DIVERSITY INTERVIEW ASSIGNMENT

Your assignment is to interview someone who is culturally different from you. During this activity exercise, you will have the opportunity to engage with an individual who identifies themself as coming from a background or culture that is not your own.

PART I: FINDING YOUR INTERVIEWEE
Using the list below, review the potential categories of identity. In one color, highlight the categories that you identify with. Then find someone that identifies with a different term(s) than you. Highlight those terms with a different color.

For example, if you are African American, find someone who is European American, Caribbean American or from another country. Or, you might interview someone who identifies as middle or upper middle or upper class if you come from a working class background. If you are Hindu, you might interview someone who is Jewish, Muslim or Christian. If you identify as heterosexual, you might interview someone who identifies themselves as bisexual, transgender, lesbian, or gay.

Class:
Middle-class
Upper-class
Working-class

Religion:
Atheist/Agnostic
Buddhist
Christian
Hindu
Jewish
Muslim
Other: ________________

Nationality:
U.S.-American
Other:___________________

Age:
Senior Citizen

Race/Ethnicity:
African American
Asian American
European American
Native American
Southeast Asian
Caucasian American
Hispanic American
Middle Eastern American
Other:___________________

Gender Identity:
Female
Male
Transgender
Other: ___________________

Sexual Orientation:
Bisexual
Lesbian
Gay
Heterosexual
Other:___________________

Ability:
Visually impaired
Hearing impaired
Physically impaired
Psychologically
impaired
Learning disability
Able bodied/ temporarily without impairments
Other:___________________

PART 2: THE INTERVIEW
The purpose is to get to know someone from a different background and/or culture and think about how both of your differences have influenced your life experiences. Take some time to get to know this person and share ideas and beliefs.

During the course of your discussion with them, ask them the questions that are listed below. During your discussion, take brief notes so you will remember what they said later when you write it up. However, you do not have to write down what they say word for word (unless it is particularly amazing). Feel free to discuss topics or areas that are of interest to you (and your interviewee) but may not be listed below. Be sure to thank them when you are done.

After you write up the interview, please answer the reflection questions listed after the interview questions.

Interview’s name: ________Vincent _Martz______________________________

Interviewee’s first name______Stephanie Toler_________________________________

QUESTIONS
1. Tell me two things about being__African-American__________ that you really appreciate or are proud of. Tell me about why you appreciate these things or they make you proud.

Two things that he told me he was proud of about being African American were Martin Luther King and professional athletes. He was proud and appreciated that a man from his race stood for the things he believed. Vincent also was proud that a great number of professional athletes are African American

2. Tell me two things about being __African American__________ that you see as a challenge. Tell me about why you see these things as challenges.
People from his race do things that make the rest of them look bad. He also faces the challenge of fear of his race. First people from his race do abuse the system and live off of handouts, but that’s not all of them. Those types of people make it hard for the rest of them. He lives in a mostly white community because of that he finds it hard to obtain employment. He also has a lot of people avoid him and stare in public.

3. When was the first time you realized that you were different from others because of being__African-American__________? What was that like? When he was a little boy he realized he was different because the kids down the street would throw rocks at him. They would bully him and call him nigger.

4. What would you say is, from your perspective, the most commonly held misconception or stereotype about people of your group? The most common stereotype of my people is the fact that we are all lazy aqnd do not want to work. We will not support our families and are lazy.

5. Tell me about an incident in your life when you were treated particularly well because you are a member of this group.
There was not one single incident where he could remember being treated well because he was African American.

6. Tell me an incident in your life when you were treated particularly poorly because you are member of this group.
When he worked for a truck loading company, the other Caucasian employees locked in him in a dark tractor trailer for over an hour calling him racial names. They also threatened him enough to make him quit his job.

7. How does your family talk about issues related to the group of which you are a member?
His adoptive family adoptive family is white so Vincent said that his adoptive family sees his race negatively because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his biological family.

8. Are there any traditions that you celebrate as ___African-American________?
No there are really no specific African American traditions he observes. This could be because he was raised in a white family.

9. Is there anything that you wish people knew about people who are__African-American_____________?
All African American people are not lazy and commit crimes. They are intelligent and want to do their best in life. Working, raising a family, and being successful are important to them.

10. How do you think we can foster a climate of acceptance and cultural pluralism in the U.S.?
People need to stop living up to the stereotypes that are placed on them. We need to be better than the low opinion people have of our race.

PART 3: REFLECTIONS ON THE INTERVIEW
Write a one to two page reflection on your interview. Please address the following questions in your reflection.

1. What was it like to engage with the person you interviewed? Were you comfortable? What aspects of the interview made you more comfortable and which made you less comfortable?

2. Was there any information that you learned that you felt was important in gaining some insight into the experience of someone from another background?

3. What is one thing that you learned from talking with this person that you may not have otherwise learned? (Something interesting that can be shared with the class)

4. In what ways did you discover that you were actually similar?

5. In what ways did you find that you and they are different?

6. Are there any questions would you like to ask your interviewee if you were to interview them again?

7. Now that you’ve interviewed this person and taken this class, what do you think are some benefits of a diverse society?

While interviewing Vincent Martz I was intrigued to hear his answers to the questions. Even though some of this question were tough and maybe be uncomfortable for me to ask, Vincent made it comfortable to hear the answers. He was easy going and a joy to interview. I feel it is important to know that people that are African American do not agree with the few bad ones that make the rest of them be seen in a negative light. Stereotypes are a dangerous thing. I think people get hung up on them and do not allow certain people in their life’s who can improve it. In talking to Vince I learned that African American people are easy going hardworking individuals who want the best out of life. I see them as a powerful race with a great deal of talents and abilities that they can share with whoever will allow them to. Vince and I have many similarities. I want to work hard and be the best I possibly at my job. He also strives for being a beneficial employee to his company. Vince and I both want to do the best for our families. We want t to raise our kids with strong ethical beliefs and live a religious life. He and I want to both be productive members of society doing our best to be beneficial to those around us. Vince and I are different when it comes to our family life. He was a product of a drug addicted mother who had twenty five children, all by different men. Vince was born and raised in the city. He was adopted at a young age and his adoptive family was white. I was born in a small farming community and was raised by my mother and father. I had four siblings who were always supportive of me in every aspect of my life. I asked Vince a multitude of questions but if I could ask him something else it would have to be how does it feel to be raised by an all-white family? Is it difficult to be separated from your race and culture? Would you have rather been adopted by African American people instead of your adoptive family? In conducting this interview I learned many new things about African Americans. I now know that they can also see their race as negative or positive. They do not always agree with the things going on with their people. I believe that Vince would love to be able to say all negativity that surrounds him and his race will be forgotten one day, but I’m not sure that will happen. It can if people let go of prejudice, look at people for what they are, and accept that. Living in a diverse society is a wonderful blessing. A benefit of diversity is the fact that we can learn new things from one another. In doing this it can helps us not only grow as an individual but also has a society. I have many different questions that run through my mind when it comes to different races, ethninticities, and sexualities. I believe the more questions I ask the more in-depth of a person I will become. We all need to learn from each other. In order to do that we need to ask more questions like I did in my interview with Vince. This gives us firsthand knowledge when it comes to someone who may be different than we are. Ignorance can cause division, we must ask to learn. Vince made it easy to give me insight to a race I needed to learn more about. Even when it became uncomfortable for me during the interview, he tried to help me understand in detail the way he seen things and felt. Diversity makes live more interesting. We all need to become more familiar with each other by asking as many questions as someone will answer.