diversity activities for actual diverse people

[Anonymous]

My organization wants to have a team-building day focusing on diversity and inclusion. Which, yay! But, as a satirical McSweeneys article recently put it, "Select all images that show a person of color who has learned something new about the importance of diversity and inclusion in their organization from the seminar they just attended."

Does anyone have any ideas for activities that could make this a fun and useful day NOT JUST FOR WHITE STRAIGHT ABLE-BODIED PEOPLE?

I tried Googling, and it was unhelpful. Would love to hear from people here.

[Anonymous]

Huh?

Black person here and you sound nuts.

[Anonymous]

It won’t be a fun or useful day for anyone. It will be a dull and cringe-worthy day for everyone and no one will learn anything. We have all been through these things enough times to know that. Everyone just wants to get back to the work that is piling up on their desks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh?

Black person here and you sound nuts.

OP here willing to sound a little nuts. Maybe I didn't explain myself well (or maybe I'm nuts). I was listening to the ideas my coworkers were throwing around for planning the day, and it all sounded like it was focused on educating white people about the fact that racism exists. It seems to me that that's gotta be extremely annoying for the people of color who attend these things year after year. I'm trying to think about activities to suggest that will be useful to everyone, not just to the white people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh?

Black person here and you sound nuts.

Latinx queer person here...huh back st you. Are you kidding? Have you ever attended a company diversity thing that was useful to you vs awkward, tokenizing or, at best, neutral? I think the OP just wants to know whether there's anything useful that could come out of this for those of us who live "doversiry" every day. I'd say, the least awful ones of these things has allowed us to break off into self-selected groups for small group for small group discussion. I would not say that I learned anything new but I would day that the space created by those groups allowed for much more candid/deep discussions.

[Anonymous]

PP above...sorry typo disaster

[Anonymous]

Vomit. Instead of making it about the basics, can you talk about multiethnic, international people (like me ): people who look like they might be from one culture but are actually another, or have several cultures?

Because all this diversity talk is mostly based on appearance. See a black guy, adjust your frame of reference. See a woman, or a guy dressed like a woman, or someone in a wheelchair, make other adjustments. I feel this is counterproductive to some degree.

The goal of the exercise would be to look past what you first notice and make practically no assumptions based on what you see at first glance.

[Anonymous]

Personally, I like diversity activities where I actually learn about a different person, group, tradition, or history. Concrete stuff. The self-confessional approach is always going to be weird and “center” white people. Another approach I think has a lot of integrity is to just talk about effective communication, listening, and cognitive bias. Trainings on how to effectively mentor. Stuff like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh?

Black person here and you sound nuts.

Latinx queer person here...huh back st you. Are you kidding? Have you ever attended a company diversity thing that was useful to you vs awkward, tokenizing or, at best, neutral? I think the OP just wants to know whether there's anything useful that could come out of this for those of us who live "doversiry" every day. I'd say, the least awful ones of these things has allowed us to break off into self-selected groups for small group for small group discussion. I would not say that I learned anything new but I would day that the space created by those groups allowed for much more candid/deep discussions.

Yeah you lost me at the first word

[Anonymous]

A training on mentorship or giving concrete and constructive criticism is probably the least horrible. Don’t make it about identifying groups or problems but providing solutions that are equally helpful for everyone and can be applied in a variety of situations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vomit. Instead of making it about the basics, can you talk about multiethnic, international people (like me ): people who look like they might be from one culture but are actually another, or have several cultures?

Because all this diversity talk is mostly based on appearance. See a black guy, adjust your frame of reference. See a woman, or a guy dressed like a woman, or someone in a wheelchair, make other adjustments. I feel this is counterproductive to some degree.

The goal of the exercise would be to look past what you first notice and make practically no assumptions based on what you see at first glance.

+1. A lot of these end up being, “No no no you have the WRONG stereotypes. Employ these CORRECT stereotypes instead! Yay now you’re woke!” Hard pass.

[Anonymous]

Maybe different breakout groups to choose from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A training on mentorship or giving concrete and constructive criticism is probably the least horrible. Don’t make it about identifying groups or problems but providing solutions that are equally helpful for everyone and can be applied in a variety of situations.

This is good advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh?

Black person here and you sound nuts.

Latinx queer person here...huh back st you. Are you kidding? Have you ever attended a company diversity thing that was useful to you vs awkward, tokenizing or, at best, neutral? I think the OP just wants to know whether there's anything useful that could come out of this for those of us who live "doversiry" every day. I'd say, the least awful ones of these things has allowed us to break off into self-selected groups for small group for small group discussion. I would not say that I learned anything new but I would day that the space created by those groups allowed for much more candid/deep discussions.

White person here. In the current climate, I absolutely will not say one word in a small group discussion about diversity. I will not get dragged into anything that can be used against me.

[Anonymous]

How to communicate with people who are different from you.

Can cover race, politics, etc.