Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

This experiential workshop aims to identify, challenge, and reclaim concepts both novel and stereotypical of Black Male Identity and “Blackness” as a cultural identifier. This participant-driven workshop requires individuals to negotiate a seemingly ordinary series of activities where they are challenged to confront and critically-evaluate their own prevailing principles related to difference, group identity, and membership. This highly interactive session should be particularly beneficial to participants who are interested in examining and scrutinizing personally-held beliefs about Black Male Identity, while also benefiting participants who are curious about exploring the subjective filters and social underpinnings of their own cultural identities and biases. This experiential workshop was developed to challenge fervently held beliefs, practices and messages associated with identity, membership and belonging. The workshop elicits serious reflection and analysis on stereotype and prejudice, while beginning a conversation and deepening our capacity to understand how we live, how we learn, and how we relate to members of our society. The learning outcomes associated with this workshop are: To identify and scrutinize fundamental beliefs of identity, membership and bias. To advance transformative ideals around exclusion and inclusion. To develop personal mechanisms and demonstrative tools to address types of unconscious biases (affinity bias, conformity bias, confirmation bias, attribution bias, etc.) To expand personal assessments to include structures and ideals related to agency and cultural assumption.