Racial Diversity Effect

The American Psychological Association has since established guidelines for diversity in experiments that are conducted. In the book Research and Evaluation in Education and Psychology Donna Mertens explains the guidelines for diversity as “recognition of the ways in which the intersection of racial and ethnic group membership with other dimensions of identity…enhances the understanding and treatment of all people” (Mertens 313).

The closest definition to individual behavior is personality which is "the totality of an individual's behavioral and emotional characteristics. Personality embraces a person's moods, attitudes, opinions, motivations, and style of thinking, perceiving, speaking and acting. It is part of what makes each individual distinct" (Answers, 2007). Diversity within organizations can positively or negatively impact individual behavior. Diversity includes all the ways in which individuals differ including race, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation and child/elder care responsibilities (Census bureau, 2007). Organizations can create opportunities to draw upon people with different

Race is something that is in all of us. Everyday we see how it affects us in both positive and negative ways. Looking back on what race and gender has been, we have come a long way in creating more equality throughout all of the people that make up our country.

An article written by the Toronto Star outlined the statistics behind just how common racial profiling is. The article was very alarming, especially because Toronto is an acclaimed to be on of the most multicultural cities in North America. According to the article, “blacks…are stopped and documented 2.5 times more than white males the same age [in Toronto].” This statistic alone is enough proof to state that racial profiling is still a very common practice amongst law enforcement today. The article later went on to talk about how this practice is slowly destroying a part of society. “The collateral damage [as a result of racial profiling] is law-abiding civilians who feel they are being treated unfairly because they are black [who feel they

An excellent example of this is a study conducted in 2003 by Harvard economics professor Sendhil Mullainathan and Marianne Bertrand, an economist at the University of Chicago. As a part of their study they sent out thousands of résumés to employers with job openings. The résumés were statistically identical, but they used stereotypical African-American names on some and stereotypically white names on others. The résumé with a “white” name was roughly 50% more likely to result in a callback for an interview. These discrepancies, because the résumés were nearly identical, can only be attributed to the names. Startling results like these were found in other areas as well. When asked to make judgements about two patient’s heart procedure, one clack and one white, doctors gave different recommendations for treatment. Most doctors were much less likely to recommend a helpful cardiac procedure, catheterization, to black patients that whites. Furthermore, when whites and blacks were sent to bargain for a used car, blacks were offered initial prices roughly $700 higher. Even when selling an iPod online where the photos had white hands in some and African-American hands in others, the phone with the white had received 21 percent more offers than the black

Reacted with amazement how the two participants in the experiment with the same background such as education, career choice as leadership counsel, attended the same college, came from middle-class family, played on the same softball team were treated differently in the society based on their race. Surprised how race plays a major role every day in our lives. Somehow I believe it was because of our class status but never took in consideration race.

In America there are still several parts of our society that remain racially unequal including, the workforce, the wealth gap between minorities and whites, as well as incarceration rates and police behavior. The unemployment rates in America are relatively high and because of how hard it is to get a job, the employers prefer to hire someone that they feel more comfortable with, which typically aren’t minorities. The wealth gap between minorities and whites is continuing to grow as the years move on and because the wealth gap many people are starting to turn to criminalism. Because of the amount of people turning to criminalism, the incarceration rates of minorities is steadily increasing. Racial inequality in one section of our society can affect all of the other sections as well. It is a “snowball effect” of sorts. One small aspect of racial inequality can lead to another and another and so on and so forth until our whole society is unequal. Racial inequality has a negative impact on our society

The study consisted of fifty, female, undergraduate college students. The ethnicities that were use for this study were African American, European, Asian, Hispanic, biracial, and a very slight percentage was categorized as other. The experiment would begin at 5:00pm everyday, for four weeks. One of the three groups was administered each day. The three groups were either peppermint, expectation, or control. Each participant was seated down, given an instruction sheet, a laptop, and was not able to see the other participants from their view.

“Among African Americans, skin tone is an important physical characteristic that creates divisions in the community and affects the quality of life. Like gender, a person’s skin tone is a visible physical trait that others immediately notice during social interactions and use to form judgments” The Light skin versus Dark skin issue that has been haunting the black community for centuries is deeply rooted from the times of slavery. Because of the influence of white supremacy, mixed race children received better treatment which resulted in the formation of a social stratification within the black community that impacted how they were treated by white people as well as the way they were treated within their own community.

Previous work ( Khan & Lambert, 2001) into racism show the role situational context and personality factors have on predicting perceptions of race. Results found that need for cognition significantly affected the racial attitudes expressed by white Americans toward black Americans. Need for cognition refers to the tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. Therefore, I predict higher levels of need for cognition will detect awareness of white privilege which in turn will produce lower levels of negative racial attitudes.

In the world, race has always been a way for some people to identify with others they may have things in common with. Race isn’t always a bad thing for it is part of who or what we are, but race in America, has always been associated with negativity, oppression, inferiority or a feeling of not belonging for non-whites. The history of our nation has made it very hard for people of other races to cohabit in peace, despite the fact that times have changed. But have times really changed? Racial issues in our country persist on existing and have lately, brought about more division, than we have ever seen. Recent events have shown that racial issues in America have never ceased to exists, they were only temporarily painted over with a feeling of “we all get along just fine”.

Specifically, interpersonal interactions with racial diversity are the most strongly related to cognitive development. Although diversity coursework, diversity workshops, and interactions with nonracial diversity are all positively associated with cognitive growth, these effects are significantly smaller than those for interactions with racial diversity. (p. 20)

Immigrants have been flooding America for hundreds of years. People that have immigrated look different, act different, and talk different. With all the racial diversity in american culture, we are prone to racial tensions, so we should try to put ourselves in the shoes of people who are different to see their point of view.

I believe that through the many experiences I have had as a member of organizations that provide service to others and raise awareness of diversity and social justice issues in addition to my own personal experience as a Chinese American I can be an asset to DePaul University. These experiences have given me a desire to continue being involved in promoting the importance of diversity, pride in one’s ethnicity, and doing what I can to help end racism and hunger. I feel that I can be a positive influence and my experience and continued service can help make the student body more powerful. I participated in Diversity/Multicultural Club at school. As a member of the Diversity Club I helped organize and participate in an international fair representing different cultures and ethnic groups through music, food, and art. In Diversity Club I write inspirational notes to students outside of the club and place them on student’s lockers to encourage them. I have

Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working.