Diversity is a big topic with many implications for both personal and professional success. To become adept at interacting successfully in the multicultural world of today, one must learn both about others and one’s self. One must also learn about the often unseen nature of the social environment that effects each of us uniquely based on how we are seen within the social context.
In our Common Element, we introduce diversity by exploring Race, a topic that has roots in our Nation’s origins and impacts every day of our lives. Race is just one example of diversity and yet by understanding the foundations of how Race came to be, what it is, and how it functions as a system that influences chances for success, we can understand how other aspects of diversity such as gender, sexual orientation, and differing abilities function similarly. With this understanding we can begin to see more clearly how our lives and the lives of those around us are affected by stereotypes, discrimination and privilege. We come to see how human dignity is affirmed or denied by such practices and how the tenants of Catholic Social Teaching are applied to such oppression.