Tomorrow is "Diversity Day" for a friend of mine who works for state government. Her workplace had asked different people, of different hue, to speak about what it meant to have the skin color they had. Then somebody noticed nobody talked about "white". "We need to get someone to talk about being an Anglo!" They tapped my friend. She is not Anglo, nor Saxon.

Seems a bit surreal to me. Only a decade ago, a guy standing up to talk out the importance of being white would have been pilloried as a racist. Now it's mandatory to ensure 'diversity'.

Also seeming surreal: One sign that I'm white has been, I suspect, that I don't think about skin color very much. Someone has to call it to attention for it to be important. To me, being sorted by skin color sounds about as sensible as being sorted by height, eye color, handedness, or any other unchosen external characteristic. Yes, some people do it, but I wish we'd all just knock it off and focus on more important issues.

I don't deny racism still occurs. And it probably always will. Even I have been assaulted for no reason more than my skin tone, and spoken badly of for the same: I'm sure it is worse the other way 'round.

Yet it seems to me that things like IQ, EQ, gender, religion, political affiliation, social status, age, education and profession affect our worldview in ways that are much more profound than our melatonin production quotient.

For example, I feel I have a lot more in common with other Christians, of any hue, than, say a Muslim. (And I have several Muslim friends, but we are very different!) Or other flavors of conservative. What have I in common with some Frenchman? Sure, our skins are similar color, but do we see the world the same because of it? Not from my experience! Sure, I have French friends (and they are quite nice people), but we see the world very, very differently, skin color aside. (Gives us something to talk about: Good thing friendship isn't based on uniformity!)

We promote the tremendous value of "diversity" (by which mean superficial diversity) at the workplace. Why? The answer I receive is that different people have different problem solving skills which contribute. Sure they do! But these skills aren't grouped by skin tone, in my experience.

I find engineers, of any color, mind you, tend to approach things in a similar fashion. Especially when compared to marketing people, again of any color. The battles I've seen erupt are along lines drawn by sensibility, not skin tone.

And regarding my own ethnic makeup? I'm American. Less a mutt than some, so I can enjoy looking into my heritage at times. But as a hobby, it falls somewhere below my being a (lapsed) musician, in time, energy, energy, and headspace. It doesn't determine the way I look at the world.

Am I "proud" of having pale skin? Or "ashamed" of it?

Don't be silly. That's like being "proud" of being tall. Or short. Or "ashamed" of being born right-handed or male! What's the point in having personal pride in something you didn't choose and cannot change? Enjoy it, yes, learn to like it (or at least cope with it), yes of course. But "pride" or "shame"? That makes no sense.

Don't be ashamed of who your creator made you to be, but on the other hand, if you must pat yourself on the back, do it because you helped someone else out or made the world a better place. Do it because of things you chose, not things that just happened to you.

My friend has to write a speech to give. I asked her if she could do it at work. She said "no". What's the point of that? They decided we needed to get up and sort ourselves out by color and focus on that. They decided that would improve the workplace. Why aren't they willing to fund the work needed to pull that off?

I love it when your manager volunteers your personal time.

I'll tell you how Diversity Day works out when all is said and done.