Diversity

Jennifer Smith spoke to us about diversity in leadership situations. She told us about numerous scenarios where someone's race, gender, or beliefs affects how they are treated and viewed by other people. Stereotypes and prejudice are common in today's world. Because stereotypes limit our vision of others, they are always potential dangers. Jennifer talked about how some stores keep a closer eye on black people because they think that black people are more likely to be shoplifters. Police officers are also more likely to pull over black drivers in expensive cars than white people in expensive cars. We all have our own stereotypes and prejudices. However, we may not always recognize that we are stereotyping.

Jennifer also took some time to speak about the fundamental attribution error. This error is the error made my many people in which they attribute someone else's behavior more to their personality and characteristic then to the situation in which they have been placed. In reality, someone's behavior is actually more likely to be caused by the environment and situation that they have been placed in as opposed to their personality.

We also learned about ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is the belief that your beliefs and ideals are superior to those of others. Other people's beliefs and ideals are no match for yours. I personally do not think highly of the concept of ethnocentrism. Jennifer Smith said that everyone has some form of ethnocentrism in them. I do not agree with that. That is just my opinion, however.

All in all, Jennifer Smith's diversity speech was very interesting and useful. She talked about stuff that is very useful in today's diverse world. The article that she had us read was also very interesting and provided various examples of stereotypes. Many of those examples were eye opening and brought me some concern.