The Importance of Diversity is More Than Seasoned Chicken
What brilliance has been bottled up in kitchens? What ingenuity has been scrubbed away while cleaning the floors of houses the scrubber will never own? What has this country lost by not considering the brilliance and potential of every single person that inhabits this land? Recently, while perusing some little known Black History facts, I came across the story of Eugene Bullard. Mr. Bullard, an American citizen, was one of very few Black pilots who flew in WWI. The interesting thing about Mr. Bullard is, he didn’t fly for the U.S. army. After moving to France in an attempt to escape the racial turmoil of the U.S. south, he joined the Foreign Legion and became a part of the French colonial troops. During his time in the Foreign Legion, he was promoted to the rank of corporal and earned his piloting license. At one point during the war, he attempted to join the U.S. forces as a pilot. However, since they were only accepting white men, he was denied. After the war ended, he received the Croix de guerre, Médaille militaire, and the Croix du combattant volontaire for his service in the French army. (I clearly don’t speak French, but I’m thinking these awards have to be pretty dope.) Between the end of WWI and the beginning of WWII, Eugene Bullard made a pretty great life for himself in France. He opened up a night club which graced the likes of Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, and Langston Hughes. Unfortunately, during his service in WWII, Eugene Bullard was wounded and eventually returned to New York. Back in America, back in his country of origin, Mr. Bullard never reached the same level of success that he had seen overseas. At one point, after his return to the states and while attending an event hosted by Paul Robeson, he was beaten by an angry mob, upset with Paul Robeson’s assumed association with the communist party. The mob consisted of both veterans and law enforcement officers. Though there is footage of the mob beating the attendees of the event, no one was ever charged with a crime. Later in life, although he had known great success and fame during his time in France, his life in America ended with him living alone and working as an elevator operator. As much as I love black history, I did not start this post to provide anyone who reads it with a history lesson about Eugene Bullard, but rather an opportunity to question what greatness we miss out on when we don’t allow people to live into their full potential because of the color of their skin, their zip code, their gender, or their sexuality. How many American lives could have been saved if Eugene Ballard was allowed to fly in the U.S. Army and provide the same services for our country as he did for France? What culture did we miss out on because this country decided that his only value was to stay in a box that went up and down, instead of a potential entrepreneur working to preserve black culture in this country? Even today, what unearthed brilliance lies in our babies that policies, lack of resources, and Secretaries of Education who don’t know the difference between proficiency and growth, have stopped us from developing? What power has gone untapped? What inventions are waiting to be created in the hood? What life-saving medical researcher are we shutting out by building a wall? In this Trump era, I have often seen the argument for the importance of diversity wrapped up in a humorous 5 minute video about which rappers should go with us on the boat, which hairstyles dominant society wouldn’t have left to appropriate, and the looming danger of unseasoned chicken. While the videos are all funny, they can also be dangerous in limiting the worth of diversity. Diversity is not just a photograph of smiling people with different skin tones. Diversity includes differences in thought, perspectives, ideas, experiences, and much more.
When this country minimizes the importance of educating everyone, it minimizes the beauty of the diversity of possibilities that could be. How much faster could America have gotten to space if Katherine Johnson would have been allowed in the room the first day she arrived at NASA? Could we have won the space race? That answer will always be hidden to us. But the future doesn’t have to be. As this administration continues to push legislation and executive orders that threaten to minimize the power of diversity that our country is blessed with, we must learn from the mistakes of our past and ensure that every person in this country has the opportunity to live into their fullest potential. When we are able to do that, the power of our diversity will be more than seasoned chicken. When everyone is given all the resources and care that is needed to help them live into their true potential, then we can truly make America great.