Pia K. Hansen: Diversity brings an extra richness to our lives

Friday morning, I enjoyed a beautiful performance at the Bethel AME Church in the South Perry neighborhood. Dancers from the Spokane Tribe were followed by Yiddish song, Hawaiian hula dancers, Japanese calligraphy, a bagpiper in full regalia and the Rev. Happy Watkins reciting Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Every time Watkins does this, he makes me cry, and he did so again Friday.

All the performers had one thing in common: They are of different ethnic backgrounds, yet they live in Spokane.

I was there to make up for a Leadership Spokane class on diversity that I missed when I went through the program last year, and the morning reminded me of the variety of people who live here, even if they aren’t highly visible as we go about our lives.

When I moved to Spokane in ‘93, I had lived two years in Maryland, right outside of Washington, D.C. I was quite often the only white person on the bus or train car full of people.

Every day, I heard people speak one language or another I didn’t understand, even if the language was some variation of the English I was still learning.

On the street, I saw people wearing everything from saris to suits to turbans to jeans and basketball shirts. I also frequently visited the large Amish community in Pennsylvania and the left-behind mining towns in West Virginia, just a quick drive away.

Never before, in the short life I’d spent in the safe little duck pond that is my native Denmark, had I encountered so many different people from so many different places, speaking English in so many different ways. It was a challenging and eye-opening experience.

I was new in this country, and my lack of cultural understanding combined with limited language skills was at times quite disabling, but mostly I gawked and listened and slowly learned.

Moving to Spokane was a change, especially because I thought all of America was as diverse as the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area.

It’s not.

Over the years, I’ve interviewed many civic leaders, artists and politicians here in the Inland Northwest, and they usually all say the same thing: “I wish Spokane was more diverse – you know, had more culture, more ethnic restaurants.”

It’s amazing how frequently people define diversity in terms of food.

Or race. Diversity is not just about race – it is about gender, culture, ethnic background, age and ability, just to mention a few things.

I know many people in the Inland Northwest have worked tirelessly for decades to improve circumstances for minority business owners, families and workers. The likes of Ben Cabildo, executive director of the African American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American business association,` comes to mind, and I’m not saying that’s not working.

What I am saying is that the rest of us – the more than 90 percent of us who are comfortably Caucasian – need to wake up and smell the curry: We shouldn’t support diversity for the sake of minorities alone, we should support a diverse population for the sake of all of us.

You see, I believe we can learn from people who are different from ourselves.

And that’s why those of us in the comfortable majority should care about diversity.

How do I know you can learn from someone who’s different than yourself? Because I’ve spent the last 15 years surrounded by people who are not like me – and I am here to tell you that I’ve learned a lot.