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    Ogl350 Diversity and Organizations

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    api-654727753
    The document discusses the author's experience vacationing with a friend's family who lacked sensitivity to diversity and cultural differences. As a Latina woman, the author felt like an outsider when the family's children made insensitive comments about her ethnicity and upbringing. She is now a single mother raising her daughter to respect diversity and cultural differences. The author teaches her daughter about their Mexican culture as well as other cultures. She wants to instill respect and harmony in her daughter to handle situations involving a lack of diversity sensitivity.

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    Ogl350 Diversity and Organizations

    Uploaded by

    api-654727753
    56 views4 pages
    The document discusses the author's experience vacationing with a friend's family who lacked sensitivity to diversity and cultural differences. As a Latina woman, the author felt like an outsider when the family's children made insensitive comments about her ethnicity and upbringing. She is now a single mother raising her daughter to respect diversity and cultural differences. The author teaches her daughter about their Mexican culture as well as other cultures. She wants to instill respect and harmony in her daughter to handle situations involving a lack of diversity sensitivity.

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    ogl350 diversity and organizations

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    The document discusses the author's experience vacationing with a friend's family who lacked sensitivity to diversity and cultural differences. As a Latina woman, the author felt like an outsider when the family's children made insensitive comments about her ethnicity and upbringing. She is now a single mother raising her daughter to respect diversity and cultural differences. The author teaches her daughter about their Mexican culture as well as other cultures. She wants to instill respect and harmony in her daughter to handle situations involving a lack of diversity sensitivity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    56 views4 pages

    Ogl350 Diversity and Organizations

    Uploaded by

    api-654727753
    The document discusses the author's experience vacationing with a friend's family who lacked sensitivity to diversity and cultural differences. As a Latina woman, the author felt like an outsider when the family's children made insensitive comments about her ethnicity and upbringing. She is now a single mother raising her daughter to respect diversity and cultural differences. The author teaches her daughter about their Mexican culture as well as other cultures. She wants to instill respect and harmony in her daughter to handle situations involving a lack of diversity sensitivity.

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    The first time I read the fable, “The Giraffe and the Elephant” I was reminded of a time I

    went on vacation with an old high school friend and her family. Initially, we all got along

    great but as the week went on I learned how unsensitive her children were to diversity

    and their lack of experience with people of different cultures. They are Caucasian, I am a

    Latina. Although, I did not grow up poor, my family was tightly budgeted whereas her

    family spent their money on flashy items, but they had a lot of debt. I was a guest in

    their vacation rental property and was made to feel like an outsider, similar to the

    elephant in the story. Yes, I was welcome but on more than one occasion the teenagers

    felt the need to comment on my skin tone, physical size, and upbringing as if it were a

    joke. They thought they were in a position to “fix” me or give me advice on life. Their

    parents never corrected them. They raised their children in an environment without

    much diversity to race, culture, and generational respect so the children did not believe

    they were doing anything wrong. Quoting the fable, “a diversity mixture defined as any

    combination of individuals who are different in some ways and similar in others. It is in

    this collective mixture that true diversity lives.” (Roosevelt, T.R., 1996, p.2) I have noted

    our differences and I suppose now that our only similarity is our love for traveling which

    has stopped since the last trip. My daughter had become close friends with one of the

    boys and I had to sensitively explain to her why I did not want her to spend too much

    time with him. She did not understand, since they are both children then do not realize

    it yet but they, especially my daughter, will.


    The leadership example I will forever be preparing for is motherhood. I have one 12 year

    old child and as with all children, every day I experience something new when it comes

    to her and myself. Two years ago her father passed away and the challenges of

    parenthood only expanded. Now I am both mother and father. I learned real quick the

    difference between a single person with a child and a single parent. I do not have

    anyone to rely on and must be particular when it comes to who I allow to influence her

    and most importantly the impressions I am making on her. I feel that I am showing her

    the importance of diversity not only in our personal lives but our professional lives as

    well. She attends a private school with mostly Caucasian and Asian students, she is a

    beautiful brown Latina and physically looks different from most of her peers. I feel it is

    important to not only respect and honor our Mexican culture but respect and honor the

    cultures of everyone and I teach this to her as often as I can. I share what I know about

    other cultures and look up what I do not know so that I can explain it to her. Another

    subject I put great emphasis on is mentioned in the article titled, “Conflict Management

    and Intercultural Communication: The Art of Intercultural Harmony.” The focus of this

    article is on harmony, and I appreciate the read because it emphasized that it is ok to

    not always agree. “A conception of harmony is adopted that emphasizes difference

    rather than sameness and that focuses on process rather than outcome. The argument

    will be made that instead of viewing conflicts as a threat to harmony, they should be

    seen as an essential part of the harmonization process.” (Taylor & Francis Group, 2017,
    p.14.) I feel respect and harmony are important emotions and skills that we must instill

    in our children.

    Some challenges that I have already noticed with my soon to be teenager have been

    brought up from interactions at her school. I am repeatedly told how polite, respectful,

    and kind my daughter is from her teachers and school faculty. I feel these traits and

    behaviors are just as important as having good grades. Physically, she is not small in size

    both in height and weight so when she plays sports some of the other students feel it is

    acceptable to comment on her size and how surprising it is that she is as agile as she is.

    She brought this to my attention, and I instinctively got defensive and angry despite it

    not bothering her too much. I shared with her how other people are not brought up

    with the same respect and values as we are, and they it is something she should never

    be afraid to stand by. She asked me to not speak with the teacher from that class, but I

    did advise her to bring it to his attention should the comments ever get out of hand or

    worse. I feel I have learned a lot from not only referencing how I was brought up and

    avoiding it, both of my parents were quite violent when it came to protecting their baby,

    and courses such as this one where I am required to read and practice techniques on

    how to handle diversity or lack of diversity.

    I felt that I scored high when I took the CQ test at the beginning of the semester and

    feel that since I was made aware of shortcoming such as altering my facial expressions

    and pausing differently to suit different cross-culture situation, I have stopped myself
    continuing that behavior when I start. Those habits are difficult to break and most the

    time I do not realize what I am doing but I feel confident that now that I am aware of

    these tendencies I can adjust accordingly. The reading on Cultural Intelligence and

    Conflict Management Styles,” notes that, “cultural intelligence is consistent with the

    conceptualization of intelligence it differs from other types of intelligence because it

    focuses specifically on the culturally diverse interaction.” (Gonçalves, G., Reis, M., Sousa,

    C., Santos, J., Orgambídez-Ramos, A., & Scott, P.,2016, p728). I have a lot more to learn

    not only about myself but about diversity and the more I learn the more I can lead my

    daughter into a progressive and aware lifestyle.

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