Dignity for All

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Contents

Acknowledgments...............................................................ixchapter one Dignity: What Everybody Really Wants..............................1chapter two Naming the Problem................................................7chapter three Naming the Solution.............................................14chapter four Rankism 101......................................................18chapter five Groundbreakers and Trailblazers: That's You!.....................29chapter six Talking About Rankism.............................................31chapter seven Identifying and Targeting Rankism...............................37chapter eight Detecting Warning Signs of Rankism..............................45chapter nine Standing Up to Rankism...........................................50chapter ten Recovering from Rankism...........................................59chapter eleven Preventing Rankism.............................................61chapter twelve Building a Dignitarian World...................................70resources Resource a: Creating Your Own Plan for Change.......................71Resource b: Ten Ways to Foster Dignitarian Governance.........................77Resource c: Stories of Dignity Regained.......................................80Resource d: How to Create a Culture of Dignity................................82About the Authors.............................................................86

Chapter One

Dignity. Isn't that what everybody really wants? You, me, your parents, your children, your friends, your colleagues at work: All of us want to be treated with dignity.

The homeless person in the park; the elderly in nursing homes; students, teachers, principals; Christians, Jews, Muslims; taxi drivers, store clerks, waiters, police officers; prisoners and guards; immigrants; doctors, patients, nurses; the poor, the wealthy, the middle class; big nations, small nations, people without a homeland.

Dignity. Everybody wants it, craves it, seeks it. People's whole lives change when they're treated with dignity—and when they're not.

Evan Ramsey, now serving a 210-year prison sentence for shooting and killing his high school principal and another student in Bethel, Alaska, told criminologist Susan Magestro:

"I was picked on seven hours a day every day and the teachers didn't do anything to help me ... I told [my foster mother] and [my principal] more than a dozen times about all the bullying I was subjected to. They never did anything to help me.... If I can prevent someone from having the experience I went through, I want to do that. I killed people.... Don't respond with violence even if you're provoked. There's no hope for me now but there is hope for you."

—From"The Realities and Issues Facing Juveniles and Their Families, The Warning Signs: Evan Ramsey—Bethel, Alaska," by Susan Magestro, www.susanmagestro.com

Fundamentally, dignity is about respect and value. It means treating yourself and others with respect just because you're alive on the planet. It's recognizing that you and everyone else have a right to be here, and that you belong. It means valuing your own and others'presence and special qualities. It means honoring who you are and what you have to offer. It means creating a culture in which it is safe for everyone to contribute their own gifts and talents.

Dignity. It's a need so strong that people will give up their freedom to have it met; an inner drive so insistent that it can move people to shocking acts of revenge when the attempt to achieve it is thwarted; a human value so critical to happiness and well-being that people sometimes value it more than life itself.

A Human Need Ignored

Yet this craving for dignity is so commonly overlooked that most of us accept undignified treatment as "just the way it is." As victims, we may wince inwardly, but we bite our tongues ("Who am I to protest?" "What good will it do?"). As perpetrators, we excuse our behavior ("I'm the boss, aren't I?" "He deserved it." "I'm just evening the score."). Or we ignore our nagging conscience, failing to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we are violating another's dignity.

Every day, we witness dignity scorned in our personal relationships, families, businesses, schools, healthcare facilities, religious institutions, and governmental bodies. Routinely, we fail to accord dignity to those we perceive to be the weaker among us. They may be the old, the young, the poor, the unknown, the infirm, the female, the darker colored, the jobless, the less skilled, or the less attractive.

Yet experiencing indignity at the hands of others is not limited to those at the bottom of the hierarchy—as the wealthy, the famous, and the beautiful will attest. Anywhere and everywhere dignity is transgressed by others, with surprising regularity: A supervisor harasses an employee. A child taunts a classmate. A sports team hazes new members. A customer speaks rudely to a waitress. A teacher gives preferential treatment to a friend's child. An adult verbally abuses a child. An administrator fires a whistle-blower. A government official secretly circumvents the law. A prison guard torments an inmate. A dictator steals from the national treasury. A superpower pressures a smaller nation to commit to a loan that will damage its economy.

From intimate relationships to global relations, indignity is commonplace. Think of your own experiences: when have you not been treated with dignity? When have you failed to treat others with dignity?

So Why Are We Surprised?

If, every day, so many of us are not treated with the health-giving, life-affirming dignity we crave, then why are we so shocked when an employee "goes postal," a teenager goes on a violent rampage, a mild-mannered woman explodes in anger at a seemingly small provocation, or global tensions escalate into international crises? Why do we habitually fail to recognize, beneath the violent outbursts, the powerful impulse to lash out when a fundamental birthright has been denied: the right to be treated with dignity?

A Price to Pay

Of course, acts of revenge are never justified. But we ignore at great cost to ourselves and society the fundamental urge to be treated with dignity.

The consequences of violating others' dignity are evident: in widespread social problems such as high rates of school dropout, prison incarceration, violent crime, depression, suicide, divorce, and despair; in the business world in reduced creativity, lower productivity, or disloyalty to the organization. Even health and longevity are affected.

Dignity Not Yet Won

In 1775, American patriot Patrick Henry boldly declared, "Give me liberty or give me death!" Americans won their freedom, but more than two centuries later have not yet secured their dignity; nor has the rest of the world.

But that may be changing.

Today, the age-old cry for liberty appears to be morphing into a heartfelt cry for dignity. Worldwide, we see dignity-denying dictatorships transforming into democracies. In democratic elections, we see growing voter enthusiasm for candidates who offer a vision of dignity for...