#hr #humanresources #multicultural #diversity #diversitytraining — I did my ‘Kick Down Diversity Barriers For Success’ presentation last night to a group of professional administrators who were very enthusiastic about the talk as well as the topic.
I did get a very interesting question from one member of the audience that is worth noting. When we were discussing about whether our society in general was embracing diversity well or not, this person asked my opinion whether I thought it was the non-ethnic component or ethnic component of our population, who needed to improve on accepting diversity.
She further clarified her question on asking whether it was the immigrants or non-immigrants who needed more diversity training in general. Often for many people, diversity exposure is thought to be needed especially among the Caucasian element to be more accepting of immigrants, particularly ethnic immigrants.
However, this lady noticed that when she tried to shop at some ethnic retail shops for instance, she was never really felt to be very welcomed by the ethnic shopkeepers. I gave some of my own examples where I experienced the same kind of treatment as an ethnic myself.
So my answer was pretty straight forward. Diversity training is needed for both ethnics and non-ethnics alike. Everyone can benefit from more exposure to diversity. Diversity skills are not just for the Caucasian non-immigrant element of our society. This type of personal development is for everyone.
Sometimes when I speak to specific ethnic groups as I have in the past with certain events and cultural conferences, I am very forward in telling these audiences that in order to be successful in our society, we must learn to integrate well with other types of people. We must develop the diversity skills so that we can interact well with people from all sorts of different cultural backgrounds.
To see what I cover in my diversity presentations, see my Speaking Programs section at my website.
