The problem is the box.

Did you ever play in large moving boxes and wonder if they were spaceships? Forts? Igloos?  

I feel like I never stopped being a kid. I dream big. I never stop.  

Recently I spoke with someone interested in learning more about my experience as a diversity recruiter. They were curious about how to network and recruit black, brown, indigenous - I prefer "First Nations," and LGBTQIA+ people. I have a problem with this type of thinking - it's not a box I want to play in.  

• People are more than their ethnicity.

• People are more than their sexual identities.

• People are more than their preferred pronouns or gender identities.  

• People are more than their veteran status.

• People are just what they are - and nothing more.  

How do I network with these people? I don't.  

I seek out people who believe there's got to be something more - doers! If they happen to be brown - fine. But I find that people like us attract others who do what we do.  

If you see people for more than what they look like, you will attract people who want to be seen that way.  

The box is the problem because we, as a culture, have a hard time looking beyond the box.  

"Well we have systemic racial inequality, it's important to hire black people."  

I'm with you. I agree. But that's not the reason to hire someone who is black. That's the reason to go out and find someone who wants to do something worth something for someone else and who happens to be black.  

I don't want to be limited by how others see race, identity, or the boxes we check on job applications.

I want to live life in the box that is a spaceship, a fort, or a life where we see people as they are, as they want to show up, and we let them know - "Hey, I see you."  

The box is the problem. And it's a problem because we refuse to see everything it really is, ever was, and could become.