AMERICA IS STRUGGLING WITH ITS RACIST PAST AND PRESENT
There are so many people in America today that refuse to acknowledge the racism that still pervades our society. Whether racist content is explicit or implicit, it is harmful. Our laws and policies are discriminatory, but many elected representatives refuse to change them. As FSU Consulting, we are constantly looking for novel and impactful ways to reach and teach our clients and our community.
The easiest way to teach a person resistant to the topic is sometimes to lead them astray. Cognitive dissonance often prevents people from approaching a new topic with an open mind. However, if we can shrink the gap between their existing belief and the dissonant truth then cognitive dissonance has less resistive effect.
Through years of teaching cultural anthropology, Dr. Blackthorne has found that introducing new students to uncomfortable ideas about culture begins with an article by Horace Miner that was written in 1956 entitled "Body Rituals Among the Nacirema." Please take a few minutes to read this article. We promise, it will be worth your time.
We cannot replicate in this forum the teaching that Dr. Blackthorne provides along with the article. However, we have written a short two-page primer on anti-racism and implicit bias to accompany the article. It takes the content of the Horace Miner article and associates it with modern social efforts to recognize and correct for these issues -- issues which often create cognitive dissonance.
If you or your organization are looking for evaluating your culture and/or training to build an inclusive and anti-racist culture, FSU Consulting can help. Dr. Blackthorne has over 40 years' experience as a minority in communities across the United States, and over 15 years experience teaching others about cultural bias. Paired with Mr. Vandermolen's experience developing policy and working in the legal field, FSU Consulting has the experience and tools to start bridging the gaps in your community between differing interest groups.
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