🇬🇧 Diversity without tags

Currently we see a lot of people defending diversity. I defend it too, but I believe the way many people are doing this is wrong. My personal experience shows me there’s another path to defeat prejudice. And through my work I hope I can help my clients to understand this path. It’s something I prefer to express individually, as I can help the person to see the things through ones own experiences. What I can say in advance is that tags are not helpful. Why should we embrace tags to fight against tags used against us?

Regarding branding and positioning, not to embrace tags and flags against prejudices is not always to embrace the prejudice itself, I think. At least this is my positioning currently. I don’t defend one group as it were more fragile than others. I deal with individuals and I try to talk about many themes interesting to a variety of people. Excepting the first step of each services I offer, all the rest can be customised in so many details I think it’s impossible two people have exactly the same services nowadays when hiring me. This is one reason I chose to be self employed. I can consider each client as an individual, not a number on statistics as many brands do.

Anyone can understand this as one wants to.

A black person facing prejudice because of skin colour suffer the same a gay person suffer for his sexuality and the same a woman suffer for her gender. The myopic student and that who is the most intelligent have their struggles as anyone. Those we think are privileged sometimes face things we cannot imagine. When I was student I had great grades and wasn’t happy or privileged in many senses. Some of you maybe will hate this. 

To deal with prejudice creating niches is weird. It’s like to say my broken nail causes me more pain than your scratches. There are lots of features we cannot change. We are this way. But we are not these things. Our colour, gender, nationality, age or sexual orientation are not what we are. Our past experiences only can set the rules of our future if we allow them to do so, if we don’t change our mindset, if we just embrace common sense as being an absolute truth. This is something I never did along my life.

Yesterday I went to the supermarket and while I was buying bread the attendant asked me what I did for my hair be so colourful. I explained it, took my bread and she started to attend the next person in the row. I listened to her voice commenting with this person how bold someone should be to have a hair like mine. My hair is currently multicoloured, with shades of green and blue. Part of the blues are becoming lilac! considering the large majority of women in this city are blonde... you can easily imagine the impact I cause wherever I go. And yet, it’s positive impact. In Brazil attendants on supermarkets are simple people, with a few years of study, certainly not used to accept diversity easily. Including someone whose hair looks like a Van Gogh painting! And my hair is like that because I’m unique and I embrace my uniqueness through my appearance.

We can choose the tags we embrace with our hearts. Look around. Not all black people are alike. Even in Brazil where most of them came through migration for slavery before the year 1888, when slavery was prohibited, we find nowadays black people living in misery as well as black wealthy people. And lots of black people in between these two extremes. We find successful LGBT people and other ones struggling. We have Pablo Vittar by one side (a very famous singer), and transvestites being killed by another. This, as well as my experiences with prejudices and the analysis of my clients’ lives and the changes they performed through my advice help me to believe the problem is not on the tags anyone can apply to us. If you accept what makes successful people different from the rest in these niches is not “luck”, you’re welcome. If you understand “luck” is built through our choices you’re welcome too. If you want to succeed and overcome the pressure prejudice can make, you’re welcome. I only refuse help for those who are attached to the idea of being a poor victim and believing only others must change. I’m not an NGO, sorry.

Nycka, the nomad

Consultant on Personal Branding 360°, Personal Style and Branding 360°.