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Black And White: Diversity Issues Between Professors

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Black & White: Diversity Issues between Professors Too often there is a lack of unity between sexes, cultures, and races due to stereotyping and mistrust. When these issues are ignored ideas become lost, disagreements are inevitable and the attempt to unite and act on important problems becomes impossible. In an educational system, having a diverse faculty, staff and students is incredibly important because it helps people learn about different cultures and grow out of their comfort zones. However, if within that academic community racial tensions exist, especially among the faculty, a challenge is presented and an educator has to consider how he can encourage diversity in his classroom when he himself is having an issue with it in the workplace. Influencing attitudes about diversity can be extremely difficult when dealing with prior or conditioned beliefs about certain cultures and people. Some time ago, an old professor of mine discussed an experience he had in one of the departments he worked in. He stated that he had experienced deep animosity directed toward him because he was a white man working in a predominantly black department. At first, he thought that he might be …show more content…

This incident struck me as a significant diversity issue because it is found at the heart of where all diversity should be embraced. I believe that in an academic setting, acceptance of diversity helps promote a healthy environment, not only for the students, but for the faculty as well. If there is difficulty communicating between faculty due to dissimilarities in race, gender, culture, etc., then we can expect difficulties to grow also in the classroom. An uncomfortable setting between lecturers may eventually fester and bleed out to the students. Already, so many racial tensions exist and the above-described situation only justifies and maintains that tension because trust between the races has

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