Diversity and ISCORE

Hello World,

It is very fitting this weeks topic was diversity and that ISCORE was this week as well.  I spend a lot of time thinking about diversity in my education classes and in one of my jobs as a community advisor and sometimes the conversation can get overwhelming and downright tiring.  Neither of my experiences this week were that way though.

First I want to talk about ISCORE.  I was disappointed that I was only able to go to one session, but I learned a lot during that session.  I had the pleasure of going to Allie's session over Muslim women.  It was extremely interesting to learn about her finding so far from her studies and the experience's she has had on her journey so far.  Many of us find it hard to get out of our comfort and knowledge zone and learn about a topic that we have been uncomfortable with.  This to me is why there is a problem with racism and stereotyping at all, because there are people that will not let themselves be exposed to new information and new experiences that would at the very least give them new experiences they could pass judgement on rather than just speculation.  I am happy that there are people like Allie that are willing to put time and effort into such areas of study.

I really enjoyed hearing everyones description of themselves during class on Tuesday.  It was interesting that a good percentage of the class had similar criterion to describe themselves, as Silas pointed out.  Every time I am asked to define myself and the criterion I associate myself with I always feel bad somewhat because the criteria I identify with are those very criteria that other groups dislike or attack sometimes.  I stated that I always feel like the bad guy because of my privilege, which is the truth in most of these talks.

There is a video that I saw on youtube the other day that had Morgan Freeman in it that I think has a good message.  If we stop identifying ourself with these drastic differences and see each other as who we are individuals, individuals with differences yes, but individuals none-the-less we can end stereo-typing and move closer to a society without race or gender issues.

Here is the video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeixtYS-P3s

This is my opinion and I believe that everyone has a different opinions on ways that we can resolve the problem.  It has taken centuries to create the problem and I believe it will take quite a long time to fix it.  We have came a long way in the last thirty years and I believe we will continue to press forward.