Article
Exploring diversity through dialogue: avowed and ascribed identities
Communication Teacher
(2016)
Abstract
Recent national and global events have illuminated the increasingly divisive discourse that characterizes discussions around race, citizenship, sexual identity, ethnicity, and other sociocultural categories. As politicians denounce immigrants (e.g., incendiary ethnic and racial slurs circulated by 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump), law enforcement authorities confront systemic injustice and abuse (e.g., allegations of police brutality that launched the #BlackLivesMatter protests), and icons once emblematic of a revered ancestry are now reviled as vestiges of a racist past (e.g., efforts to strip legislative buildings of the Confederate flag), intercultural communication instructors must grapple with the extent to which these and other events inform contemporary conceptualizations of diversity. Too often, reductionist perspectives tether “diversity” to superficial indicators of cultural difference—including complexion, accent, and clothing—to eagerly demonstrate equitable hiring and recruitment policies. Such tactics unfortunately sustain the fallacious association between apparent “minority-status” and perceived diversity. This activity seeks to confront and complicate such perspectives by engaging students in exploring social category diversity, as well as how multiple cultural identities are “constituted in and through discourse with others”
Keywords
- Intercultural communication,
- Conflict and communication
Disciplines
Publication Date
2016
DOI
10.1080/17404622.2016.1192663
Publisher Statement
Taylor & Francis Online
Citation Information
Mary Grace Antony. "Exploring diversity through dialogue: avowed and ascribed identities" Communication Teacher Vol. 30 Iss. 3 (2016) p. 125 - 130 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/marygrace-antony/7/