Why Twitter is breaking down the barriers...

Please note : this entry may seem a little disjointed as i melded an older post from my other blog with a post from this blog!! lazy i know.. :)

Inclusive Practices 
 
That was the title of today's workshop. It's very hard to define inclusion without using the word include, or as some smart person did today, exclude! After asking the group to describe it without using include, one 'smart' chap came up with this gem...
" Inclusion is the process by which noone is excluded"

Pretty good, but not enough information i thought! So we added to this by saying,

".... due to race, religion, beliefs, gender, sexuality, age, SES(socio-economic status), disability or ability, etc"


The interesting thing about taking this workshop is that people are always wary of speaking up in case they say the wrong thing. We spend large amounts of time discussing perceptions and judgements made on appearance, race etc, and everyone is willing to share an occasion where they "judged a book by it's cover!" But, one point that ALWAYS shuts people up is "using Inclusive Language". Today we are soooooo politically correct that people are scared to speak up in fear they may offend someone. So today i began this session with a discussion on discriminatory or non inclusive language. "Labels" as they are sometimes known. Finally, after many examples from myself the group began to offer some suggestions -

"towel head", "blacks", "coons", "wog", "spastic", "retard","four eyes", ....... etc.  

All those words that were once used to describe a particular group of people.  Words that were degrading, derogatory and demoralising. It was very confronting for some group members, and some chose not to participate.  I asked if they didn't feel comfortable saying these things because we are all fairly new working together as a group , fully expecting this to be the case.  Which it was. One participant however, blew me away when she said the following ....

" I am so used to not using these words that I don't even think them any more."

Oh, if only that was the case more often. How often do we make judgements based on appearance ..... a classic example the soccer ad on tv in which 2 teams are picked and the really little guy is left over. Typical scenario.  At the end he runs off and kicks an amazing goal. Result - both teams fight over him. We have all been guilty of making judgements. We do it every day. We have all labelled someone.... "Ben Cousins is a drug addict", when really "Ben Cousins has a drug problem." (For non Aussies Ben Cousins is an Aussie Rules footballer who was suspended for a season for drug problems and sacked by his club)

We do this all the time.      Is it wrong???          Depends upon the situation i guess.
In the workplace - definitely wrong; in schools- wrong; at home with family????
Have you passed judgement today?
Did you sit next to someone on the bus and "decide" certain things about them?
Did you bypass a homeless person today and decide they were lazy and dirty and poor and an alcoholic??? All labels......
If only we could all be like my course participant today and not label people and perhaps (just perhaps) the world would not be in conflict....



And you know what i like best about twitter?  I can chat with people from all over the globe and get to know more about other cultures and lifestyles just by sending and receiving these very brief 140 character messages!!  When it gets right down to the bare bones of communication ie. 140 characters only allowed lol, then there is no room for labeling or discriminatory language.  We want to get our messages across in the most simplistic way possible.  Often there is a language barrier.  Most times we use humour. But most importantly, the common message that comes across on Twitter is, that no matter where you are from,  we are all the same. Here for the same reason: to chat, have a laugh, meet similar minded people, share experiences.  And that is how it should be.  Perhaps our governments should jump on here ?? :)