I grew up in an environment where my parents and family instilled in me pride about my culture and heritage. Yet, I lived around people from all different backgrounds and faiths. It wasn\u2019t until recently that I looked back over my life and realized how much my upbringing has shaped my world view and my career path.<\/p>\n
One experience in particular stands out. When I worked at a college in metro Detroit I was the coordinator for two programs. One was \u201cA Conversation on Race<\/em>\u201d which focused on diverse topics such as interracial relationships, white privilege, and race and politics. The second was the \u201cMulticultural Immersion\u00a0Program”<\/em>\u00a0which encouraged students to explore other cultures and rediscover their own. These were important opportunities for dialogue and it taught me that people can appreciate and respect the differences that each cultural group possesses. We just have\u00a0to be\u00a0open to talking about them.<\/p>\n These experiences have never left me and in times like today when people want to go to their respective cultural silos, here I am to stand in the middle of the room and say NO, let\u2019s talk and learn from one another!<\/p>\n There is a quote by Martin Luther King that embodies the work I do every day. \u201cPeople fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.\u201d I’m a firm believer that we need to talk to\u00a0one another\u00a0so we can break down the barriers and replace the fear with faith in each other, one conversation at a time.<\/p>\n Cory J. Anderson<\/b>\u00a0writes about practical ways to think about and implement equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. He\u00a0has always lived in a multicultural environment which he credits as his inspiration to bring diverse groups of people together. Cory\u00a0is passionate about using\u00a0facilitated conversations as a tool to increase understanding and personal development.\u00a0He has held\u00a0various leadership positions with several nonprofit organizations\u00a0and universities\u00a0facilitating multicultural education. He is\u00a0the founder of Diverse\u00a0Dialogues, an organization focused on breaking down barriers one conversation\u00a0at a time.\u00a0\u00a0Follow him on Twitter @mrca12.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Growing up I think I had the best of both worlds. I grew up in an environment where my parents and family instilled in me pride about my culture and heritage. Yet, I lived around people from all different backgrounds and faiths. It wasn\u2019t until recently that I looked back over my life and realized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,63,64,13,65],"tags":[2,55,59,3,56,4,66],"class_list":["post-12646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-diversity","category-inclusion","category-leadership","category-race","tag-culture","tag-diversity","tag-empathy","tag-engagement","tag-inclusion","tag-leadership","tag-race"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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