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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Once things reopen, on a workday organize group trips to the museums on the mall - American Indian, African American, Holocaust etc.  Encourage them to choose one or more outing that will broaden their knowledge of an ethnic group different than their own.[/quote]

I'm Jewish and I don't think the Holocaust museum or anything genocide-themed is a good diversity activity. Like, what are we learning there that's practical in terms of how we should behave at the workplace? Don't genocide people? I think 'how to behave in a professional setting/what's expected of you', with those things being clear and applicable to everyone, is the best you can expect from this sort of thing. [/quote]

I’m Jewish and think sending people to the Holocaust museum, followed by a conversation about the Jewish American experience could be instructive as a portion of a diversity and inclusion program. Same thing with the museums devoted to the Native American and African American experiences.

We need to move beyond defining all of this as “the Black American experience and everyone else.” [/quote]

There are other Jewish heritage sites in DC that are both not genocide-themed and more focused on an American Jewish experience. For instance, the National Museum of American Jewish Military History. I question the idea that a conversation about our different experiences is even a good idea, but if you're going in that direction, that would be less excruciatingly sad.[/quote]

Part of the problem is we have no museum (that I know of) that speaks generally to the American Jewish experience. I agree with you that the Holocaust Museum may be too narrowly focused, but so too might the museum you mentioned.

As for your other comment: Isn’t a conversation about our different experiences a core part of diversity and inclusion programs?[/quote]

My perspective is that organizations should communicate their organizational culture and expectations and go over some examples of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Communicate expectations, reduce ambiguity, tie it into your larger mission. If you want to have someone (or multiple people) who have volunteered to discuss their experiences and tie it into that, great. But there shouldn't be the expectation that you are going to want to share your different experiences with me or to hear me discussing them, because that can get personal and intimate quickly, some people aren't comfortable with that, and it's not key to the message of treating other people professionally and respectfully. Having a culture that doesn't require awkward sharing with your coworkers is, I would argue, the more inclusive option. [/quote]

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