Comments on: White men don’t do diversity? http://tangotraining.com/blog/2009/10/05/white-men-dont-do-diversity/ Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:43:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Anna http://tangotraining.com/blog/2009/10/05/white-men-dont-do-diversity/comment-page-1/#comment-53 Anna Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:01:40 +0000 http://tangotraining.com/blog/?p=117#comment-53 Michael, thanks for your comments. I traveled around the world for seven months back in 2001 and had a similar epiphany in the process. It is a cliche but true that Americans do not travel enough and I think our diversity efforts suffer as a result. Michael, thanks for your comments. I traveled around the world for seven months back in 2001 and had a similar epiphany in the process. It is a cliche but true that Americans do not travel enough and I think our diversity efforts suffer as a result.

]]> By: Michael Esposito http://tangotraining.com/blog/2009/10/05/white-men-dont-do-diversity/comment-page-1/#comment-52 Michael Esposito Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:19:50 +0000 http://tangotraining.com/blog/?p=117#comment-52 To answer the question "Do you have a story about a white male diversity champion?", I would say that without making any judgments about my effectiveness, I have tried to be a white male diversity champion within my workplace, so much so that some people think that I'm Latino. If I can trace it back to anything, it probably started when I studied in Colombia in 1980 and experienced some cataclysmic changes in my worldview. These weren't traumatic experiences at all; they were more like eye-openers that in some cases I seemed to absorb through osmosis - by just being exposed to them. I came back as something like a convert to diversity, and the fire that it started 30 years ago has not gone out. If anything, it has intensified. The primary thanks goes to the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, which made such educational exchanges possible between the United States and the rest of the world. It is impossible to overstate the positive impact the Fulbright program has had since its inception, influencing the lives of countless individuals. Since that time I have grappled with how this experience can be replicated for people who have not had the good fortune either to study or work in another country. The need to accomplish much in a short period of time puts a huge burden on diversity trainers, but nonetheless many good training programs exist, and if they lead a decision-maker to consider an option that they would not have otherwise considered, the investment will have been worthwhile. To answer the question “Do you have a story about a white male diversity champion?”, I would say that without making any judgments about my effectiveness, I have tried to be a white male diversity champion within my workplace, so much so that some people think that I’m Latino. If I can trace it back to anything, it probably started when I studied in Colombia in 1980 and experienced some cataclysmic changes in my worldview. These weren’t traumatic experiences at all; they were more like eye-openers that in some cases I seemed to absorb through osmosis – by just being exposed to them. I came back as something like a convert to diversity, and the fire that it started 30 years ago has not gone out. If anything, it has intensified.

The primary thanks goes to the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961, which made such educational exchanges possible between the United States and the rest of the world. It is impossible to overstate the positive impact the Fulbright program has had since its inception, influencing the lives of countless individuals.

Since that time I have grappled with how this experience can be replicated for people who have not had the good fortune either to study or work in another country. The need to accomplish much in a short period of time puts a huge burden on diversity trainers, but nonetheless many good training programs exist, and if they lead a decision-maker to consider an option that they would not have otherwise considered, the investment will have been worthwhile.

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