Thank you Sarah for writing such a cogent blog post this week (you seem to have a knack).
The Buzzfeed video you shared was incredibly powerful. And, I think that there is tremendous opportunity in creating communities of allies to push forward in issues of prejudice and ignorance.Ive always considered myself a first generation American (my grandparents were Italian immigrants) and thought it was enough to relate to others as such. But the conversation last night, and your post have started me thinking about how much more I could do to further conversations about inclusion and diversity.
. Wouldn’t it be cool to do the same experiment here at VT? I’d be interested in working with others to make that happen.
I’m wrestling with how to be of service in continuing this conversation. Last night was incredibly revealing to me. I’ve always felt like an immigrant, myself, but clearly not had to deal with the level of prejudice most of the International students have encountered.
How can we continue to advocate for inclusion and diversity as a #GEDIVT group?

By what I understand, heuristics arise from personal experiences whereas stereotypes occurs from certain perceptions prevalent in the society, without any personal experience. Is that correct Prof. Nelson? I have assumed that people are simply using heuristics and not stereotyping, although that might be false.

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I loved this thoughtful and reflective post that connects the ways all of us are shaped by our past, but also challenged to make sense of the pervasive narrow assumptions ingrained and perpetuated through our lived experience. This seems wrong to suggest, but I like that sense of confusion and disorientation. That’s the good stuff. It pushes us to consider the ways in which our reflections that helped us to overcome our own assumptions provides tools and ideas for how to foster environments for students to to confront (or at least encounter) similar assumptions based on their own lived experiences.

Well MA, that could be the million dollar question…without over simplifying, I would trust that people would not exclude or that would try to include as much as possible, rather than relying on the system to do it for you…again the words don’t really matter at the end, but how you act

I would argue that we are starting to see movements in social justice, education and general communication that do take both conditions into account: thinking/talking about deep issues and the variety of perspectives that surround them, and then taking action to ‘make them right’ within the context of what is best practices at addressing the identified issues. It is messy, and even ugly at times, but the conversations I hear going on are richer and more reflective of varying perspectives than any time I can recall in the last 50 years. Here’s a sample of what I’m thinking of:

Identity focused on individual’s perceptions of ‘self’ rather than a focus on gender, race, geographic origin

The biases and prejudices that have oppressed people of color in the US – particularly the Black Lives Matter movement and it’s

The endemic issue of sexual harassment

The significance of the status of women and girls and the stability of societies/economies.

Hi Brandon, I did not have any driving experience before I came to US because I only use public transportation or a bike. It is really dependent on how the society is built. Just like I heard a girl asking in class “why does anybody live in concrete built homes”? But in my country, actually, we do not use the wood as building structures as in the US. We use concrete brick and concrete more often. I am very open to the differences. Actually, I enjoy all the inspirations from these differences.

Hi Alex, I am currently on computational work as well. It does feel easier. For the more difficult topics, I agree that we need more practical guidelines and practice of control, leadership, communication, and maybe some counseling skills as well. At the same time, I believe it also helps that we as the educator has some level of flexibility and maybe more confidence by setting a very inclusive culture of not taking things personally. Even if we said something wrong/improper, we can make reflections, corrections, and explanations. Sometimes being authentic and trusting people might sound abstract, but people react much more inclusively to authenticity and trust. I once said something really wrong in a group activity. It sounded very wrong although it was just a language translation problem. But it was not taken badly at the end by the other. That gave me some relief to not to be too sensitive and vulnerable. Maybe being too sensitive could hurt people more, while being natural, authentic, open, relax, and flexible will change the culture in a soft way.

Thanks Carlos for the post! I like how you said about redifining the ideals of one whole made of people won differences rather than the terms INCLUSION or DIVERSITY! But, how would you apply diversity without talking about EXclusion?

I loved your post! But one thing brought my attention, when in the classroom, how would you promote inclusion with students from opposite cultural backgrounds? Cultures play an important role I. Interaction and in manners, that’s why my question! ?

Excellent idea, Bethany! And that’s fantastic that the introverts in your class responded to the open-ended questions. I’m going to have to keep that in mind as I work with teachers on developing effective communication techniques.