Christian Stereotypes
Diversity Training Gone Awry
By Daniel Muniz

When Arizona State University senior Ryan Visconti participated in a “sensitivity exercise” that was part of a diversity training program for his new job as a resident assistant in the campus dormitories, he got a rude awakening to a liberal viewpoint. The role-playing included in the training involved the ugliest stereotypes that Christians are supposed to have such as being white hate-filled racists belonging to a privileged upper class. And of course in the role-playing, these bigots had a hostile reaction to everyone else.

The ASU Residential Life department insists that the sensitivity exercise, a requirement for all resident assistants, was intended to expose dormitory employees to the harsh aspects of homophobia and racism. However, all it really did was reveal the prejudices and biases of the people who created this diversity program. It really had nothing to do with exposing people to different cultures and viewpoints but just to reinforce what you are supposed to think and believe in for a supposedly politically correct environment.
 

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Even an ASU faculty member who specializes in minority relations was concerned about the misuse of diversity training for resident assistants because it only highlighted the stereotypes instead of presenting a broader picture of different cultures and backgrounds.

Unfortunately, it is way too easy to have these biases and prejudices in our society. Our popular culture saturates the airwaves with them in that devout Christians are often portrayed in an unfavorable light in movies and in television. Political correctness helps amplify these stereotypes to the point that certain people are unable to sift fact from fiction about what many Christians really believe in and practice as part of their religion.

As for this sensitivity exercise and other similar programs, all that it can accomplish is to reinforce what is wrong about stereotypes because they rely solely on extremes that are in no way the fabric of a Christian lifestyle. As a result, they have virtually no basis in reality but they do raise the comfort level of the people who have already made an emotional investment in these prejudices because it justifies their own myopic view of the world. And it is a very ugly world indeed where Christians are intolerant uncaring people.

When I was in college, I recommended an astronomy class to a friend of mine who needed to satisfy his science requirements. I had already taken two semesters with the same professor and I thoroughly enjoyed his coursework especially since it was done in a purely descriptive format.

My friend took the class and had a blast.

Although the professor presented many serious topics, he also touched on several science fiction subjects in order to establish what fact from fantasy was in accordance to the physical laws of the universe. In addition, the instructor was hilarious. For instance, one day he showed up to class wearing a tie that was a huge furry bear paw and spent a few minutes cracking one-liner jokes.

Some time after my friend had completed the astronomy class, we were talking about the professor. I told him that the instructor was a fundamentalist Southern Baptist. He flat denied that possibility and insisted that there was no way that this guy could be religious because he was so much fun. I had to laugh because I had dropped by that professor’s office on numerous occasions to discuss a few religious subjects with him.

Of course my buddy only viewed the world through the lenses of his own stereotypes. Popular culture created cruel caricatures of Christianity and if your only exposure to religion is from television and the movies, then you are going to end up with a very warped view of the world.

And perhaps that is what I find to be so bothersome about certain elements of diversity training.

Some people already have their own preconceived notions of our Western culture and heritage that was derived from Hollywood and political correctness. Not only is it unfair and grossly inaccurate but it is entirely unbalanced in that if you disagree with a human secular ideology, then you must be some sort of bad person. And if you are a devout Christian, then you have to be a bigot and a homophobe.

Such assumptions are nothing more than ignorance.

But what is ironic is that many of the people who enthralled with diversity training and sensitivity exercises are often the same people who are enjoy living in their own world of ignorance. They really don’t want to be exposed to the facts about Christianity and are very satisfied with the misinformation that they have acquired throughout the years. Yet they have absolutely no problem labeling all Christians as ignorant.

It was very courageous for Ryan Visconti to go public with this misuse of diversity and to bring media attention to a prevalent problem.

Anti-Christian prejudices and stereotypes in a sensitivity exercises are completely indefensible. And it is a reprehensible for a university to be deluded into believing that they are teaching awareness and tolerance when in fact they are promoting ignorance and hatred.

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