Cultural Diversity and You

Reflect on an instance
when you or someone else were unfairly excluded, discriminated against, or
otherwise neglected or treated inappropriately due to race, ethnicity,
age, gender, social class, sexuality, disability, or other category
related to diversity. Depending on the setting in which the incident
occurred, consider whether any laws or policies were violated, either
those established by an organization, such as a business or school, or
state or federal antidiscrimination policies.
Part 1 – Describe your experience:

Describe the event and the underlying
diversity issues at play.
Describe your opinions, feelings, actions,
and what you learned from the event.

Part 2 – Examine your experience:

Discuss experiences from your personal
background that might account for your feelings or reactions. Consider
areas such as your ethnicity, history, upbringing, local mores, recent
events, et cetera.
Connect your experience to at least three
sociological concepts and/or issues. For example, if you are writing
about what if feels like to be an outsider, you could connect your
discussion to the concept of power or social structure, or the broader
issue of relationships between dominant and minority groups.

Examples of other concepts you could include
are prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes, cultural pluralism,
assimilation, structural mobility, social distance, and modern racism.
Examples of theories include functional or
conflict theory, Marx’s and Weber’s theories of inequality, Park’s race
relations cycle, Gordon’s theory of assimilation, human capital theory,
scapegoat hypothesis, and the theory of authoritarian personality.

Incorporate research on the broader issue
that your experience illustrates. For example, if the incident you
describe involves discrimination in the workplace, research workplace
discrimination and find data on the prevalence or nature of this problem.
If the incident involves bullying at school, locate data on how extensive
this issue is. Questions to consider include:

Is the type of incident you describe
commonplace?
Where might this be most prevalent?
Among what groups is it most likely to
occur?
What trends did you notice in your research?
For example, does the kind of incident you experienced or observed seem
to be an increasing problem, or is it declining over time?

Analyze how relevant laws or policies might
be applied to this situation. These may be civil or criminal laws or,
perhaps, policies established in the workplace or schools.

Consider whether any laws or policies were
violated and how those laws or policies might be changed or better
enforced to address the situation you describe.

Part 3 – Reflect on your experience:

Based on your reflections of the event and
the research you have now done, share personal strategies that are useful
for informing the interactions or relationships between the involved
parties, as well as your own understanding or perspectives.

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