Diversity Dialogues encourage multicultural conversation
February is filled with events that celebrate diversity and Feb. 16-20 begins the dive into “open and honest conversations.” Yves-Rose SaintDic, director of Institutional Equity and Diversity talked about the essence of the conversations.
“My philosophy is that once you really get to know someone on a personal level it doesn’t really matter their religion, race or their background, you just see the person,” SaintDic said.
Diversity Dialogues entail conversations that most people would rather avoid on a normal day-to-day basis. Fear is a helping hand that hinders people from talking and asking about touchy subjects- a big one being race.
These talks encourage an embracing of differences and learning how to see a person for the content of their personality instead of the exterior stereotypes and physical differences.
The process to participate is simple. Anyone can go to the office of Diversity, pick up a Sodexho meal ticket, be assigned a partner to eat with during lunch hours and learn some unique stories and outlooks from someone outside their normal comfort zone.
Brittany Lewis, a mass communication major who works in the office of Equity and Diversity, participated last year and spoke about the value of the conversations.
“I am afraid for other people when the subject of whether I am black or African American arises. I can see the fear or anxiety build in their face when that part of the conversation comes up,” Lewis said. “If they do say something offensive I wouldn’t get mad, but just correct them. You don’t learn and you won’t know unless you put yourself out there and learn and that is a great part of these talks.”
SaintDic and the Diversity office have thought of ways to ease the students’ and faculty’s minds in getting conversations started.
“We have guidelines, or rather advice, about how to get started with the conversation,” SaintDic said. “We send out a number of e-mails with questions to get started, but this year it’s a series of statements and people can use those as a part of their conversation. And it’s not about so much as resolving conflicts, but more as building bridges and making connections.”
Lewis remembers a conversation about slavery.
“I remember being surprised because you don’t really know where people come from until you sit and listen to their story,” Lewis said. “I’m very interested in slavery, and it’s relative to me how we always talk about it in America as the past. I was talking with someone who was from Africa and it was mentioned how their family was in slavery over there, and it still occurs to this day just across the world.”
SaintDic expresses the influence of learning from open conversations.
“Guided between three of my careers since doing conversation, I found people I would not normally converse with, and Diversity Dialogues is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever done,” SaintDic said.
SaintDic hopes to gain an even larger crowd this February and add more names to the online Diversity Cornerstones and Pathways site, located online at http://www.gcsu.edu/equity/cornerstonespathways.htm.
Correction: This article was incorrectly attributed to Aubrey Petkas. It has been fixed to reflect that it was written by Elise Colcord.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 20 2009. Filed under News.
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