Florida Center for Cultural Competence

About Florida Center for Cultural Competence

All of us have automatic thoughts and feelings about one another based on race, ethnicity, accents, religion, gender, age, socio-economic level, sexual orientation, physical presentation (body type, clothing, tattoos, etc.) and other characteristics. These automatic thoughts and feelings are often due to stereotypes we learned as children – something our mothers told us about “those people” or something we saw in the movies, or an experience we had with someone. As human beings, we tend to think that “Those people are all the same.” This attitude affects how we treat each other in healthcare, business, school, the criminal justice system, and society as a whole. Cultural Competence begins with recognizing that stereotypes are true of some people in a group and not true of others in that group. Each person is unique. How do we approach Diversity and Inclusion Training? Our workshops are highly interactive and devoid of shaming or blaming. Consistent with the research on counteracting racial bias and other forms of prejudice, our goal is to get people to recognize their biases and treat others fairly in spite of negative thoughts and feelings. We create an environment in which people share their personal experiences. Everyone has been the object of AND the source of prejudice. Anti-bias training that divides participants into “victims” and “offenders” causes the designated offenders to close down and resist acknowledging their biases. Many stubbornly lie to themselves – which is the exact opposite of the purpose of D&I Training. We call our workshops, “Managing Your Prejudices.” We don’t call them “Eliminating Your Prejudices” because we want the participants to understand that treating others fairly requires an ongoing effort to acknowledge one’s biases and to resist acting upon them.

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