On Sept. 30, diversity speaker Rosetta Lee addressed the Upper School on the topic of starting healthy, effective discussions.
Rosetta Lee, a teacher at the Seattle Girls’ School, serves as a public speaker to facilitate discussions of the importance of diversity. Some of her former talks have centered on white privilege, gender bias in the classroom and sexuality diversity.
Her discussion with the Hockaday Upper School was called “Navigating the ‘Ouch’ Moment – When You Receive It, See It or Do It.”
Hockaday Director of Inclusion and Community Tresa Wilson introduced Rosetta Lee. Mentioning that Rosetta Lee is a mentor figure to her in focusing on community diversity, Wilson said that she hoped Hockaday students will “move from a safe space to a brave space.”
The presentation focused on the microaggressions minorities face and how to facilitate the discussion to stop them and educate those who may be inadvertently performing them.
One effect of educating all members of a school is a transition from a place of diversity, but not inclusion, to one that has both: diversity that is embraced by every member of the school’s community.
“Diversity is valued in every single realm. In the sciences, biodiversity is critical to ecosystems. Looking at markets and economy, your investment portfolio has to be diverse,” Rosetta Lee said. “Diversity is known to be a good thing…but for some reason, when it comes to human differences, we think diversity is scary and full of conflict.”
Some of these fears related to discussions on diversity stem from how people are educated when they have an “ouch moment.” Rosetta Lee advised against becoming defensive and offered tips on how to properly educate.
Apart from advocating being an educator, Rosetta Lee also warned against being a bystander when someone was committing an “ouch moment” not directed at you, but at someone else. By being a bystander, you can leave the target feeling alone and the enactor assuming that the public agrees with them.
By standing up for a target of an “ouch moment,” however, you can spark a positive discussion and change.
“The conversation, instead of ‘What’s wrong with you, what’s right with me’, [should be] ‘What about the cultural waters that you and I are swimming in?’” Rosetta Lee said during her presentation.
Lee also met with Headmistress Liza Lee to discuss diversity plans at Hockaday. The two focused on the concept of how Hockaday can best benefit individual students while still maintaining its traditions and goals.
“How is this work helping the school live its mission in the context of the times?” Rosetta Lee said. “[Hockaday is in] another evolution…this is our history, and we’re aiming for the future.”
