W4: Real-World Simulation

Imagine that your past work experience in higher education was among a staff who were nearly all the same ethnicity as you . . . but now you have been hired by another institution and are coming into your first organizational meeting . . . and you suddenly realize that your ethnic and cultural reference point is of a small minority in the midst of a dominant majority whose cultural identity is far different from yours. With the total reversal of ethnic and cultural realities, what may be the feelings and biases rising within you that were not present in your previous employment experience? What are you going to do to control your own potential sense of prejudice or bias, or of feeling marginalized because of your ethnic and cultural identity? If you begin to feel “lost” in dealing with the significant change, what options would you consider, and why?