Deborah Lipp

Yesterday, my office had ethnic food day. In our office of about 40 people, we have at least* eleven countries of birth represented. There was biryani, chicken tikki, raita, and a few other Indian and Pakistani dishes, there was baked ziti, chicken Kiev, macaroni and cheese (representing the all-American contingent), edamame, fried tofu, red caviar, and brisket, among other things. We were all stuffed.

I’ve posted before about the true joys of pluralism. What we tend to forget, when working towards a better and more pluralistic society, is how much fun it is. When my sisters married African-American guys, my reaction was, Whoa, there’s a lot more dancing at black weddings. Cool! Then my brother married a Chinese woman and they had a Chinese opera company perform at the wedding (as well as a band playing Ha Va Nagilla) and that, too, was cool. And the food!

The ability to share our cultures, our fun things, our food and dance and jokes and fashion, is dependent upon feeling safe and accepted. So if you’re a bigot and you’re forcing people to fit in or get out, your palate is both literally and figuratively more bland. You’re not just a bigot, you’re also missing the party.

*I know that the employees from the former Soviet Union come from at least Russia and Ukraine, but there may be other countries represented. The countries I counted were U.S.A., Russia, Jamaica, Ukraine, Israel, Peru, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, The Phillipines, and China. Among the U.S.-born employees we enjoyed Jewish and Italian dishes, as well as the aforementioned macs & cheese.