Diversity - really?
It happens every General Conference. I get asked about how I feel being one of the only "diverse" people in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
I don't mean for this to be political at all. Just my personal insight into this question.
Since when was diversity exclusively about skin color? How about never.
Oxford dictionary defines diversity as, "the state of being diverse. variety. A range of different things." It doesn't say, "a range of different shades of color."
If this is the widely accepted definition of the word "diversity," then the members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are as diverse as you can find anywhere in the world.
What do we all have in common? Two main things. We are active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we like to sing. Other than that, we are a hodge-podge of people with a breadth of backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge.
I think it's also important to recognize that there are some people in the choir who are fair skinned and look like they are from Utah but are from different countries. Like my friend Luke. He's from Australia. I like singing by him because he has an accent (and high choral vowels). You couldn't tell from looking at him.
Don't be fooled by what you see and please don't assume that skin color is the only way to be diverse.
Take for example our demographics:
- We are almost divided equally between men and women.
- We range in age from 25 to 60 years old.
- We all have varying professions: lawyers, physicians, counselors, stay-at-home parents, teachers, entrepreneurs, business owners, etc.
- Some of us are single, divorced, widowed, remarried or married.
- We come from all economic classes.
- We live in different cities, areas, and neighborhoods. Unlike a Ward where members are neighbors and often in the same socio-economic bracket, we don't have those boundaries.
- Some are converts, some have been recently reactivated, some have ancestry from the pioneers.
- We run the gamut of political views from conservative to liberal and everything in between.
- Some have extensive training in music, some have very little musical training.
- Some have medical issues, physical issues, emotional issues.
In essence, we are a group of people from all walks of life.
Some may ask, "Well, why aren't there more of this (ethnic group) in the choir?" Is it possible that not a lot of people of that group audition? Yes. I'm confident the choir isn't interested in skin color but rather a person's voice and musical ability. It's about the music. I do believe though that as Salt Lake City increases in diversity, you can be assured the makeup of the choir will also reflect this.
But please, don't confine your definition of diversity by the narrow definition of pigmentation. We are all more than that.
What we should focus on is how such a diverse group of people can be so focused on working together in harmony (pun intended) to create something together despite our differences. All these different voices combining into one wall of cohesive sound. Now that is something worth talking about.
Some may ask, "Well, why aren't there more of this (ethnic group) in the choir?" Is it possible that not a lot of people of that group audition? Yes. I'm confident the choir isn't interested in skin color but rather a person's voice and musical ability. It's about the music. I do believe though that as Salt Lake City increases in diversity, you can be assured the makeup of the choir will also reflect this.
But please, don't confine your definition of diversity by the narrow definition of pigmentation. We are all more than that.
What we should focus on is how such a diverse group of people can be so focused on working together in harmony (pun intended) to create something together despite our differences. All these different voices combining into one wall of cohesive sound. Now that is something worth talking about.
