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 The doors we open sometimes swing shut all by themselves. But sometimes we slam them shut once we see who's on the other side of the doorway. Opening your door to the life of multiethnic community and diversity is risky. You might have to face your own ethnicity. You might have to face prejudice and ridicule, or even rejection. 
But you can start to open your door -- even a crack -- to multiethnic
diversity. Here are a few beginning steps for individuals:
1. Take stock of your current attitudes. What are your
attitudes to the whole idea of multiethnic community? What are
some of the specific stereotypes you carry deep inside regarding
other races and ethnicities? (A difficult but helpful exercise
is to write these out on paper. By physically expressing them
and holding them, you will also be facing them and owning them.)
2. How aware are you of your own ethnicity? How do you feel
about it? We all have an ethnic heritage, but not everyone
thinks about it much, especially people in the majority culture
who are also of the majority's heritage. What is your ethnicity?
Do you value it? What stereotypes do you and others hold about
your heritage? List some positives and negatives. (See the Winter
1996 issue's Leader to Leader section to find out how three very
different students respond to their own ethnicities.)
3. Think about ways you've responded in racially mixed settings.
How do you tend to act when you're in the minority ethnically
or racially? For example, do you freeze up? Grow fearful? Lack
trust? Try to act cool and in control? Why do you think you respond
in those ways? (Reasons might include fear, guilt, lack of power
or a lack of experience being in the minority.)
4. Reflecting on the above, and on the main article, what biblical
truths give you hope that God will enable you to open your door
to a wider experience of diversity? What are some specific
barriers that hinder you from having healthy relationships with
people of a different race or ethnicity? What steps can you take
to build relationships in a diverse community? A good place to
start is by praying about these relationships, perhaps inviting
others to join you and hold you accountable.
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