The Inclusion Pool Paradox

[Music]

i’d like to s

start by

saying that i have a

stutter and

i’m using a

breathing technique

to

control it

so i hope

you like

suspense

why a show of hands

who here has ever felt

uh

excluded

due to being different

a lot of you

i can relate

growing up

with a

severe stutter in lebanon

i

avoided speaking

almost

entirely

out of

the

the fear

of being judged

in fact in

[Music]

my second year here

at mcgill

i

begged

all of my professors to

exempt me

from every

single

presentation

why engage the world

when

i could hide

in the

isolating

yet

comforting

cocoon of my own

silence as

[Music]

as you can imagine

i’ve been

really

excited

about the

[Music]

growing

significance of the diversity

and

inclusion

movement

in society

however

if

our approach to

dni

causes more guilt

than growth

there might be

[Music]

a better way

of doing it

when we only

focus

on making people

hyper aware

[Music]

of

the

differences

and we stop there

we

are merely

labeling

people who are different

while sending everyone else the

the message

that

they have to

anxiously

walk on eggshells

whenever they are around

those individuals

out of the fear

of hurting them

therein lies the concept

that i’ve called the

inclusion

pool

paradox

but before i

elaborate further

i’d like to share a

story

with you

all when i was

14 years old

in spite of the extreme

shyness

that resulted from having a

stutter

i’d

decided to s

celebrate my birthday

with all of my

classmates

at a s

sports club

in my neighborhood

we had this unusual

tradition in lebanon

one that i always found

incredibly silly

and

childish

whenever

a birthday

party

was thrown at night

and next to a pool

all the guests

would

conspire

to

throw the birthday kid into the pool

with all their

clothes on

after a

pleasant

thinner by the pool

with my classmates

the time

was approaching

for that the

the

dreadful tradition to unfold

what

was i

thinking

having my birthday

in the location

where i was going to get

completely drenched

i should have known better

and then

time

elapsed

and i remained the

drier than the

sahara

in fact

nobody was even mentioning or

acknowledging

the

tradition

as they

would have done at every other

per tape

party by a pool

wait

why isn’t

anyone

attempting

to throw me in

time and time again

i had witnessed

this

boorish and

senseless

tradition take place

before my eyes

and

while

a part of me

was relieved

to have been

off the hook

a significantly

larger

part of me was wondering

why am i not deemed worthy

of being thrown into

the pool

did all of

my classmates

equate

my

stuttering with

over

sensitivity

did they

simply assume

that i go through enough obstacles

without

them having to impose upon me

this form of

fraternal hazing

do they not

think of me

as being one of them

and then

one of my childhood friends

sensing the

[Music]

bitter sweetness

of my victory

yells my name out

jose

why

[Music]

hasn’t anyone

thrown you in yet

he

r

rushes to towards me

and we begin wrestling

until

my eventual

descent

into the pool

the water was cold

my clothes and shoes made it to

the difficult

for me to

quickly

s

swim back up to the

surface

what a

stupid tradition

i thought

with a big

smile

on my face

you see

inclusion

is not about being treated with

artificial niceness

all the time

inclusion

is not

people having to

walk on eggshells whenever they are

around you

out of

the fear of

hurting or

offending you

inclusion means

you get thrown into the pool too

thank you

thank you