Welcome to the 2011 Diversity Dialogue Conference.
Today, we have gathered 200 Richmond residents to answer one question: What can we do to create intercultural harmony in Richmond?
Share your thoughts below. Share your experiences below. Tell your story.
After all: you are Richmond.
Welcome anyone into your home or into your neighbourhood. Make them feel Accepted and Welcome.
Welcome anyone into your home and or neighbourhood. Make them feel accepted and Welcome.
Have more multicultural events so that you can learn about different cultures and the people living around you.
We can have more multicultural food, dance,celebration events to share foods, commonality with each others.
We can cay hi to our neighbours and people we come across on the street!
Learn about a New Culture
Question my own prejudice about people and cultures, and challenge others to do the same.
We can make friends from different cultures!
Nothing is about us without us. So I’ll be out in the community, know the people in the community, show that I care. Full participation is the key.
join a youth program to meet more youth
We can be kind with every one everyday and why not? Learn some basics words in another language.
Learn about diversity through volunteering at an organization that supports cultural values, youths, and people with disability.
you can learn about diversity by getting to know your community.
You can get to talk to different background people, experience their cultures an share the points of view.
Learn more culture and language.
Join in youth program.
learn things about other people…make many organization that would help new immigrants welcome like RMCS.
Richmond’s pathway to a more harmonious society will only be achieved by an attentive intellectual exploration of identity and origins. The social taxonomies we have created in society and the profit driven market societies that we have created to buttress not only our political and economic, but also social institutions have distorted and corrupted the way that we as human beings identify with each other.
Our discourse around harmony through diversity must be shaped with a value for unfettered human flourishment and the abandonment of avarice, the transcendence of national, tribal, ethnic, language, and share historical memory unities which threaten to make social equality a zero sum game of determining which disparate groups in society hold power over others at any given time of human history. The sanctity of human dignity and esteem is paramount, and we must find ways to reconcile our differences as we confront the challenges of providing individuals with the rights to assert their nuanced normative truths while we also seek to find a way to pursue liberal-internationalism and the supposed ideal world of colour/class-blindness.
Further reading: “The Cyclical Maintenance of the Subjugation to Predjudice” on my blog.
WordPress: cpcolinchau.wordpress.com
Twitter: @cpcolinchau
I am multicultural, I am Richmond.
What a fantastic experience. I wish I had had these type of opportunities to participate and discuss issues critical to our society becoming respectful,accessible, and open and “connected”. I look forward to next year’s conference.
I used to get lost in Richmond every time I came over here. Now, I have been here often, and I no longer get lost. I hope you see the metaphor: Get used to change, and you no longer feel lost. Richmond is a welcoming community which is a wonderful example for the world!
An excellent event for the voice of youth to be heard by the people who need to hear them. I was very impressed with the creativity and courage of the participants and applaud RMCS for making it happen with Richmond 3D!
make new friend and learn english
Feel happy to make a new friends.
BBQ with friend who comes from different country
pay more attention to environment
l have lived in richmond for almost 30 years-raised my family here;to live is to enjoy & i am enjoying life in richmond , i can say i am richmond.richmond has all cultures,don’t have to go any where else.
To promote harmony in any community it is important to respect individuals and their beliefs.
Be kind, smile at strangers and respect differences.
Help an immigrant close to you.
Transcend culturalism/religion.
We sre all same.
Just a mental change in culture will contrubute to integrity for new immigrants and our communities.
Seems easier said than done, however, that is our goal.
help new imigrants to feel like being at home
On March 18 2011, I attended the Diversity Dialogue Conference held at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, hosted by Richmond Multicultural Community Services (formerly Richmond Multicultural Concerns Society). The theme was engaging youth in diversity dialogue.
When I posed the question of why we even have – as a society – driven ourselves into a situation where such matters need to be discussed and addressed, and how wider systemic issues can be tackled with youth involved, the panelists failed to even answer the question, and mightily succeeded in side-stepping them. This is unmediated cowardice as I posed a question of how we can reshape our diversity discourse to transcend the boundaries that are inherent and reinforced in our social, economic, and political institutions. We struggle with the intersectional balancing challenge of wanting to allow disparate social groups to make their normative assertions in society while also pushing for a sense of liberal-internationalist collectivity of multiculturalism/integrationism where nuances and uniqueness get drowned out. We maintain a double standard of prejudice in some aspects of daily life (economic competition) while fighting against it in others (economically detached peer-groups).
I was immediately repudiated for not celebrating the success already achieved by youth to-date, despite the fact that I have been an active advocate for youth empowerment. I was essentially shamed for asking my question because a panelist believed that the status quo is satisfactory and that we should be self-congratulating instead of despondent. I don’t advocate for wallowing in pessimism. However, self-congratulating approaches to ever-present toxic social conditions have more than many times empirically led to socially non-progressive inertia and complacency.
When authorities are too afraid to go on verbatim about what needs to be done tomorrow, how in the world are we supposed to build inclusive and socially progressive communities if those in leadership roles lack the vernacular to talk about it openly and honestly? We can only high-five ourselves for what was done yesterday for so long, Richmond. If one ever wants to dig deeper and get answers to these questions directly, individuals should not be admonished for asking the hard questions, and kicking up a storm instead of letting sleeping dogs lie.
Colin Chau
Richmond BC
I could only imagine the amount of conniptions the Executive Director of the Richmond Youth Services Agency has on a daily basis as he chides and lectures others for want of acknowledgement of the infinite good that is being done to make this world a better place. It’s almost like he hopes the denial that problems exist would allow him to presuppose their defeat before they are even truly engaged. Bravo! That would open up budget space for the convalescing party and joy committee while the community engagement committee becomes obsolete.