Diversity Awareness Defined: How to Celebrate Diversity

Diversity awareness is broadening your view of the world to be aware of a litany of identitarian and cultural differences. It means recognizing the vast array of cultural values and demographics in your diverse workforce, student body, or any other group to which you belong. It encompasses acknowledging, being sensitive to, and celebrating people of different races, ethnicities, economic statuses, national origins, sexual orientations, gender identities, and physical abilities.

Diversity awareness makes life easier for underrepresented groups of people whether on high school and college campuses or in the workforce. By cultivating this sense of understanding, people become lifelong learners about new cultures, developing sensitivity to those they’ll be in close contact with throughout the course of their work, school, or social lives. Additionally, it cultivates self-awareness about any unconscious biases or stereotyping in need of mitigation. It also makes international students or employees feel more welcome. More cultural competence means a more positive state of mental health for everyone.

People from diverse backgrounds can learn a lot from one another. Follow these tips to create diversity awareness in your own organization:

• Address specific issues. Every specific organization has a unique array of identitarian and cultural groups. When presenting diversity training, try to tailor the experience to the distinct makeup of your staff, student body, or social organization without making anyone feel as though you have singled them out. Look at case studies for what works in similar environments. Be ready for real-life problem-solving, too.
• Be open to questions. Spreading cultural diversity awareness means being open to lots of questions and fostering a curious culture as well. Equip your staff, student body, or social group to ask questions about other cultures. Provide information about individual cultures on request. Keep an open-door policy when it comes to feedback about how you could more adequately address people’s needs.
• Communicate frequently. Diverse groups of people also have diverse communication styles. Make sure to know the unique needs of those around you. Provide additional information about what goes into diversity awareness training and decision-making in a nonconfrontational and inviting way to everyone.
• Make diversity awareness fun. Expressing your cultural identity can be a lot of fun. Give various groups of people the ability to bring food, traditions, and the like from their own culture into your organization. You can celebrate multiple cultures at once or one culture at a time, so long as everyone knows they will receive an equal amount of time. Initiatives like these make diversity awareness training sessions feel more organic and learning about one another’s cultures more fun.
• Provide educational resources. Just as public schools and higher education institutions introduce diversity awareness into their curriculums, aim to provide resources of your own throughout your organization. Start conversations about unconscious biases, cross-cultural communication, and developing cultural competency more holistically. Provide reading material alongside interactive training sessions to help everyone get on the same page.
• Recruit a diverse body of people. Bringing together a diverse group of people from different backgrounds is an education in and of itself. This way, people can develop cultural awareness simply by developing organic relationships with people in their organization. It helps people see and celebrate both shared values and individual differences.
• Set concrete rules. Diversity issues are very sensitive, so it’s important to set up a school, social, or work environment predicated on mutual respect for individuals’ innate personal dignity. There should be a standardized set of rules for everyone in the interest of fairness. People might feel their cultural backgrounds intersect with their religious or political beliefs, and navigating these sorts of conversations can be especially uncomfortable. Decide ahead of time about what topics are off-limits or how you’ll foster equitable, inclusive, and civil conversations if people share their points of view about more controversial subjects.

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