Fear and Community
It's a well-known fact that people fear what they don't know. What may not be well known is that people don't perform well in a prolonged state of fear. We become anxious and preoccupied with issues that detract from our well-being and others. We should do all we can to address the fear, especially when it involves fear of other people. Many nations in our world have long been homogenous in their population makeup. For the most part, individuals within closed societies looked and acted like one another. There are always variations, but the distinctions are not pronounced. Today, diversity, inclusion, and equity are mingling forcefully with homogeneity and causing some consternation and fear.
Get away from the fear of being labelled, and many within the "majority" will say they fear what this growing diversity means for them. Don't attack. Don't label. Don't be so quick to judge. We are dealing with humans who are only being genuinely human. As we said at the start, it is natural to fear the unknown. People are not racist simple because they don't immediately see the benefits of diversity. They aren't racist because they don't understand different cultures. They aren't racist for feeling that all too familiar human emotion of fear. I wonder if we can take a different approach. I wonder if, instead of labelling and cancelling, we can determine to help people overcome their human fears. Although I grew up in Jamaica, I never learned to swim. Not everyone on an island lives on the coast. I never saw the sea until I was preparing to leave Jamaica at age 11.
When we arrived in Canada, learning to swim was not a priority. It wasn't until 2012, when I became chief of police and coincidentally purchased a home with a pool, that I began to spend time in the water. The turning point was when my wife purchased a pair of goggles for me. I could see below the surface. I opened my eyes underwater and saw the bottom and sides of the pool. I knew where I was in relation to everything about the water. My wife always told me to trust the water. It took time for me to appreciate and embrace those words. The more time I spent in the water, the more the truth of those words sunk in. The time came when I realized that if I allowed it, the water wanted to help me become more buoyant, and I didn't have to fight against it. I wish I had learned this lesson many years ago. I'm not a good swimmer, but I've learned to embrace water and enjoy the joys it can bring to my life. I learned to embrace the water without fear.
People can be like water. I'm telling you to take the time to learn to trust and welcome people. Your eyes will be opened to the joy they can bring to your life and what you can do for them in return. Let's take the time to see below the surface and allow ourselves to embrace one another. Fear intends to cause us to hurt one another. We can do much better than that. We can elevate one another by allowing ourselves to exhibit the best of our humanity. The biggest obstacle to creating safe, inclusive, connected communities that care is the willingness to let each other express and overcome our fears. I'm afraid of what will become of us if we don't learn to conquer this fear.