I finally saw Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (at least the first 45 minutes on network television). I can’t endorse it or not because I haven’t seen more than half of it and it was the television edited version.But I was caught by a brief exchange that I had to watch a few times because it was awesome. Here’s the simple dialogue:
Champ Kind (Sports anchor): What in the H*** is diversity?Ron Burgundy: I could be wrong but I believe diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used in the civil war era.Executive/Boss: Diversity means that times are changing.
The context of the movie is that there is a good old boys network of all white guys dealing with the first female anchor presence. They are completely at a loss with the changing landscape of their profession and the erosion of a status that comes with often unchallenged power. They are ignorant to the plight of those like the female anchor trying to break through and only see events through the lens of what they are losing.Whether it is diversity of gender, ethnicity, or maybe even theology – do you experience the above scenario anywhere (obviously in more real expressions)?Maybe Anchorman has something we can learn from. Ron Burgundy was a has been news anchor clinging to his glory days when in reality he was insecure, sad and desperate. I wonder how many Ron Burgundy’s are out there in the ministry world as it relates to ethnic diversity and gender equality?
