Stream of Consciousness - Playoff Blurb & Diversity

[Renomitsu 930]

Well, Aloe's played her last game of the season with D.C – and I wish it wasn't as lopsided a series as it turned out to be against Vancouver, but it's more or less what I expected. I do think anyone that said "well you handed the cup to Vancouver" when we beat Chicago needs a little bit of a reality check, though. Sure, there are upsets in the playoffs, but give teams that placed top 3-4 in their region a little bit of credit, right?

 

Oh – and regarding this past week's events? I'd recommend La'Wana Harris's Diversity Beyond Lip Service and Mahzarin Banaji's Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. Both are excellent for different reasons, but I can't recommend one over the other necessarily. I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at my hospital's Grand Rounds this past Wednesday and felt it was maybe a little too coincidental with the recent infraction leading to a ban last week. Implicit bias exists in all of us and doesn't make you a bad person – refusing to acknowledge it, however, is more fraught with the potential to do a disservice to others. A willingness to have the conversation – be it from the offended party or the (intentional or inadvertent) offenders – is an important step towards normalizing discussions on diversity, equity, and inclusion. It's a small one, because you still need to actively intervene to achieve cultural competency and humility, but sometimes first steps need to be small to be achievable.

 

That's a brief soapbox moment. I won't belabor the point, as I think there are those with some lived experiences and insights that have already expressed their points of view. Make your next week a great one!