Diversifying Myself
I knew having a diversity course was going to be challenging for me. I never realized exactly how challenging it would be, however. Last semester when we did the PCP groups, I struggled to understand some of the things people had been through. Overcoming my own beliefs about how the world can be has been something I have thought long and hard about this semester. Looking back at my journals, I really struggled the first month of class. White privilege is not something I thought about very frequently at all - which, it turns out, is part of having white privilege. I did not think that I was privileged because I felt like I was raised in a low SES family who struggled. No part of that seemed like a privilege to me.
Reading articles for the class like McIntosh 's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" were very difficult for me. That one actually took me by surprise at how offended I was by the topic. It was my first real introduction …show more content…
Getting to openly discuss with our group what impact diversity has had on our lives as well as how we view diversity in general. I wish our group had been more diverse, however. I feel like I would have learned more. I learned about how our family traditions were similar and different, but being that three out of four of us were white Americans was a disadvantage. I know that diversity is more than just race; it comes with many aspects of life such as socioeconomic status, religion, culture, and much more. I know one of the conversations that we had with our group was about religious life. I am very open about my non-believer status, but we found out that one of our group members is very religious, and we had never known it. I actually respect him a lot because he stands up for what he believes in and actually exemplifies what I think a Christian should look like. I think it was a bonding moment for me and
I knew having a diversity course was going to be challenging for me. I never realized exactly how challenging it would be, however. Last semester when we did the PCP groups, I struggled to understand some of the things people had been through. Overcoming my own beliefs about how the world can be has been something I have thought long and hard about this semester. Looking back at my journals, I really struggled the first month of class. White privilege is not something I thought about very frequently at all - which, it turns out, is part of having white privilege. I did not think that I was privileged because I felt like I was raised in a low SES family who struggled. No part of that seemed like a privilege to me.
Reading articles for the class like McIntosh 's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" were very difficult for me. That one actually took me by surprise at how offended I was by the topic. It was my first real introduction …show more content…
Getting to openly discuss with our group what impact diversity has had on our lives as well as how we view diversity in general. I wish our group had been more diverse, however. I feel like I would have learned more. I learned about how our family traditions were similar and different, but being that three out of four of us were white Americans was a disadvantage. I know that diversity is more than just race; it comes with many aspects of life such as socioeconomic status, religion, culture, and much more. I know one of the conversations that we had with our group was about religious life. I am very open about my non-believer status, but we found out that one of our group members is very religious, and we had never known it. I actually respect him a lot because he stands up for what he believes in and actually exemplifies what I think a Christian should look like. I think it was a bonding moment for me and