not the dominant faith (Religion) of the land, you can fall anywhere on the spectrum from “antichrist” to “terrorist”. And racially…. do I need to even go there? Not every conversation is had on these terms, but
too many are. This happens because whoever represents that dominant group has the power to make these things so. The Straight (Cis), White, Christian, Two-political party, Middle-class have the power to shape the conversation for almost everyone. They also have the power not to address their own faults and shortcomings within the same system. For the first time ever, we are finally acknowledging the danger inherent in not dealing with unchecked dominant power. I will break it down into two categories: White Apathy and White Supremacy. Before some of you get all twisted about what I just said, let me be clear. WHITE PEOPLE AS A GROUP ARE NOT BAD, EVIL, OR WRONG. The apathy of too many white people enables the supremacy that oppresses non-white people. The same can be said for straight supremacy, class supremacy, and Christian supremacy. It is all built on the dominant narrative. Because generations past were incentivized to keep it this way, we still struggle with deconstructing it. This is where the millennials have the power to make real change. I do not expect that “power” as expressed in big systems will just change the way it has operated for so long, but I do believe that “people” can. Caring people. Thoughtful people. All it takes is enough people committed to better dialogue. The only way that can meaningfully happen is when individuals and communities take on a more critical
