Diversity

For most people, the words diversity and inclusion are used interchangeably. But hear me out: this is more difficult than what we think to have love or acceptance that transcend every prejudice.

That's the reason many of us will find the book Far from the Tree unsettling. Andrew Solomon, who is gay, wrote seven hundred pages on families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia and transgender children. Despite his proposition that diversity is what unites us all, dwarfs still carry with them the historical and cultural baggage of being "ugly Rumpelstiltskins." Parents still struggle with undue blame on themselves when their sons suffer from autism. "It's because I went skiing while I was pregnant," said one highly educated activist. Many trans kids are referred to as "idiots" and "freaks."

Sadly, we still hear reports of human children with disabilities being discarded in Dumpsters. It's terrifying to think that Andrew Solomon's book could have the same fate soon. Let's pray that its time has not yet come.