TWO INTERACTIVE DIVERSITY RESOURCES

I believe that we have to come together if we’re ever going to have real change in this country. It’s my belief that one can obtain information about a people from books and lectures but to acquire knowledge of a people requires interaction and sustained involvement with those people.

As an educator I’ve experimented with numerous ways to bring people together and help them connect across cultures. I’d like to share two of these resources that you may find useful. Years ago, when I was Director of the Multicultural Education Center at UW-Oshkosh I brought Students of Color and White students together and challenged them to become the generation that would do better than mine in terms of race relations and social justice.

We created a multicultural retreat which allowed students to spend a weekend together off campus in a secluded setting learning about diverse cultures and dialoguing about some of the most sensitive issues our society faces. Participants were engaged in a mix of structured activities that confronted prejudice and stereotypes while also learning for the first time about the history of people of color. There were plenty of fun activities included also to help students bond.

Half of their free time had to be spent with someone of a different racial group. It was not uncommon on the first day of the retreat to hear participants question why they subjected themselves to this experience; nor was it uncommon to hear those same participants ask, “do we really have to leave” on the last day of the retreat. The retreats were a hit with young people. Over the years I have been asked to facilitate retreats at other colleges in the Midwest and on the East coast. I was so emotionally moved by this experience that I wrote a How-To-Book to enable others to host the retreat. I also wrote a novel based on some characters I met during some of the retreats.

I wanted to build a bridge from what I had learned from the retreats with community folks as a way of bringing the town and gown together. As a result the Diversity Institute on Wheels was created. This Institute takes participants via a high-tech bus out into their local community to meet and learn from diverse community leaders. On the way to and from the various bus stops, participants are paired with people of varied cultural backgrounds. With their seatmates, they take part in thoughtful reflection activities, hear lectures from speakers brought onto the bus, and visit communities of color where they are engaged in meaningful dialogue and immersed into the culture. The community becomes the classroom.

I’ve witnessed firsthand how effective these two activities can be and perhaps when the pandemic is under control you may want to give these activities a fresh look.     

Click this link to find out what the Diversity Institute on Wheels is like: https://vimeo.com/27496728