Diversity Training: A debate

A few days ago I was watching one of the news channels and I came across something that struck me as a bit odd. Eugene, Oregon, home of the 2008 Olympic Trials, will be conducting diversity training for volunteers, hotels, restaurants, and shops to help them better prepare to deal with the influx of athletes, namely African-Americans that will be in town. Because the city is so homogenous, (there are a bunch of white people living there), they feel that they need to train themselves in order to be able to relate and deal with all the black folks. They want to make sure we feel equally at home. On the one hand, I commend them for wanting to be good hosts and to ensure that the experience is a positive one for everyone that attends. I certainly don’t believe they have harmful intentions, but it certainly made me do a double take.

It almost seems like a joke, except it’s not. In fact, I was going to post about this yesterday but being as it was April Fools Day, I held off. The idea that the organizing committee feels as if they have to be trained properly to deal with my friends and I is almost insulting. We aren’t aliens that require special handling. The athletes, friends, and family that will compromise the 65-75% of “other” folks that will descend upon the city for a couple of weeks, merely hope that the city does a good job of treating us all with dignity and respect. I’ve been to Eugene countless times before and I haven’t experienced anything negative. We aren’t visiting from a different country, we are visiting from neighboring states and I have never been aware that Eugene was a place where something like this would be addressed. This isn’t Jena, Louisiana.

So what kind of things will the “Blacks on Track Team”, or BOTT for short, be addressing? According to a few articles I’ve read, they will be better prepared to point them towards things they are more accustomed to. "We'll let them know where they can get their services be it good soul food, a hair cut, or religious services. And that they feel welcome." I’m sorry Eugenians; I highly doubt a city with 2% black population is the hot spot for soul food. Nor will any of my fellow athletes be looking to get their cornrows freshened up while they’re out there. We will be quite content eating at that great pizza place across the street from campus or visiting Olive Garden, etc. And as unfair as assumptions based on a persons skin color might be, a workshop or two is not really going to stop store clerks from following black people around in stores, another concern that is being addressed in training. But who knows, maybe there can be something gained from this. Supposedly residents from Eugene will also be taught that certain greetings appropriate between two black people may not be so appropriate between a black person and a white person. How annoying is it when white people try to give you a pound??? Ughh. And I would seriously be so offended if while I was out there someone had the audacity to say “wassup sista”. Could you imagine that happening?

So what I am wondering, dear blog readers, is if you think something like this is necessary. I think it’s quite obvious what my thoughts are but I am open and willing to try and understand why there is a need to teach people how to treat other PEOPLE right. Should I not feel insulted that the people in Oregon might not be able to figure out on their own how to interact with me if I am a guest at their hotel or a patron of their restaurant? On the one hand I acknowledge and appreciate their desire to be proactive and prepare themselves as best as possible to host a terrific event. Cultural diversity is something that should definitely be celebrated, but is behaving as if our differences require special training act more to separate us than bring us closer together?

PLEASE VOTE IN THE TOP RIGHT CORNER.