When Taxonomies are Evil

Back in the early sixties my father was completing his electrical engineering degree at the University of Minnesota.  Being a family man, he also worked at the Lightening and Transients Research Institute (LTRI) in Minneapolis.  LTRI was the first organization to successfully “catch” and analyze a bolt of lightning.  LTRI was very popular in the aerospace industry as their research helped harden aircraft against lightening strikes and other forms of electrostatic discharge.  They were also instrumental in laying the technical foundation for systems that are hardened against nuclear EMP.

As a preschooler I knew that my dad could literally catch lightning in a bottle, so it is no wonder that I now consider all technical things possible.

During his summers, my dad worked on the RV Thunderbolt; a research ship based in Miami harbor.  So, we would make the long drive from Minneapolis to Coco Beach in our trusty Volkswagen Bug.  There were no car seats in the early sixties, and so I would wedge my little preschool body in the “boot” behind the rear seat.  Above me I could see the stars out of the little curved rear window, and would drift in and out of sleep watching the stars turn and pirouette in the night sky above me.

I don’t remember the circumstances, but one night our car broke down in a small town in the Deep South.  As we waited in the lobby of a service station for repairs to finish, I became thirsty and moved toward a dingy-looking drinking fountain.  A woman who was waiting for her own repairs rushed toward me in a panic and stopped me before I could take a sip.  I was startled and upset, but it was clear that she was trying to save me from something so I don’t think I cried.

She explained that I shouldn’t use drinking fountains with the word “C-O-L-O-R-E-D” printed over them because those drinking fountains were unsanitary.  She said only black people use those drinking fountains, although she used a different word than “black people.”  I was shocked; if the fountains were so unsanitary then why couldn’t the black people use the clean drinking fountain she pointed out to me. Wouldn't that solve everyone's problem? She patiently explained that the dirty drinking fountain was dirty precisely because the black people used it.  My world spun and shook as my little mind tried to cope with this bizarre concept.  I felt a horror, shock, rage that I still remember to this day. 

I looked at my parents and asked them if this was true.  I needed them to repair my world.  They were both very tight lipped and hustled me out of the situation.  I didn’t know it at the time but racial tensions were high and my parents were scared.  This was back in the day of “Mississippi Burning” and a drinking fountain was not always worth dying over.  They were progressive but they were not suicidal.

The truly shocking thing is that this happened here in the U.S.A. and during my lifetime.  The United States was reaching for the stars and just a few miles away prejudice and ignorance were keeping people oppressed just because of the family they were born into.  This wasn’t Nazi Germany, this was the United States.  This wasn’t ancient history, this was within my lifetime.

I really have no idea how the evil started, but somehow our nation created a “people taxonomy” where some people were arbitrarily moved out of the human category and moved into another category.  It didn’t really matter if the other category was less-than or separate but equal, once you put somebody in a category that is considered not-quite-human you wind up with oppression, suffering and death.

In relationships people tend to work with three major categories almost by instinct:  Resources, Environment, and People.

Some people move their pets into the people category and start to baby talk their dogs and cats.  On a farm animals are ultimately resources, and in a national park they are part of the environment.  Woe to the person who treats an environmental (protected) animal as a resource.  This is known as poaching.

When people become resources we can wind up with slavery or the holocaust.  When developed people look at subsistence cultures and try to “preserve their culture” at the expense of helping them, then we have reduced those people to being part of the environment.

In a marriage we fall in love with a person, over time we tend to think of our partners as resources, and may eventually treat them like scenery as the relationship spirals into failure.

So, when you are creating a “people taxonomy” for your organization, please make sure that everyone understands that you are not pigeon-holing them.

Comments

[Matt Moore]

We were recently consulting for a large software company (~5000 employees), very flat organization, one central location and response from the HR was that there is no org. chart...go figure the site structure and IA.

~Matt

[Fran]

Have you read Sorting Things Out - Classification and its Consequences - by Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star? It is a fascinating account of the horrifying and destructive power of classifications when used as tools of politcal control - as in apartheid South Africa. It also examines the unforeseen implications of classifying - such as when certain causes of death are considered culturally sensitive, so are not recorded by medical professionals.