Reflection Paper

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Running Head: WEEK 3 REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

Monias O. Allen

GU299/ General Education Capstone

Grantham University

Week 3 Reflective Journal

Respect for Diversity is intertwined in every facet of this lesson. The model begins with understanding yourself and your culture and when we can experience and immerse ourselves in another culture is when we start the process if diverse thinking. When I thought back to being a 21-year-old from New York being thousands of miles from home in a foreign country, adapting to and respecting the culture was me moving from the first three stages to the latter three.

I would like to think I am always in Stage five when dealing with new people or situations, but it depends on my environment. If I am interested in something I tend to want to know more about it, however, when I am not interested I do not put in as much effort as I should. When visiting the UAE, I found it difficult to understand why the women were covered and could not able to do day to day things such as drive which is the norm here in America. I need to work on being open to cultural differences such as that, even though I feel it is wrong it is a difference I have to accept. A way to work on understanding the rules in the UAE would have been easier if I would have taken time to read on the culture beforehand as we were instructed to do before our arrival; I attribute that to being young and immature.

Being an Equal Opportunity Advisor, I will need to have respect for ALL no matter my opinion. I will need to empathize with all my clients as I am the first person they will encounter when they feel wrong based on the categories of discrimination. When I think of Respect for Diversity, I think of the current state of our country. America is the land of the free, home of the brave; however, the actions being displayed by our administration depicts a lack of respect. Having the ability to see others as people instead of objects is what I would say is the meaning of Respect for Diversity.

In a sociology class I previously took, we had to choose a bias we had and write how we saw the other person or situation, we then had to write if we were the person or situation from another perspective. I was able to get an understanding, the ethnic group and why they were so supportive of each other versus what I thought initially. Growing up in New York, the Jewish Community is tight-knit, and they seemed very selfish and discriminative in their business practices. Although I still have some issue with their business practices, I understand the process of building your community from within.

What was an example of respect for diversity you’ve had to overcome and how?

How can I get involved with NIMH as a volunteer?