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The Robinson Chronicles
The depths of
diversity
By Bob Robinson
It was 1957. My four cousins and I were gathered around the television
watching a horror movie in Maryland Heights, a suburban community of
St. Louis. It was the local offering of the Saturday Fright Night that
seemed to be popular in many parts of the country. It was a black and
white movie, the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”
Aliens arrived in the form of “spores,” which turned into “pods,” which
then took on the forms of humans, each one replacing and becoming an
exact duplicate of a local resident in a small California town. The
only remaining “human” managed to escape the town; his goal was to head
to a nearby city and warn officials of what was happening. As he
approached the highway leading to his destination city, his heart
froze… the aliens had a caravan of trucks carrying pods to their next
target. The neighboring city.
And that was how it ended. Scared the living daylights out of all five
of us. No lights went off that night. None of us slept very well… if at
all. At least I didn’t.
I had no clue why that little scenario from 59 years ago came back to
me. It just did. Coupled with that were my thoughts about the 25 years
I spent in California… makes me wonder if, at least in the Golden
State, it wasn’t fiction.
Then it occurred to me. In 1957 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was
horrifying. There was no nudity. No swearing. No violence (unless you
can call watching a 50’s era special effects transformation… pod to
human… violent). It was psychological, not violent or sensational. A
1978 remake added color, modern special effects, swearing, violence and
nudity. The theme was identical, but rather than horrifying it bordered
on boring.
Today it would probably be laughable.
I was not quite 13 years old that summer; I had no clue that in another
seven years I would be embarking on more than a half century of trying
to understand and report on a changing world and the individuals in it.
I had no name for it… it was just one of the many challenges I – and
the rest of us – face on a daily basis.
The concept of diversity goes back to the 1800s, referring to Asian
Americans; then it was expanded to include not only race, but also
gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and more… In my Fundamentals of
Communication class at Edison State Community College, I introduced two
typically neglected aspects of diversity: individual and generational.
Think about it. Each of us is different… can anyone disagree with that?
I don’t think so. Then there’s the challenge of generations. Today my
students range in age from five to 55…
They could care less that many of my buddies were in Vietnam, or that
Ronald Reagan was the president who brought down the “Wall” and ended
the Cold War (much less that he was previously a California governor
and Grade B Hollywood actor), or that smoking was not only accepted by
my generation but actually a mark of being “cool.”
As students it isn’t their job to adapt to my 70-plus years; it’s my
job to help them adapt to the world in which they find themselves
today, or will inherit tomorrow. And I have to do it from their
perspective.
Some of it is heart-warming and funny… like the kindergartner still
learning her words and numbers who decided she was going to marry me
when she got big; to heart-breaking and tragic, like adult students
overcoming tragedy or fighting serious health issues. They were there
not for themselves but to set an example for their children.
Accepting and responding to the depth and degree of diversity is a huge
challenge. I welcome it… I think.
My students – regardless of age, gender, ethnicity et al – know how to
keep me on my toes.
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