Last week I wrote about Pink Shirt Day which schools are marking this week.
In response, I (along with every school trustee and city councillor in Richmond) received an email. Here’s part of it.
I just read your Opinion column in the Richmond News titled “Posing in pink won’t stop bullying” where you said “pretty posters alone won’t create change”.
Agreed. Posters and pink shirts are a good start. To create real change, a long-term endeavor is needed.
A group of enthusiasts has been helping in cultivating such ‘care for others’ by providing a daily read on soft skills such as social etiquette, empathy, intercultural awareness.
And as incentives, each participant get to earn “points” on their personal ‘World Civility Index’.
Patrick Chun, the author of the email and co-founder of the Richmond-based program, then explains what The World Civility Index is and how it can be used.
“It is similar to a person’s credit rating, but instead of measuring how well a person can pay his bills, it measures a person’s soft skills such as social etiquette, empathy, intercultural awareness. “
This rating, we’re told, can then be used “by employers for hiring purposes, schools for admission, restaurants for giving the best seats, landlords for giving preferential rental priorities, dating websites for recommended matching partners.”
Your empathy ranking can get you the best seat in a restaurants? hmmmm...
I’m not sure how many of you have watched the TV series Black Mirror. It’s a British show about near-future dystopias that raises ethical questions about the impact of new technologies.
One episode is about a society in which people’s social media rating (Google reviews, Facebook likes, Instagram followers) impacts everything in their lives, from their ability to rent an apartment or buy a plane ticket to being invited to a “friend’s” wedding.
As such, the main character’s life is entirely consumed with posting attractive images of herself living a happy, perfect life. Moreover, everyone is constantly rating everyone else, so lord help you if you don’t provide friendly enough service, a healthy enough tip or a sweet enough smile.
If I didn’t know so many people who are slaves to their social media identities and being “liked,” “followed,” and sent heart emojis, this episode might feel like just another bit of crazy sci-fi, but I do and it’s not. Obsessing over one’s social is very much a reality for many.
Of course, where this World Civility Index differs is in who does the rating. This program offers training as well as testing so the rating is promoted as an objective measure of a person’s “soft skills.”
In some ways, this is no different than any other training program that provides participants with a certificate or some form of recognition of their newly acquired skill set. That recognition, in turn, may give them an advantage when applying for a job or a bank loan.
And, for sure, training and building awareness regarding empathy, etiquette and intercultural sensitivity is something we need more of. Too often it’s assumed these skills are intuitive or taught in the home. But even if they are, we’re living in a changing world and could all use help in navigating new cultural norms.
The part that doesn’t sit right for me is the actual index, a system that ranks my level of empathy, which I can then use to bully my way into the best seat in the restaurant.
I may be missing something, but that seems to me the antithesis of what Pink Shirt Day is all about.
