num_pages: 108
description: Rapid changes in our social and economic systems make old ideas obsolete. You must learn new information to function well in a changing world. Otherwise, you will barely survive. Collecting and mastering new information requires critical thinking skills. You gain these skills by evaluating the way you process information and make conclusions. Information is useless without people. Your expertise about things is valuable only if it serves people's needs. Mostly, you learn about things from other people. So the ability to understand and get along with others is important for your success in the information era. You accomplish this by learning accurate information about them. We live in a culturally diverse nation so you can expect contact with people who are different. Now, our business and personal contacts take us out of our immediate neighborhoods, states and nation. Modern transportation shrinks our nation and the world. New technology gives instant communication with distant strangers. You must be a thinker that can accept difference and make fair evaluations. Rigid thinking, prejudice and ethnic bigotry become liabilities in a shrunken world of diverse people. We base our decisions on information filtered through our assumptions, inferences and conclusions. We distort the process when we include prejudice and stereotypes. Most Americans judge people by their skin color, race or ethnic group. They will deny it, but it's so. These shallow markers do not give us significant information, but people use them to make assumptions and conclusions. Usually wrong, these conclusions cause personal and group problems. These conflicts show that Americans must change and develop better skills to understanding each other. American society changes slowly from conflict to understanding for two reasons. First, most people still do not see the need for change. They feel privileged and protected from the harmful effects of discrimination and ethnic conflicts. They are wrong. Bigotry keeps them from seeing obvious situational truths. The world is increasingly competitive. People must use all their talents to survive. Companies and nations must develop or attract the best talent to keep or gain economic advantage. Because it clouds their judgment, prejudice diminishes people's effectiveness as team workers and their value as supervisors. Their prejudices are a liability. Unless they change their thinking, they and their employer will suffer business losses. America moves slowly toward ethnic harmony because few effective programs are available to promote it. This workshop helps fill that void. It does not give you authoritative answers to questions of ethnic conflict. It cannot. Social development is personal. We can guide you, but you must make your own trip. The trip through the workshop helps to make you aware of your own thinking about ethnic issues. You can use this knowledge to move toward ethnic awareness and tolerance. We call this a workshop because you must do the work needed to develop understanding about ethnic issues. It's an orderly approach for solving problems of cultural diversity. From this workshop, you will learn what you think about ethnic groups and issues. Different from most, it's designed to foster understanding and not to assign blame. It uses the elements of critical thinking for a self-analysis.
language: English
title: Cultural Diversity Without Prejudice: A Guide for Critical Thinking in the 21st Century
titlecomplete: Cultural Diversity Without Prejudice: A Guide for Critical Thinking in the 21st Century
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Amper Pub.