Diversity training programs

Significance: Diversity training programs are intended to improve relations between groups in a number of settings, most often schools and workplaces. These programs teach participants about the history and culture of different groups, improve participants’ sensitivity to other people, and encourage people from different backgrounds to interact with one another in order to improve mutual understanding and respect.

The goal of diversity training programs is to improve intergroup relations in a number of different contexts, including schools, workplaces, and communities at large. The idea behind these programs is that people can be taught to understand one another better and that better understanding will result in improved communications, increased fellowship, and reduced hostilities.

History of Diversity Training

Diversity training programs (a term used here to refer to a variety of programs and other organized efforts to improve intergroup relations) were created toward the end of the twentieth century and are the result of several interrelated phenomena in American society. One driving force behind the creation of these programs was the increasing diversity of the American population. Although the United States has long had a reputation as a country of immigrants, never was this more true than in the 1980s and 1990s. Immigration rates in the 1990s surpassed historical records. Many of these immigrants settled not in traditional locales such as New York City and Los Angeles but in smaller towns across the country. As a result, existing residents of these towns were exposed to many cultural practices that were new to them. Furthermore, perhaps as a result of the Civil Rights movement, many ethnic minorities in the United States felt less pressure to assimilate into “mainstream” American culture and more freedom to retain their cultural identities and practices. Thus, throughout the United States, many people were in frequent contact with groups whose backgrounds were different from their own.

The late twentieth century also saw an increase in the number of laws protecting people from discrimination and harassment (the most prominent being the Civil Rights Act of 1964) and in the willingness of people to sue under these laws. Companies and institutions could be held civilly liable under these laws and therefore felt the need to protect their assets by aggressively promoting good intergroup relations.

Finally, in the 1980s, a rapid increase occurred in the number of hate crime laws and in the notoriety and number of hate groups. It is arguable whether the number of actual hate crimes increased, although certainly public awareness of these events did expand. Diversity training was believed by many to be a way to reduce these incidents and to reform the offenders.

Program Participants

Although diversity training has been used in a number of contexts, it is most common among three groups: students, employees, and offenders.

Diversity training is frequently used among students from the primary grades through college. Young people, it is thought, are less set in their ways and more open to new ideas, so training at this stage may be the most effective. Furthermore, schools offer the ideal setting in which to expose large numbers of people to this sort of instruction. Many states have included multiculturalism in mandated statewide curricula for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students, and some schools have created special “brotherhood” clubs. Many colleges and universities have also encouraged or required courses on diversity.

It is commonplace for employers to require employees to attend diversity workshops. These workshops might be conducted by outside consulting firms or by specially trained employees. They have been offered in a wide variety of professions ranging from blue collar to white, in both the public sector and private. Sometimes they are offered in response to existing problems within a company or institution, and sometimes they are offered proactively in order to avoid the emergence of such problems, or to assist employees with interactions in new milieus.

Selected Internet Resources on Diversity Training

Diversity training has sometimes been required as part of the sentence for those who have been convicted of hate crimes or similar offenses. The idea is that rehabilitating offenders through education is preferable to simply punishing them, especially considering the already overburdened correctional system and the prevalence of racism in US prisons and jails.

General Program Goals

The precise characteristics of these programs vary a great deal depending on their audience and context. However, most of them share the same basic goals. A primary goal is usually education. Participants learn about the history, culture, and values of other groups, which might include a wide variety of ethnic and religious groups as well as gay and lesbian people and people with disabilities. Lack of knowledge can lead to misunderstandings, which may increase tensions between groups, so education is believed to be a vital factor in fostering good relations between people. Furthermore, mutual knowledge may help lead to mutual respect. This aspect of diversity training is particularly important when a group of people is either little known or widely misunderstood.

A second goal of diversity training is to improve people’s sensitivity toward each other. A particular individual may not know, for example, that a member of another group is likely to find certain words or practices offensive. Training attempts to make people aware of these issues, as many incidents that cause friction between people are probably inadvertent.

Third, many diversity training programs aim to increase people’s interaction with members of other groups. Human beings have a tendency to stick with people very like themselves, but psychologists believe that the best way to reduce prejudice is for people to work together toward common goals. Furthermore, frequent interaction with others may help dispel myths and encourage people to view others as individuals rather than as stereotypes. Therefore, diversity training programs often offer a structured and supervised format for participants to interact with each other.

Examples of Programs

There are a wide variety of diversity programs offered, in numerous contexts. One example of a program for students is the Brotherhood-Sisterhood Camp, offered annually in Southern California by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Los Angeles high school students from a variety of ethnic groups spend time exploring such topics as discrimination and stereotypes, trying to understand each other better, and discussing methods of improving discourse and relations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has created a program aimed primarily at young people, called Teaching Tolerance. Interested teachers throughout the country can receive a free biannual magazine full of ideas for incorporating diversity awareness into the curriculum. The program also distributes such teaching aids as videos and lesson guides, and there is a Teaching Tolerance site on the Internet. This program encompasses all of the primary and secondary grades.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has a diversity program aimed primarily at older students and adults. The center operates the Museum of Tolerance, which has sophisticated, high-tech exhibits on intolerance in general and specifically on the Holocaust. In addition to the exhibits, the museum has a large library of books and videos and an interactive multimedia center and sponsors a variety of lectures and special exhibits. School groups are encouraged to tour the museum. The center also has created a Web site and curriculum guide for teachers, entitled Teaching Steps to Tolerance.

There are many diversity programs intended for adults in the workplace. Companies such as the American Institute for Managing Diversity and the National Coalition Building Institute specialize in offering workshops. In addition, many organizations have created specialized programs for their employees and constituents. For example, in 1998, the National Association of Realtors created a program called “At Home with Diversity: One America.” This program was meant to help agents serve home buyers from a variety of backgrounds and to encourage more ethnic minority members to become agents. Diversity training is particularly common in large corporations and among law enforcement agencies. Many police departments require it for new recruits and provide ongoing training for experienced officers.

Diversity training has also sometimes been required for people who have been convicted of hate crimes and similar acts. In 1993, for example, a group of skinheads was convicted of committing several violent crimes against black and Jewish people and of plotting several more. As part of their plea agreement, the skinheads and their relatives were required to attend a three-day workshop led by Holocaust survivors, members of a black church the group had targeted, and an African American federal judge. In 1994, five men who participated in the murder of a gay man in Houston were ordered to attend therapy sessions to deal with their hatred and increase their sensitivity. Other programs have been created in jails and prisons, where racial hate groups are frequently endemic and bigotry is commonplace.

Bibliography

Byrd, Marilyn Y., and Chaundra L. Scott. Diversity in the Workforce: Current Issues and Emerging Trends. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print.

Herring, Cedric, and Loren Henderson. Diversity in Organizations: A Critical Examination. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.

Roberson, Quinetta M., ed. The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.