Advanced Exploration of Diversity

Maggie Viverette

September 15, 2014

10:00am - 12:00pm

University Center

Rose Room

2 Course Hours

Objectives:

• Heightened awareness (cultural lenses impact on self and others)
• Expand knowledge base (power in cultural dynamics)
• Greater awareness (misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication)
• You do not always get a chance to communicate with individuals that you offended.
• Knowledge and practice 
• Development of cultural competency 

Rules: 

1. Confidentiality (the Vegas rule)
2. Ouch! Then educate (notify of offensive statement then explain why it was offensive)
3. No judgment
4. Support each other
5. Open up and share experiences

The Angry Eye

After discussing the objectives and class rules, we watched a video of Jane Elliot revisiting her Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes experiment.  Jane Elliot's original experiment segregated a class of third graders by eye color.  The children with the brown eyes were treated with dignity, respect, and reverence; whereas the blue-eyed children were harshly discriminated against.  The Angry Eye experiment revised the experiment using college students.  This was used as a method to explain the detrimental effects of discrimination.  A college class was segregated in a similar fashion as the third graders of the original experiment.  The students volunteered, knowing what was entailed in the exercise.  The students with the blue eyes were held in a room for a couple of hours before reuniting with the brown-eyed students.  The blue-eyed students were treated as if every statement, look, or breath were extremely offensive.  These individuals were berated  for every answer, regardless of if the answer was correct or incorrect.  The blue-eyed individuals, although they knew about the experiment, began to break down. Some students even began to cry.  This powerful experiment devalued the "different," blue-eyed students to force them to feel the aversive effects of discrimination.

Social Justice Allies, Micro-iniquities, and "-isms"

Again, we explore "-isms" and social justice allies.  We should take precautions when responding to culturally inappropriate comments.  These situations should be handled with care to not continue in the offense.  We should "ouch, then educate."  This means that when we hear or see something offensive, we let it known immediately instead of letting it fester.  Once we make it known that we are offended, we explain why it offended us.  This allows us to educate others on what is discriminatory.  Next, we discuss the role of micro-iniquities on discrimination.  Micro-iniquities are behaviors and comments that are exhibited daily and are designed to offend the receiver.  These are things like body language, voice inflection, and other verbal or non-verbal communication meant to discourage others.  One of the forefronts for battling discrimination is Mary Rowe.  She was an activist against the discrimination of women in the workplace.  Some may think that discrimination is similar to rudeness; however, discrimination is more consistent but rudeness comes and goes.  We also discussed more negative effects of discrimination, particularly in the workplace.  When the organizational climate supports discriminatory behavior, organizations experience poor retention, poor recruitment, high turnover, poor interpersonal relationships and communication, and an increase in discriminatory complaints.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this course was very interesting.  The Jane Elliot experiment is perhaps the most enlightening part of this course.  While I did not experience the same severity of discrimination as the blue-eyed students, I was able to see what it was like to experience extreme discrimination.  This course was more about increasing awareness of the effects of discrimination.  

Notes, Handouts, and Certificates

Diversity 102 09:15:14.pdf

Diversity 102 Certificate.pdf

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