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What can Indianapolis do to build a more inclusive community?
I have been asked to write about how to make Indianapolis more inclusive. As I only have 500 words, I will provide the simplest of answers: Expand the communities within which you move.
The more you interact with others who are not like you, the better you will understand why change is needed and how to bring about that change.
Indianapolis is a big community within which there are many other communities—our neighborhood community, our work community, our religious community and so forth. Take a close look at the communities through which you regularly move. Are those communities comprised primarily of people of the same socio-economic level, same interests and same ethnicity as you? The first step to making Indianapolis inclusive is for each of us to expand our personal communities.
If you live in a predominantly black or white neighborhood, it is not necessarily because you are a racist. We feel secure in moving among those people with whom we feel most comfortable. So it is not surprising that if you grew up living in a black neighborhood, you gravitate to living in a black neighborhood, or if you grew up in a white neighborhood you gravitate to living in a white neighborhood. But this is part of the reason why we have reached the tipping point today—our personal communities do not include everyone.
So as an individual, if you want to make Indianapolis more inclusive, begin by supplementing your personal communities. Expose yourself to a diversity of ideas, experiences and people. Read and listen to the ideas of those you would not typically encounter in your community. For example, if you are one who insists upon saying “all lives matter,” then you do not understand the thrust of the Black Lives Matter movement. We cannot learn about financial inequality by simply serving one day a year at a food shelter. New ideas and beliefs do not come from books, magazines and programs that repeat already held beliefs.
Once you expand your world and your beliefs, you will then be able to take the next step, which is implementing change.
The change you make as an individual will not likely be anything meteoric and could be as small as persuading someone else to make his or her personal community more inclusive or speaking out when someone makes an inappropriate comment.
However, the possibility of change exists everywhere and every day within our personal communities. As Lao Tzu said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The journey of inclusion for Indianapolis begins with each of us taking that first step and moving beyond the threshold of our comfort. It is a big, beautiful world out there and the secret of that beauty is there are so many different people and experiences waiting.•
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Celestino-Horseman is an attorney and represents the Indiana Latino Democratic Caucus on the Democratic State Central Committee. Send comments to ibjedit@ibj.com.
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