Sensitivity and Stereotypes

According to California state law (or rather, according to my employer, I am no student of state law) we must participate in some form of sensitivity training on a yearly basis. This was the first year I’d run across such a requirement. Our training consisted of a 123 page web course in which mock situations were presented, to which the participant was required to answer multiple choice questions regarding. It wasn’t really a pass/fail situation, they just informed you of the reasoning on the right answers and moved on.

Here’s one thing that struck me as funny. Perhaps I’m being hypersensitive, overly PC, whatever. However, given the context of the training, I’m not so sure. In one of the example stories, one of the characters was an Italian fellow. Named Luigi. In some kind of repairmen/service industry outfit. Go figure.

—Apr 13, 2005