Learning Journal: Personal Reflection Personal Reflection Now

Learning Journal: Personal Reflection

Personal Reflection

Now more than ever before, diversity is a real issue for the American society, and with this demographic change comes the need to develop strategies and techniques for making people more appreciative of the gender, ethnic, religious, and cultural differences that constitute the fabric of society. One's gender, ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation does not define who they are and what their abilities are. These elements, therefore, ought not to be used as the primary bases for assigning positions, benefits, or advancement opportunities at the workplace. Just because someone is male is no guarantee that they will display better performance in a leadership or supervisory position than a female candidate would. We may consider men better-placed for such positions because we think of them as generally being more aggressive than women; however, we do not stop to consider that perhaps the only reason why they are aggressive is because they have been given ample opportunities to build, nurture, and reinforce their aggressiveness, unlike their female counterparts. It only makes sense, therefore, to accord people equal opportunities to demonstrate their skill and knowledge because it is only in so doing that we will be able to fault the stereotypes and prejudices that we hold, and treat those who are different from us exactly how they deserve. Prejudice and bias lead us to judge others wrongly and to miss out on opportunities that would otherwise have been beneficial to us. In the end, therefore, prejudice costs us just as much as it costs those that we prejudge.