Most corporations have "diversity" programs to make their employees more "sensitive" to racial and sexual issues. Tolerance can't be taught as a separate class by someone who will make a lot of money telling us we must be "sharing," "caring," and "feeling" people.
It's too late to preach tolerance by the time someone is a full-time corporate employee. Sensitivity must begin before children attend schools, and continue through their formative years. It must pervade their lives--in classes, in community activities; a little now, a little later. It must be taught by parents, teachers, friends, employees, supervisors, community leaders, and even occasional acquaintances or strangers. Perhaps, then, middle-school students will not laugh at a teacher's racist, sexist, or ethnic joke, but will actually express horror that the teacher is so insensitive to people that he or she must tell these jokes to get a laugh.
Until then, the best we can do is not to be "shocked," but to acknowledge
that discrimination in all forms exists, and we must all work to reduce it.
[Dr. Brasch's latest book is the
best-selling Fracking Pennsylvania,
an overall look at the economic, health, and environmental effects of
horizontal fracturing in the natural gas industry.]
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