By Lianne Thompson
Once upon a time, long ago and far away, I lived and worked in Detroit, Michigan in the Staff Development Unit of the Wayne County Department of Social Services. One of my coworkers, a well-experienced trainer of both social workers and support staff, looked me in the eye and said, “Lianne, people will lie, cheat, and steal.” Harsh but true, and it rocked me back on my heals.
I was a well-intentioned, naïve, White girl who had moved into the toughest environment I could find to ground my philanthropic urges in reality. Turns out the rocky world of inner-city Detroit was a useful and appropriate proving ground.
As I listened and learned, all day every day for years, they shared an experience and world view of people who had been, were, and would be treated with the unreasonable, persistent, and poisonous malice of racism. There was no escape and no safe place for a person who wasn’t White, whose skin was darker.
I could leave, move on. They could not. That truth remains with me and in the world.
Imagine my surprise and dismay when DEI turned into treating me as if I must be ignorant and bigoted, an enemy or barrier. Huh. How does that help? More importantly, how do I help myself and others move beyond that battlefield to reclaim our common humanity and heal the wounds every human is subject to?
I keep taking courses, classes, and learning opportunities. I go to church and say a confession that’s part of the service. We pray to God, saying aloud, “We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves, and in the world you have created. We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf.”
If I understand what’s going on, the idea is that there is a fundamental goodness. When we lose track of that goodness, and everyone does, then evil happens. It’s inevitable, and it’s also recoverable. If I can have enough trust in goodness, I can see evil and repent; that is, feel deep regret and commit to change.
Another important piece is that the evil doesn’t have to be committed by me. An evil can benefit me, and I can still see it and repent of it, grieve it, and commit to change.
The evil that enslaves us would trick us into believing that we can’t see it, say it, or heal it.
Now it turns out that Artificial Intelligence will also lie, cheat, and steal. Big surprise. If we built it, why did we think it would be better and more noble than the rest of humanity and everything else we create? Wishful thinking or willful ignorance doesn’t matter. We still have consequences and challenges to deal with.
So, here’s my follow-up response to Betty, that font of wisdom from Detroit days: “Yes, people will lie, cheat, and steal. But we are all children of God, and we can all see, say, and heal it, together. Amen.”
