Meet in the Middle

I love the movies and can’t wait to return to the theater to share a movie experience with others. In the meantime, Netflix and other streaming sources have been extremely valuable during the pandemic.

So, no surprise that I watched the Academy Awards. Always have and always will. One of the highlights each year is presenting the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. This year the award went to Tyler Perry, who not that long ago was homeless himself.

Perry’s acceptance speech was not only inspirational because he spoke from the heart, it was also timely and needs to be repeated over and over again in our divided nation. It spoke to issues at the very heart of our diversity, and it held many valuable lessons for individuals and leaders alike.

If you don’t know Tyler Perry’s backstory, it is worth discovering. He was raised by a single mother who herself had been raised in the Jim Crow South and had experienced a bomb threat working at a Jewish Community Center. Despite all she lived through, she taught him to “refuse hate.”

 “She taught me to refuse blanket judgment,” he said. “I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican or because they are Black or white or LGBTQ. I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer. I refuse to hate someone because they are Asian.”

Perry’s mother taught him more than “to refuse hate.” She taught him the dangers of stereotypes and making assumptions about individuals and groups of individuals based on immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, and life choices, such as occupation. This is a lesson often included in diversity training. It’s a lesson that should be reinforced frequently.

He dedicated his award to anyone willing to “stand in the middle,” because, he explained, “that’s where the healing happens, that’s where conversation happens, that’s where change happens, it happens in the middle.” He continued his dedication by saying, “so anyone who wants to meet me to refuse hate, to refuse blanket judgment, and to help lift someone’s feet off the ground, this one is for you.”

Individuals and leaders should take this dedication as a challenge—the challenge to meet in the middle for the conversations that will bring us closer together. When you meet in the middle, you move away from your comfort zone and closer to someone else’s. When you meet in the middle, you have the opportunity to discuss and explore differences and similarities. What better way to close gaps and strengthen our organizations and our society.