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To Be Welcoming Assignment 1

Frank Garcia

OGL 350

Dr. Wallace

08/28/2022
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1.

2.
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3. During this week’s To Be Welcoming foundational course we touched on quite a few topics of

what it means to understand and appreciate diversity all around us (TBW, 2022). As a Hispanic

man I very much appreciated what the instructors had to talk about, and the various viewpoints

brought up. One aspect that really stuck out to me was actually a reflective portion of module

three, where we were asked to reflect on a time we felt we had faced public bias within our own

lives, Thinking about and reliving a time in my life where I felt that I had been reduced to

nothing more then the color of my skin was not a fun thing to do but helped me to engage

myself with the material on a deeper level. It also helped me to understanding how important it

is for myself to implement these teachings of understanding bias and inclusivity into my own

thought processes as to never subject someone else to that feeling and help make sure

everyone, I impact is made to felt respected and valued.

While completing this introductory course I kept thinking back to on e of this week’s

learning materials, an NPR clip entitled The Promise of Diversity Is Yet To Be Fulfilled. During this

clip we hear about the inclusion of diversity in the work place and how between now and the

1970’s the term affirmative action has fallen out of favor and instead been replaced with

diversity (NPR, 2010). It spoke on how affirmative action became tainted with discrimination

and quota needs, while diversity on the other hand “Diversity, on the other hand, was perceived

to be not about preferences, but "fairness and inclusion." It embraced every group in the

workforce: minorities, women, older workers, disabled workers, gays, lesbians — and white

male (NPR, 2010).” This led to it being seen as an opportunity rather then a burden to many. We

finish off the clip with the thought that while we have come some ways as a society in terms of

inclusion we have quite a ways to go as made evident with diversity falling into the same issues

we had seen with affirmative action and leaving us to wonder just how open the pipeline for

minorities and other protected classes actually is. This tied to our TBW module heavily as we
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discussed the idea of inclusivity and were taught to look into the ideas of bias and other

discriminatory terms that unknowingly to me could often times be subconscious, thinking about

how we could utilize these tools and understandings to promote diversity in our professional

and personal lives could go far in helping open that pipeline up even if just a bit wider.

Thinking about how I could apply the lessons is something I able to do all the while I was

completing the course. Taking these lessons about the very ideals of diversity and understanding

the concepts that work against it allow me to go about my daily life, treating those around me

with a more inclusive mindset. The biggest way I see this affecting me is as a father, being able

to show my son how we value those around us and understand that diversity is an ideal that

must be upheld is something I hope to take pride in. I believe that diversity and cultural

understanding are key principles in our society and I hope this lesson will allow me to be a more

culturally aware and respectful individual.

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Works Cited

NPR. (2010, January 11). The promise of diversity is yet to be fulfilled. NPR. Retrieved August
27, 2022, from https://www.npr.org/2010/01/11/122370935/the-promise-of-diversity-is-
yet-to-be-fulfilled

Starbucks. (n.d.). TBW100: SGA. Course. Retrieved August 27, 2022, from
https://courses.starbucksglobalacademy.com/courses/course-v1:ASU+TBW100+2019/
course/