angel Kyodo Williams is an American writer, ordained Zen priest, and the author of Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace, published by Viking Press in 2000.
As authentic leaders, the presence of diversity, the choice to be inclusive, is not just about getting those different people and making sure that they’re included because we’re such good people. It’s about being more authentic ourselves. It is about giving ourselves permission through the presence of others … It’s like we lose parts of ourselves when we get into sameness. And that’s by design, I think. We have hundreds of years of history in this country that set up what I like to call a politics of disbelonging.