“Every single person has the ability to make change. It may just be a matter of checking our privilege to see where we can make a difference…I don’t need allies. I need accomplices.”
– Oman Frame at HATCH Big Sky 2017
Oman has 20 years of experience in teaching and diversity leadership; most recently as the Coordinator of Diversity and Inclusion at the Paideia School in Atlanta, Georgia, and as a leader of the iChange Collaborative. He is a gifted motivator and educator who combines real world topics with academic rigor in a way that makes learning personally meaningful for his students. Oman has conducted workshops around the country. He creates a curriculum that helps students understand the effects of oppression on underserved communities and inspires commitment to social justice. He has been featured in many different media outlets and continues to strive to change the world.
HATCH Illustrator Stephen Downer created a superhero Oman, spreading knowledge of diversity and love’s ability to overcome fear.
During Oman’s HATCH talk, he stressed the importance of understanding how privilege benefits our life – and using that privilege to stand up for others whose voices are suppressed or marginalized. Over the course of his talk he removed the layered t-shirts he was wearing, each one with a saying that signified one of his own privileges (i.e. being male, heterosexual) and celebrated a part of himself others have deemed ‘less than’ (i.e dyslexia or African-American). With each removal, he reminded us of the human capital we’re wasting perpetuating bias and stigma – and how we can reclaim it by serving as accomplices in the fight against injustice.
When asked about the one challenge he would like to activate the HATCH network to address, his answer is straight-to-the-point:
“Systemic inequality in America. If we could expose the country to honest dialogue about how the system of inequality keeps us all recycled in adversarial relationships, we could make real progress.”
Shortly after Oman’s talk a HATCH Lab called Spreading Empathy for Equality was kicked off. Over the next 3 days, Oman and his teammates created a roadmap for creating a virtual/augmented reality interface that could put person “A” in the virtual shoes of person “B”, or take person “A” from world 1 to world 2. Team members are now collaborating on connecting with the right people and resources to make their plan a reality.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how Stephen Downer brought the superhero Oman to life:
Thank you to Moonlight Basin for being the home of HATCH North America, and to Moonlight Community Foundation, the Yellowstone Club Foundation, and High Stakes Foundation for helping make this life-changing magic possible. #becauseofHATCH | #HATCHaBetterWorld | #HATCHGroundbreakers | #HATCHBigSky | #BigSky | #MoonlightBasin
