Prismatic
Dictionary.com has one definition for the word “Prismatic” as “highly varied or faceted. Can we apply this to Emergency Management?
Dictionary.com has one definition for the word “Prismatic” as “highly varied or faceted. And through a Google search, I found that Hou De Sousa has an art project called “Prismatic” – which is described as “a kaleidoscopic experience of light, color, and space that frames a myriad of perspectives.’ These both may also be good ways to describe the needs for inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA) in Emergency Management – both in terms of the people we serve (our constituents, stakeholders, etc.) and ourselves.
It’s quite obvious (and generally illegal) when there is discrimination in Emergency Management’s public support to people of different races, religions, orientation, familiar status, etc. There are volumes written on what not to do when it comes to past failures to safely and equitably support diverse populations, but when it comes to an Emergency Manager’s own color, creed, and possibly content of their character, it is a different story.
I fully support the idea that Emergency Managers should represent the communities they serve – and it really helps if they live and work there, too. Especially if they grew up there, too. And of course, I believe our field of Emergency Management is both a profession and a management style – one which should be staffed by someone who is fully vested and invested in its concepts, doctrine, policies, procedures, mantras, edicts, flexibility, caution-to-the-wind throwing, wild guesses, etc. I have that coffee mug that defines an Emergency Manager as “One who does precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge.”
That pretty much sums it up for me.
The challenge is the aspect of the historical lack of diversity in our ranks – and whether one can – let me call it for what it is, without sugar-coating it: be an older white dude who used to be a fill-in-the-blank first responder and (still) be an effective and empathetic Emergency Manager to a clearly much more diverse constituency. One which is highly varied or faceted. Our field is not very old (if you don’t count the civil defense days, we’re talking 1979 for when President Carter established FEMA, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency) and it wasn’t until 2021 that the first female administrator of FEMA was appointed. While Mr. Jeh Johnson, who is black, led the Department of Homeland Security (which is now the cabinet level entity, and where FEMA reports into) for President Obama, I cannot recall any minorities leading FEMA at the top. And my point about field experience in emergency management (as compared to military or other governmental service) also rings true for FEMA – it was not until 1993 that Mr. James Lee Witt (who was a state EM head) lead that organization as a professional emergency manager.
While there is some diversity in the leadership of the International Association of Emergency Managers – USA (IAEM-USA, not the overall global entity) – which is a pretty good barometer of the demographics of professional EMs across the US – it is almost exclusively white (albeit one executive board member, Mr. Walter English, their elected treasurer) and diverse only by gender. The current and past elected presidents of the IAEM-USA are both women. The question posed for them – and for our profession – can be laser-focused: whether one must be a minority to best serve minorities adversely impacted by disasters. It seems being a white woman is not enough diversity, to many of the critics of Emergency Management in the United States.
Now, I am not going to claim to have all of the solutions to this vexing problem. Full transparency, I am a half-white older dude myself. My mom’s got German/Scottish genes and my dad was full-blown Indian, from India. Emergency Management was a second career for me (like it is for many, as I noted above) but my first jobs were in financial services – banking and brokerage. And I honed my Emergency Management experience predominately with the American Red Cross, as both an employee and a volunteer (and where I am still one, today). I did a short stint working for a state government department in Emergency Management, but that is a story for another day. And I got my ‘academic chops’ just last year, getting my MA in Emergency and Disaster Management in 2022. My point in all of this pedigree stuff, is that I come from a non-first responder background. I wasn’t “blue” or “red” in a historical color (police or fire, that is) and I also was not just response-only focused. I don’t really check off any of the IDEA boxes myself, which some would claim are required for properly serving diverse communities, but I do think of myself as fully capable and empowered to be a disaster readiness advocate for anyone and everyone.
Does that mean I can’t (or even shouldn’t) advocate for people with disabilities and access/functional needs in disasters? I have been doing this since 2010, many times directly challenging other emergency managers and politicians to fix what they are doing wrong. Over the years, a few have even thanked me privately for steering them in the right direction, since they avoided lawsuits and public outrage by taking my (and other more wiser people’s) advice.
Or should I not advocate for the disaster-related needs of infants and children, who by the way represent around 23% of the U.S. population? Even my own two kids are not children anymore. I do have an eight-year old granddaughter, and I think about her every day. What will her disaster unmet needs be tomorrow, and even in the future when I’m not around? I also chair the IAEM-USA’s Children and Disaster Caucus and am their elected vice-president of their Region 2 grouping, covering members from New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I advocate for children; and for people who do not speak English as their primary language, all the time – even though English is the only language I speak/read/write fluently. Here’s another “by the way”: check out how many courses FEMA has translated into Spanish, sometime. Someone needs to advocate for U.S. Emergency Managers who do not primarily speak - and/or serve English-speaking constituents.
Not only do I believe it is not possible to be a member of every type of diversity, in order to serve every diversity; I also think it is grossly unfair to pre-judge a person – to discriminate against an Emergency Manager – solely because of their (apparent?) lack of diversity themselves. Or perceived lack of diversity in one or more areas, as judged by a critic, and not the public which they serve.
A prism takes pure white light and refracts it into a multitude of colors. A myriad of perspectives, perhaps. Can we view Emergency Management – and Emergency Managers – in the same light?
Pure white light is an amalgamation of the colors in the color spectrum in harmony- is this truly analogous to the populations inferenced? Rather in equity, isn't the particular population referenced another shade in the color spectrum adding to a pure human experience.
With takes such as "it seems being a white woman is not enough diversity" and "all this pedigree stuff", I wonder if the author has more than one chip on their shoulder?
The point of including more views at the table is that we don't know what we don't know. Basic needs and responses are basic at understanding. Nuances are what add the "color". When we assert that what is in power and our understanding is the baseline, we fail to acknowledge the boundaries in which we arrive at that understanding (including the society/times we lived in) and blind spots which we undoubtedly have.