Diversity Education: Two Aspects

The movement to educate people about diversity that has taken place in our media, schools, and workplaces is one of the more positive efforts that have been made to improve society by working on changing the attitudes of people, one by one. There are, over the course of the calendar year, certain designated days, weeks, and months that focus on the accomplishments, goals, and struggles within various demographic communities. The most obvious expression of this is the presentation of biographies of famous and accomplished people in history who belong to particular groups. During diversity education events, people are often also encouraged to bring foods and perform music that reflect upon their backgrounds. To me, these are good things, but they are not enough if the ultimate goal is to eliminate prejudice and bring our society together. For I believe it is fear rising from ignorance that spurs bigotry, and although it may seem like a safe thing for promoters of diversity education to dwell upon the best in our society, it also needs to be shown that most members of each demographic population are basically average people whose commonality with the average people across group designations is much greater than that with the extreme "good" or "bad" in their own group. So, when a news event occurs that portrays someone in a "bad" light, it is important that the people already be educated to the fact that this "bad" behavior cannot be stamped across whatever group that "offending" person is identified with. This second aspect of diversity education is obviously a much more delicate and difficult thing to accomplish, which is probably why it, in my opinion, has been relatively neglected.