Dangerous Experts

In today's expert-heavy market, everyone wants to be an expert at something. It is no surprise, as finding your nitche makes you infinitely more valuable in your career, and is a real boost to one's self confidence.  It means you are really good at something.  But there are a few areas where being an "expert" is dangerous.  A blatant example is an expert for your "race".   Gender is another one. Here's why. 

As work forces diversify, intentionally or otherwise, there will always be someone who is uncomfortable and will pretend to need a helping hand, a guide if you will, to the offensive and unoffensive.  This person will find a helpful member of that race or gender that he or she feels might be offended, and will ask them all types of questions to ensure that their behavior/other's behavior/any behavior is not offensive.  While I have no opinion about the motives of the helping party, I do feel that they do themselves, and the alleged members of their group a great disservice.  I also feel that groups based on melanin or being born with a uterus or the lack thereof are very loosely associated, and any generalizations about them are apt to fail.  

No one is an expert about a group of people.  You can be an expert on cultural practices, leanings, or even typical meanings of cultural activities.  But you cannot be an expert on people. 

I say this because a couple of weeks ago I saw the new Vogue magazine (for the month of March 2008).  The cover is a picture of Lebron James and Gisele Bunchen.  I love Lebron because he plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I am a serious, and I do mean serious, sports fan. I watched the playoffs and Cavaliers with bated breath. I prayed. I cried.  I also love love love Gisele.  I happen to be a real VS girl and was very sad to hear of her departure.  Because of my feelings about the people involved, I really liked the cover. So typical Lebron. So typical Gisele. It made me smile. 

But I browsed Yahoo news this morning and, low and behold there is a huge controversy about the cover.  Upon second look, I realized that viewers could see Lebron giving a King Kong-ish pose.  Upon second look, I realized that viewers could see a huge negative racial undertone: big black man, beautiful non-black woman.  Now I would have never noticed without Yahoo's help.  And I am very very glad that no one asked me for my opinion.  Now I was quite happy to give my opinion to my boyfriend when I saw the cover (I want that picture!).  But being asked it at work, or by anyone hoping to test the temperatures of the response by people who look like me, for this Vogue cover, or any other issue involving race or gender, would be a huge failure in the search for racial understanding.  I am not an expert, and neither are you no matter how ethnic/racial or how gender-sensitive you are.  Being born a certain way makes you nothing but a person born with a uterus or a person with more or less melanin in their skin.  No two individuals have the same set of experiences.  So you, or anyone else for that matter, cannot tell me how I think or feel, or how anyone else thinks or feels, about ANY topic.  Your feelings must carry the caveat: "for me".

Do I think that Vogue could have done things better/different? Am I offended? That is none of your business. I am not, and will never be, your expert.