Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with diversity

How do I combat my knee-jerk racist responses?

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:50:38 -0800

How do I combat my knee-jerk racist responses? Recently, I moved from an all-white area to a diverse neighborhood. I am having trouble dealing with my reaction to the many young black males who live in the area. My street is middle-class and racially diverse, but there is a low-income, mostly black neighborhood just blocks away, with frequent robberies and occasional shootings. There's a known drug corner 2 blocks away. The crime has spread to our neighborhood, and there are multiple home break-ins every week. We hear police sirens every night. About once a week, someone gets held up at knife/gunpoint while pulling into their garage.

Last week I turned into the alley to park in my garage, and there was an SUV parked directly in front of my garage door with its lights on and the engine running. There was a group of young black men in the alley dressed in stereotypical urban fashions, conversing loudly (but not aggressively) with each other. I froze, not knowing if I should approach. I steeled myself and moved forward, gesturing towards the garage door. The driver didn't know what I meant, so he exited his car and walked towards mine. I opened the window a crack and asked if he could back up. He was unfailingly polite and called me "Ma'am," and at that point I felt like a total jerk for making a racist assumption. I pulled into the garage and nothing else happened.

Earlier in the summer I saw a group of black men across the street in front of someone's yard, talking and drinking beer in front of a rundown car, and I was immediately suspicious, until I saw that one of them was trimming hedges and planting flowers. It's become clear that he lives there and wasn't doing yardwork as a job, and again I felt like a jerk.

I won't claim that "some of my best friends are black," because that's false. I grew up almost entirely around whites. I do currently work with black men (and women) and often find myself in elevators alone with young black men. I have no such trepidation about this. I'm leftist in my politics and just feel like a bad person for feeling this way. Given the levels of crime in my neighborhood and poverty in the adjacent neighborhood, there obviously are SOME dangerous people around, and I don't feel it unreasonable to be a bit more on guard than I would be in a small town or suburb, but how do I combat the pervasive and often racist fear? I'm female, married, and (obviously) white. Moving is not an option, and overall I like the area.

Arts and Cultural Appropriation

divabat — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 20:19:50 -0800

How have issues of cultural appropriation, stereotypes, and diversity been tackled in art and popular culture? I'm in the early stages of working on a performance piece on cultural appropriation and identity in the arts, and I'm looking for inspiration from others that have done the same. So far I am only familiar with Guillermo Gómez-Peña and his Living Museum of Fetish/ized Identities, and the SF/fantasy RaceFail debacle.

I am especially interested in these issues as they occur in burlesque, circus, and theatre, since that's what I'm working with, but any creative field would be good too.

How to become an Expert at Not Being an Expert?

canijusa — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:10:13 -0800

How to self-market with Diversity (not necessarily ethnocentric) as my key point-of-difference, twisting a liability into an asset, within an industry that almost exclusively values Specialization? I love my freelance work in the Beauty/Fashion/Entertainment industry, which similar to many fields, is very compartmentalized; it's rare to find examples of frequent successful mobility (think Theatre vs. Film vs. Fashion vs. Music). Even though we commonly have experience in most aspects, when it comes down to what pays the bills, jobs and referrals follow a family-tree system and we end up semi-pigeon-holed, making it hard to move between specialties (due to trends, innovations and networking).

I tend to be bored with routines and never aggressively pursued a path, simply because I wasn't sure which one I liked more. Luckily, because of this, I have current and ongoing experience in multiple facets of my field, work regularly, teach advanced classes to peers and am fairly respected in my industry because of my range. Unluckily, I face periodic criticism that my body of work is segmented.

In addition to my skill diversity, and my upbringing (mixed-culture hippie home), I have a social-service background (anti-discrimination and civil rights), in which my heart is deeply rooted. Speak to me for more than 5 minutes and you'll see I'm incredibly passionate about the topic beyond the politically-correct rhetoric. As my two passions are seemingly in direct opposition though, it's honestly never occurred to me that the two aspects could even co-exist, let alone flirt and get married. I generally prepared myself for the day I'd have to secede from my current field to rejoin the other.

Some possible challenges:
-Most people value Expert over Generalized skills for obvious and practical reasons, and because my industry is incredibly trend and image-conscious with a short attention span (and I'll say it...snobby and superficial), my concept will not be accepted easily without a very "slick" hook and package. Unfortunately my field is rampant with novices who obtain jobs simply because they are eye-candy and have a pretty website.
-I'd really like to have a thoughtful, holistic marketing plan, and my inner snob also wants it to be fun, approachable and stylish with the seductive whiff of elitism that my crowd tends to be aroused by.
-Due to the potential sensitivity and yawn-factor of "Diversity Issues," how do I incorporate the idea in a fresh, modern, positive, relatable way that avoids any smug moralistic pitfalls or triteness?
-In light of current changes in government and the resurgence of the topic, how can I ensure credibility, relevance and longevity beyond what will likely lead to "buzzword buzzkill," like happened to Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action? Or is it even possible? I don't want to be swallowed up when the topic gets beaten to death or trivialized as just another marketing fad (a la "green").

Additional Info:
-I've written a book on the near horizon that combines my loves; it will likely be in the Health/Beauty/ChicLit categories, tongue-in-cheek, bawdy, peppered with anecdotes and (not so) hidden political messages.
-In researching and writing the book, I've been following trends and forecasting, all of which lead me to hope that clever marketing is possible...that people are open to the idea more than in the past.
-So far, I have found nothing in existence with the same hybrid, there's only one other book even slightly close to my perspective and everything else is very segregated and/or too political to appeal to a larger audience. Time is of the essence for me to be a leader in this niche.

Essentially, I need to become an Expert in Not Being an Expert. I think. That's what you are for.....thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Questions about Grad App Questions

davidstandaford — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:32:38 -0800

A few questions that I'm running into while submitting my graduate school applications about fellowships, diversity statements, other schools I am applying to, and accepting admission without funding. I'm applying for PhD programs in Political Science, and have about 7 programs left, and I've run into the same thing on a number of applications and I'm not sure how to handle it.

1) Most applications have a place where I can note any fellowships that I have applied for. I hadn't identified any to apply to (although I haven't looked very hard) and I'm wondering if it hurts me that I'm not applying for any outside sources of funding? Will it help my chances at the remaining schools if I apply to some fellowships?

2) Some schools allow for an optional diversity statement. As a generic white/upper middle class student of two people with post-bachelor degrees, I don't have a very compelling diversity/adversity statement. Although I'm a good writer and could probably craft something good, it doesn't feel to me like I have exactly what they want and my statement might not compare well to others, so I'm wondering about whether I would be better off writing the best one I can or not submitting one at all.

3) Most programs ask me about which other schools I am applying to. Does anyone know what they use this for and how it might hurt or help my chances at any one individual school?

4) Finally, for programs that don't fully fund all students, some ask me whether I would accept admission with partial or no funding. Ideally, I would want full funding, but to be accepted anyway even if they couldn't offer financial support, but I don't want to mark yes that I would accept admission without funding because then it would allow them to admit me without funding, even if they were willing to admit me with funding. Any idea on how best to deal with this?

Diversity/concentration measure for nonexclusive categories?

ROU_Xenophobe — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:20:05 -0800

Measures of diversity / fragmentation / concentration for nonexclusive categories? So I have data on the financial interests of legislators, and one of the too many things I want to do with them is look at the diversity, fragmentation, or concentration of industries represented in the legislature.

This is pretty trivial for occupations, because if your occupation is "Lawyer," it isn't "Farmer." So for occupation, you can (and people have) just used the Herfindahl index from econ. For those playing the home game, this is the sum of the squares of the market shares.

But I have financial interests. And you can get income from a law firm and income from a farm at the same time. This means that I can't directly use the Herfindahl index, because now the sum of the market shares isn't 100%, it's 105 or 120 or 150%.

So does anyone know of a standard method or summary statistic used to measure diversity or concentration where any individual observation can be in more than one category at the same time? Like, something used to measure linguistic diversity that allows people to speak more than one language, or something else canned?

I can think of ways around this -- modifying the Herfindahl, or doing factor analysis and counting the number of recovered dimensions. But if there's something well-specified and simple from another discipline, I'd prefer to use that.

Resources wanted - cultural diversity, youth, arts

divabat — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:20:02 -0800

Cultural diversity, youth, and the arts/creative industries - where do I start looking for resources? I'm doing a work placement with an Australian youth arts organization (non-profit) that provides advice and services to young emerging artists. I've been tasked with preparing a cultural diversity strategy, both to get more young people from culturally diverse backgrounds using their services, and also to make their current programs more respectful of cultural needs.

I've never actually written a strategy paper before, but I personally find the topic interesting so I'd like to do as much work as possible. I'd like to know where I can get more information.

I'm guessing this is largely a question of terminology, as searching for resources in my local libraries haven't given me much - what should I be looking for? So far I can think of:

* Brisbane/Australia's policies re: cultural diversity and the arts sector
* How other countries and cultures regard the arts and creative industries (no idea how to search for this)
* Examples of strategy papers
* Efforts in integrating different cultures, not just with young people and/or the arts world

What else should I be looking at? What resources fit the above list and what else should go on that list? Are there any universities/organizations that would be helpful?

How does a strategy paper look like anyway? It seems like right now I'm writing a plan for a strategy paper. (This project is only a week old so far so there are opportunities for adjustment.)

The org is Queensland-based and has offices in Caboolture and Brisbane, but resources from anywhere in the world are fine. My supervisor's worked in Eastern Europe and USA, and I'm from Malaysia, so we're all pretty good at taking our multicultural backgrounds and incorporating it into our work. I don't want to rely on stereotypes though, so I'd like to look at as much info from everywhere.

Prior Pryor

wsg — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:58:15 -0800

What is the Richard Pryor quote about everybody screwing each other till we're all the same shade of light brown?

Living the clean life. Both clean from religion and clean from vice!

sixcolors — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:14:57 -0800

I would like others to explain to me why some non-Christian people abstain from certain “sinful” activities…and how to interact with them. For those who do not know my background, I grew up really sheltered and associated mostly with religious people. A little bit over a year ago, I started questioning my religion (Christianity), and started hanging around people who have different belief systems than mine. Some are atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, wiccan, and some are non-practicing Christians or Jews. It’s not just the people I hang around who have diverse beliefs, many of my classmates in grad school are non-Christians, and if they are they are mostly non-practicing.

I grew up around many people who abstained from sex, alcohol, drugs, using profane language, gambling, and violence. The first 15 years of my life, I went to a Pentecostal church, we were told flat out we would burn in hell if we engaged in the above. From age 16 on, I attended a non-denominational church, while it was more liberal than the first church, the message we received was “if you engage in sinful behavior, it will ruin your relationship with Jesus Christ, and you will become miserable”.

Well, since I became less religious, I’ve been enjoying many “worldly” activities. I no longer avoid alcohol, sexual related activities, cursing, playing poker, and watching violent movies or listening to violent music in fear of being bathed in fire and brimstone when I die. The biggest shock that came to me within the last year, is that some non-Christian people do not live the same lifestyle I do, and is more in line with the lifestyles of the people I grew up around.

An example…in one of my grad school classes we had a debate on whether there should be condom dispensers in resident halls on college campuses. There were some who students who said “no”, I was expecting most of them to be strict Christians (or Jewish or Muslims), but most of them weren’t religious of all. I’ve learned from other classroom discussion that some of those students were plain anti-sex.

Another example…I have a few friends who are pretty anti-alcohol and especially anti-drug…yet, again, non-Christian. They won’t drink even a sip, they stay far away from bars and nightclubs, and leave parties early where there’s a lot of drinking. They won’t date drinkers either. On occasion, they try to discourage US from drinking.

I’m confused about this behavior, if you don’t fear eternal punishment for drinking and fucking or whatever, then what motivates them to avoid activities that many people deem as pleasurable? I’ll be honest, the first thing I think is that they are just prudes, but I don’t want to be insensitive. I’d rather understand people before judging them, because I know that are many different things that drives behavior and some aren't obvious. And, to avoid conflict, because I seem to get into a lot of conflicts about this. I would like know some concrete reasons why some non-religious people avoid things that will bring them pleasure. Maybe if I can identify the real reasons, I will know how to handle them better in the future.

Will we be unwelcome in Bronzeville?

applemeat — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:15:48 -0800

Seeking advice and opinion about moving to Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. My husband and I are considering a move from our northside Uptown neighborhood to the historic and historically African-American Bronzeville area. To get to the point here, my husband and I are accustomed to living in very diverse (racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, etc.) urban areas, we both appreciate character, history and architecture, and we both happen to be white. My questions for other Mefites who live in or are familiar with the Bronzeville area are as follows: Do you think that we, as white professionals, are an improper/unwelcome addition to Bronzeville? Is there much (some?) diversity (Latino, white, Asian) in Bronzeville? Are you happy living there?

My biggest concern with moving to Bronzeville is that I might feel isolated there for lack of diversity and because there seem to be fewer markets and restaurants within walking/biking distance as compared to here on the northside.

I would be very grateful for any and all honest comments and insights from Mefites living in or familiar with the Bronzeville area.

how can i advise a youth-mentorship organization to be sensitive to the cultural and religious needs of its young participants and their parents?

twistofrhyme — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 16:09:16 -0800

how can i advise a youth-mentorship organization to be sensitive to the cultural and religious needs of its young participants and their parents? this Q applies to a very diverse group of kids. the issues i've noticed so far have specifically affected the muslim kids. i work with a wonderful program that involves kids of varying faiths- definitely muslim and hindi, and i don't know what else- it's hard to say by guessing, and i don't want to ask the kids. i know there are kids from various african countries, including somalia and ethiopia, the west indies, the middle east, asia, southeast asia.... etc. this is in toronto, if that gives any clue as to how mixed this bunch is. there are relatively few white kids, and lots of first-generation kids and immigrants. the kids range from 8-14 years old.

the program is non-denominational, and organized by pretty secular people. i've observed some practices i suspect are inconsiderate to the religious kids- scheduling events on, or the morning after Eid, for instance, or serving pepperoni pizza for lunch. many of the kids and their parents are clearly uncomfortable making demands, and instead try to be accomodating (for instance, i saw a kid ask if the cheese contained rennet, and, getting no good answer, she only ate broccoli and fruit instead).

i would like the organization to be more sensitive to any relevant concerns, and i have no qualms about tactfully pointing out some of these issues- but i'd like to provide constructive suggestions when i do so. i'm specifically thinking about food and scheduling, but am very curious about other concerns i may not have thought of.

here's a quick rundown of the program:

lasts the duration of the school year. involves some saturday full-day activities (which are scheduled months in advance) and some phone activities (once a week for about 25 mins., flixible scheduling).
the kids all attend co-ed toronto-area public schools.
they wear their own clothes, with large program t-shirts overtop.
they are served bottled water, juice and milk in cartons, pizza (veggie, pepperoni, chicken, hawaiian) from a sponsor (pizza pizza, i think), fruit salad, veggies and dip, packaged granola bars and fruit snacks, and grocery store cookies (caramel, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, M&M). the pizza is served by the latex-gloved hands of volunteer servers- so their gloves touch all varieties of pizza.
the authority figures are all adults, and all clearly jewish or christian-ish. although they are kind, i can see how a kid would be intimidated to make a religious request.

my question:
what can i suggest that will benefit these kids from now til may, and then to benefit all the kids forever after?
specifically, when are the religious holidays we'll need to schedule around?
how will we know when these fall in subsequent years?
any foods to try, or avoid?
things to find out about the foods we serve, so as to be able to answer questions?
is there anything i'm not thinking of?

my caveat:
please, no wrist-slapping here- i genuinely want to help, and am being reductive only so i can ask an answerable Q that doesn't drown in specifics (although, it's a pretty long Q, so i guess i failed there). also, please go easy on the program itself- they are *great*, and are doing incredible work with these kids. i'm 100% sure that the kids net way more benefit out of it than any non-denominational gaffe might cost them. besides, all mis-steps are due to ignorance, not insensitivity, and i know that if i suggest concrete changes, that they'll really try to implement them.

thanks in advance for your advice!

Can't we all just get along?

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:22:27 -0800

We [lawyer, Japanese wife, 10-y.o. kid who likes tennis] are moving to Portland/area. We found a house we like in Lake Oswego, but... [religious and racial bigotry inside] ...we were told that the area is very popular with Mormons. I've no particular problem with the Mormons I've met, apart from their penchant for turning conversations around to religion, and it doesn't bother me not to interact much with my neighbors if they won't stop nattering on about their church. However, my kid would be attending public school there.

We visited the local elementary school and it looked great, but I don't want to throw him into a class where many/most of the kids are Mormons. It's bad enough that (according to some census websites we've found) over 90% of the kids in the area are white. I only saw one Asian kid in the classrooms we visited, and no "people of color." (What an awful, distasteful locution to add to the vernacular!)

So, my question for teh intarwebs:

Will a smart, non-religious, Asian-American kid have a tough time in Lake Oswego public schools, given the lack of racial diversity and (apparent) preponderance of adherents to one particular Evangelical faith?

I Want to be Different, Just Like Everyone Else

phrits — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 19:28:58 -0800

How is diversity (particularly in hiring) not racism/sexism/ageism/ismism? Prompted by this recent question and the subject of Talk of the Nation on NPR the other day about overcoming "diversity fatigue."

My question is serious and intended to gain understanding, not to start a flame war. I am a professional, educated, white, straight, married-divorced-married male solidly between 18 and 70 years of age from a middle class two-parent, multiple-sibling, Sunday-church-going American family. While I do not suffer from "liberal race guilt," neither do I enjoy the company of blatant racists, sexists, homophobes, or religious (or anti-religious) zealots of any stripe.

In my professional life (where I have actually been told I am "not diverse"), I have noticed little correlation between someone's race, creed (zealotry aside), color, sexual orientation, national origin, etc. and my ability (or inability) to work (or socialize) with or for them or them with me. I do not kid myself that I am completely free from prejudice—finding myself dropped into the middle of an unfamiliar city in a predominantly poor and <whatever> neighborhood would be scary—but -isms are simply not a factor in my daily life or how I generally relate to people. In fact, I am an avid "foodie" with a minor (but respectful) interest in languages, cultures, and religions, so I tend to welcome having folks unlike myself around.

So, back to the question. If I were in a position to hire someone, and—for the sake of argument, assuming all other qualifications were equal—I hired a white guy, some would call me a racist. If I hired a woman or minority, though, I'd be "promoting diversity." On the other hand, if I were a minority or woman and hired a white guy, I expect it would (from a corporate view) probably go unnoticed. If I hired another minority or woman—even of the same minority—I'd probably still get points for promoting diversity.

How does this make any sense?

Diversity training exercises

Scottk — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 17:52:25 -0800

Can anyone suggest some diversity management exercises or activities? I am in a managing diversity class, and I want to facilitate an activity or exercise that would be used in a real-world organization regarding diversity training. Searching the 'net has not been to helpfull.

What Ethnicity Can I Pass As?

sgt.serenity — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 06:12:45 -0800

obscure ethnicity needed............. i joined a scheme to train people in making films...
but heres the catch :

3. Diversity
Diverse Screen exists to address the under-representation of Black and ethnic minorities in the moving image industry and support those coming from minority ethnic communities. To ensure that we are fulfilling these aims please chose the category which best applies to you.

q Indian
q Pakistani
q Bangladeshi
q Any other Asian (please state)
q Chinese
q Black Caribbean
q Black African
q Any other Black (please state)
Any other ethnic group (please state)

As you can tell from my profile , i'm not especially chinese.
Are there any obscure ethnic groups i could pretend to be from ?

(apart from scottish of course)