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they invariably turn upon the most awful stereotypical bullshit.
True story from about eight years ago. The place I worked at was holding its annual "Multicultural Week Special Emphasis Program". The centerpiece of this effort was going to be a workshop in cultural diversity which was lead by our esteemed EEO and Affirmative Action Officer, a middle aged Black lady.
She gets up in front of the room we were in and splits us up into teams of six people apiece. Our activity was to roleplay the parts of members of different ethnic groups with the controlling factor being a discussion of how to solve a problem.
We were handed cards which had instructions written on them as to how we were supposed to interact during the exercise. I was supposed to be Black male. As such I was supposed to be more interested in group dynamics and dealing with people than in the problem at hand. As a matter of fact the cards informed me to actively seek to turn the discussion to sports or music rather than the problem in an attempt to "bring people together".
Other members of the group were given cards telling them such nuggets of wisdom as:
1. As a Korean American, you are loud and abrasive, you insist on getting your way and you never maintain eye contact with the rest of the group.
2. As a Latin American, you speak in a heavy accent and do not really focus on the problem all that well.
3. As a Jewish American, you relate everything to money and how hesitancy at solving the problem will cost us all money in the end.
4. As a White American, you focus on the problem and insist on dealing only with the facts.
The series of cards that were used by this exercise were published by some group out of St. Louis called Cultural Synergistics. The exercises were deemed by those who participated in them to be a complete Mongolian clusterfuck. Ms. EEO and Affirmative Action Officer got a special award for her "innovative effort to bring alive all dimensions of Cultural Diversity."
I have never participated in another Cultural Diversity exercise again.
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