Cultural Diversity Lesson

7/28/2019 Cultural Diversity Lesson

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CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Police Department

The University of Texas at Dallas

Ofc. Steve Finney



Cultural DiversitySociety is a complex cluster of groups and

individuals bound together by the rule of

law. Law Enforcement officials aretherefore responsible for dealing with all of

the society. One finds many cultures,

subcultures, families, traditions, gender

arrangements, health & economic conditions& loose agreements that inform decisions

and actions of groups and individuals.



Purpose

Assess situations fairly, clearly & quickly

Learn how to perceive diversity as a

resource Improve relations with community

Reduce adversarial relations, therebyreducing:

– lawsuits

– complaints

– general ill-will toward law enforcement



Community

What types of groups, organizations or

associations are in our UTD community?

Which do you belong to?What types of groups are in our greater

surrounding areas? DFW

What types of groups are in our nation?What types of groups are in our world?



Prejudice Against...

Age?

Race?

Ethnicity?Nationality?

Gender?

SexualOrientation?

Disability?

Religion?

Weight?

Height?

Social Status?

Income?

Others? – Fraternity?

– Athletic Team?

– Rival University?



Forms of Prejudice

Ageism

Racism

Sexism & Sexual Harassment

HomophobiaEthnocentrism

Nationalism

EconomicPhysical Appearance

Religious

Others



Results of Prejudice & Hate

Inequality in the Law: Crack vs. Cocaine

Ignorance: About reality and commonality

Hate Crimes: James Byrd, MatthewShepard, Arab-Americans

Inability to work professionally and climbthe latter of success.

Hurt, Pain, Fear, Low Self Esteem

Others?



Hate CrimesCrimes committed (usually violent) against a person(s) merely because there

are or are perceived to be a member of a particular group. Secondary effects

include terrorization of the entire group.

African-Americans

Arab-Americans

Senior Citizens

Gays and Lesbians

Physically Disabled people

Other people of color

Jews (Religious or Ethnic) Immigrants

Mentally Ill

Others



Modern Racism

A newer, more subtle prejudicemarked by an uncertainty in

feelings and action toward

minorities. Often expressed in a

less open manner than was formerly

common.

Why do you think this is the case?

What can be done to help eliminate

modern racism?



Definitions Attitude: Mental & Neural state of readiness, organized through

experience, exerting a directive and dynamic influence upon theindividual’s response to all objects and situations with which it isrelated. They come from conditioning or mere exposure to a stimulus.Attitudes flow from and express our values. A value is a conception of what is desirable, a guideline for a person’s actions, standard forbehavior.

Prejudice: A bias, often negative attitude formed about a group of people or individual because they are members of a particular group.

Stereotype: A set of rigid beliefs, positive or negative, about thecharacteristics or attributes of a group. A mental picture generally

developed as a result of a myth. Discrimination: Overt or subtle behavior directed toward people

simply because they are presumed to be members of a particulargroup. In law enforcement it is defined as: an unfavorable actiontoward people because they are members of a group. Thus, if aperson seems to be prejudiced against others, then that person is more

likely to discriminate. Discrimination can be addressed in law.



Roots of Prejudice Human beings are cognitive misers, that is, we prefer the least

effortful means of processing social information. People try tosimplify problems by using shortcuts, primarily involving category-based processes. In other words, when people’s ability to processinformation is diminished, they tend to fall back on available

stereotypes. Who wants to be correct in their assessment or evaluation of a

particular situation?

Who strives for accurate, correct knowledge and understanding?

Strategies of cognitive misers and those who have a tendency to

categorize, lead human beings into a variety of cognitivemisconceptions and errors.

Serious errors include: In-group bias, Illusory Correlation,Fundamental attribution error, Confirmation bias and Out-grouphomogeneity bias.



Causes I In-group Bias: The powerful tendency that humans have to favor the in-

group, the group to which they belong, over out-groups. Social IdentityTheory says: humans are motivated to positively evaluate their owngroups - and value them over other groups- in order to maintain andenhance self-esteem. Language is important, positive & negative traitwords. Examples?

• Xenopboia - irrational fear of the unfamiliar

Illusory Correlation: A belief that two unrelated events aresystematically related (covary). It is an error in judgment about therelationship between two variables. e.g. if you wear a particular shirt eachtime to go bowling and bowl very well, you may come to the belief that

there is a connection between bowling and the shirt. Similarly, if youthink members of a minority group are more likely than members of amajority to have a negative trait, then you perceive a correlation betweengroup membership and behavior.

Studies show: if both a majority and minority group have the samenegative trait (criminal behavior), the negative behavior will be more

distinctive when paired with the minority as compared to the majority.



Causes II The fact that negative information about a different group grabs your

attention does not necessarily lead to discrimination (action). Theremust be a link between the negative information and prejudiced

behavior.

Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to overestimate internal

(race) reasons and underestimate external (situational) ones (poverty). Confirmation Bias (Self-Fulfilling Prophecy): Studies show that

stereotypes can influence social interactions in ways that lead to their confirmation. Stereotypes are both self-confirming and resistant tochange. It is a self-confirming quality about expectations about others.In other words, once people have a stereotype, they evaluateinformation within that context, thereby they behave in a certain wayso that others react in a way that confirms the stereotype. Examples?If you expect a person to be hostile, your very expectation and manner in which you behave may bring on that hostility.



Causes III

We often find individual members of a group to which we do not belong

indistinguishable from one another. Why?

Out-Group Homogeneity Bias: Phenomenon of perceiving members of

the out-group as “all alike.”

We don’t do this with “our” group (in-group) because be have a fair

amount of information about members of our own group, therefore we can

differentiate among them.

Research shows that OGHB leads us to think that members of out-groups

are more similar to each other than members of in-groups. This leads us to

assume that negative behavior of one out-group member reflects

characteristics of all out-group members.

Q: What happens when a member of our own group does something just

as negative? What do we think about the in-group individual vs. the in-

group?



Look in the Mirror

A: We blame the the individual person of our own in-group for the

negative behavior instead of blaming the entire in-group. Why?

Ultimate Attribution Error: We are more likely to give in-group

members the benefit of the doubt than out-group members.

Once we construct categories, we tend to hold on to them tightly. We may

do so innocently because it may be automatic or nonconscious, but it is

destructive because stereotypes are inaccurate and often damaging . Most

stereotypes are unjustified generalizations; that is, they are not accurate.

But, even if some are somewhat accurate, they still have a damaging effect

on our perception of others. None of us would wish to be judged as anindividual by the worst examples of the group(s) to which we belong . e.g.

Police officer brutality

Even if accurate why is it damaging? Because individuals cannot be

adequately described by reference to the groups to which they belong.



Don’t Fall in the Trap & Talk the Talk

Show Courage & Walk the Walk! Sensitivity and constant self monitoring.

Nonprejudiced people realize that there is a gap between their stereotypes

and their general beliefs about equality. These people have to continually

work to change their stereotypical thinking.

All people have prejudices. Differences occur because of personalstandards about acceptable behavior.

– High Prejudice Individuals - are more willing to indulge in negative

thoughts and behaviors toward members of different ethnic racial and

other groups.

– Low Prejudice Individuals- hold practically the same stereotypes asHPI, but they believe these stereotypes are wrong. They feel self

critical and guilty if they express prejudiced thoughts and feelings and

make a real effort to change their thinking and not let it affect their

behavior.



Reducing Stereotypes &

Prejudice Contact Hypothesis: contact between groups will reduce

hostility when the participants have equal status and a

mutual goal? Current example? WTC

Personalizing Out-Group Members: opposite of dehumanizing people. Realize and understand we and

they have a shared humanity and that we feel the same joys

and pains. e.g. Schindler’s List

Social Norms: show disapproval when you encounter prejudice or discrimination. Apply peer-pressure. Display

courage to stand up for what is right. Be a leader!

Golden Rule: DO unto others as you would have them do

unto you.



Benefits of Valuing Diversity

Enhanced community support and public trust

Improved quality of service

Reduced tension

Avoid adversarial contact with the law

Increased access to cultural communities

Ensure compliance with letter & spirit of the law

Reduction of litigation (personal and agency) Improved moral, effectiveness & professionalism

Positive impact of law enforcement image

More accurate understanding of reality & the world

Cultural Diversity Lesson

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