DEI is falling on hard times. So, I thought I’d write an article that provides a simple explanation of its value. I’m using as inspiration the 2023 Academy Award nominated short doc The Only Girl in the Orchestra.
The film tells the story of Orin O’Brien, a double bassist who joined the New York Philharmonic in 1966, the first woman ever to do so.
Joining the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s as a woman was not easy. For example,
· There were no bathroom facilities for women.
· O’Brien had to overcome the prejudice of peers who assumed that women lacked the skill and stamina to play at the same level as men.
· O’Brien was constantly judged by a sexist lens: for example, a contemporary newspaper article compared her hips to the curves of her instrument.
In short, O’Brien overcame multiple obstacles to become the first female member of the New York Philharmonic. She went on to play with the Philharmonic for 55 years, and in the process was praised by legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein and generations of fellow musicians and fans.
Here’s where DEI comes in. Because O’Brien managed to overcome a range of systemic and institutional obstacles, the world benefited from her contributions to the New York Philharmonic.
This invites us to consider other ways that systems and institutions may include obstacles that create unnecessary difficulties for other groups to participate fully and share their gifts in those systems and institutions.
DEI seeks to identify and remove these “diversity obstacles” so that all people may benefit from the gifts of all just as the New York Philharmonic benefited from the gifts of O’Brien.
