We had a long chat with this participant before the interview. At some point, we explored discrimination together.
- I personally think discrimination is due to very specific reasons; lack of knowledge, being afraid of uncertainty, and the unknown making people uncomfortable. And I think what you're trying to do is a very classy, elegant right way to solve it.
- Oh! Thank you! I'm curious of what you think should be done around discrimination?
- Starting by addressing the problem? Like there is a problem and we go to the origins, we go to the people who directly feel discrimination. I personally had chats with random people, as a foreigner living here, when I walk in places I feel people can be reserved. I'm a guy who breaks the ice, so sometimes they start to speak up. They are scared for whatever reason, so it takes very simple adjustments, I think we should start talking to the people and ask « Why? What is the origin of your discrimination? ». Everybody should be honest with themselves. If you recall yourself discriminating others, even unconsciously, be honest, and try to find why and speak up. So we can both come to a conclusion. We evolve and I think we all need to contribute to humanity by at least doing our own work. To succeed or not is not our job, but to try, is.
- Yes! Anything else?
- No, no... again, I would like to thank you for dedicating some of your professional time...
- Well I'm not earning anything actually... (laughing)
- Oh well, you are earning more than you expect. First of all, you're earning yourself respect, when you go after answering questions, then you are challenging yourself, which is the first important thing. Secondly, you are helping a lot of people directly and indirectly by trying to make them see something they ignore or don't see so yeah, well done!
- Thank you, a lot!
I'll add to this story a little metaphor this participant told me about people/life/society, I didn't recorded that part and feel sorry not to be able to use the exact words I heard, but it sounded something like « In life, there are sheep, those who follow without doing anything. There's wolves, who are violent towards others. And there's dogs, who feel and protect, and that's the one animal you want to be amongst the three. ».
