Multiethnicity
Open your door to diversityby Jeff Yourison
Read Doorways to Diversity by Robbie Castleman
Read The Joy of Diversity by Don Paul Gross
The doors we open sometimes swing shut all by themselves. But sometimes we slam them shut once we see who's on the other side of the doorway. Opening your door to the life of multiethnic community and diversity is risky. You might have to face your own ethnicity. You might have to face prejudice and ridicule, or even rejection.
But you can start to open your door - even a crack - to multiethnic diversity. Here are a few beginning steps for individuals:
1. Take stock of your current attitudes. What are your attitudes to the whole idea of multiethnic community? What are some of the specific stereotypes you carry deep inside regarding other races and ethnicities? (A difficult but helpful exercise is to write these out on paper. By physically expressing them and holding them, you will also be facing them and owning them.)
2. How aware are you of your own ethnicity? How do you feel about it? We all have an ethnic heritage, but not everyone thinks about it much, especially people in the majority culture who are also of the majority's heritage. What is your ethnicity? Do you value it? What stereotypes do you and others hold about your heritage? List some positives and negatives.
3. Think about ways you've responded in racially mixed settings. How do you tend to act when you're in the minority ethnically or racially? For example, do you freeze up? Grow fearful? Lack trust? Try to act cool and in control? Why do you think you respond in those ways? (Reasons might include fear, guilt, lack of power or a lack of experience being in the minority.)
4. Reflecting on the above, what biblical truths give you hope that God will enable you to open your door to a wider experience of diversity? What are some specific barriers that hinder you from having healthy relationships with people of a different race or ethnicity? What steps can you take to build relationships in a diverse community? A good place to start is by praying about these relationships, perhaps inviting others to join you and hold you accountable.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this article for educational purposes provided this permission notice, and the copyright notice below are preserved on all copies. Not to be reprinted in any other publication without permission. © 1997 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA. All rights reserved. This article first appeared in the Spring/Summer 1997 issue of Student Leadership Journal®.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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