Let’s Be More than Just Tolerant

Guest Post: Jason Lacsmana, Director, Programs and Partnerships

Diversity is one of our planet’s greatest strengths, and communities, organizations, and institutions must celebrate its existence. The world is made up of different people, cultures, and traditions, and while there is beauty in that, there is also strength. There is innovation in novel approaches and other ways of thinking that may ultimately lead to solutions for our communities.

Looking at who we work with, who we serve, and who we build relationships with, it doesn’t do us any good if everyone appears, thinks, and feels the same. Our future relies on each one of us and the realization that we all have exceptional and beautiful stories attached to us. Let’s celebrate and appreciate our histories.

To truly understand our place in society, we must recognize and appreciate diversity and acknowledge that different communities have unique histories and experiences equally valid as our own. When we fail to acknowledge this, we lose sight of everything else in our community. We may understand our experience, our family’s experience, or our neighbor’s experience, but without looking beyond that, we live with blinders on.

My family and I are lucky to be able to prioritize travel, not only here in California and across the United States. We’ve also been fortunate to travel across the world. This exposed us to different people, cultures, traditions, histories, and even religions. This doesn’t make the world feel smaller. In fact, it makes it more significant for us. There’s so much more out there that we are connected to – a global community, a human community.

If we fail to recognize the diversity that exists, we miss out on so much of life, including the lessons that different people and cultures have for us.

I’m not satisfied with tolerance.

Growing up, I remember learning the importance of tolerance. But I never embraced it because, to me, “being tolerant” implies that we have to grin and bear diversity. It becomes something we have to live with regardless of whether we like it. This is the wrong approach. We need to look at diversity and appreciate it. We need to value it and recognize that it makes our society strong.

Most Americans come from a tradition of immigrants, outsiders, or newcomers to a community. If we ignore this and fail to listen to their stories, we will lose who we are and a bit of the hopeful society we’re trying to build. I’m hopeful that if we look beyond teaching tolerance or being tolerant, we can appreciate, value, and protect diversity.

Promoting unity may help heal communities.

I’ve had many conversations recently about the division that’s prevalent right now. We all feel divided, whether politically, religiously, ethnically, racially, or ethically. When we only see what’s in the news cycle and social media algorithms, it’s easy to see only that. One way to combat division and heal our communities is to truly see one another.

I hope we can look beyond the headlines and expand our circles. When we volunteer (civic engagement is critical!), we meet people with unique stories to share. Coaching, attending a new church, or getting involved with your kids’ parent/teacher associations empowers you to be more than “tolerant.” I’m confident that once you start to do those things, the issues we see on the news or read online become less about “others” and more about recognizing the common humanity that exists around us.

If we can share our stories more frequently and hear, value, and respect others’ stories, we can lay a foundation of common humanity. Healing can begin when we move beyond being strangers or mere words on a screen and become people whose stories we have truly heard.