Diversity dinner changed perspectives

Hearing a Japanese immigrant's story sparked a renewed inspiration for Newton Gborway's weekly volunteer work with Wendover elementary schoolchildren.

"She came here from Japan, and all she wanted to do was raise her kids, but she was discriminated against because she couldn't speak English," Gborway says. "It made me more committed to the kids. I don't want them to have the same experiences."

Gborway spoke of his experience at October's diversity dinner, hosted by the Salt Lake County Mayor's Office of Diversity Affairs. Participants sat at tables with people from diverse backgrounds and discussed their perceptions and experiences.

Two months after the dinner, Gborway, an immigrant from Liberia and a graduate student in social work at the University of Utah, describes it as a "wonderful thing."

In a recently released exit survey taken the night of the dinner, nearly everyone who attended the dinner said the evening was beneficial to them and the community.

Of those surveyed, 99 percent said they learned something new about diverse groups, and 91 percent said they'd be more willing to meet people who are different from them.

And three in four of those who attended the dinner said it was somewhat or very true that they realized some of their own stereotypes or assumptions.

Organizer Rebecca Sanchez described the event as a "new and daring thing." Her office will be working on future projects aimed at bringing people from diverse backgrounds together.

Right now, Sanchez is waiting on the county budget. Her top priority is to launch a Web site to allow diverse groups and people to interact.

The dinner was at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. Bob Nelson, chairman of the theater department at the U., will be teaching a course this spring on grappling with diversity in the arts. And Charlotte Nelson, regional vice chairwoman of new play development for the American College Theater Festival, would like to see more plays dealing with multiculturalism.

"My wife and I had both been thinking about such things for, I don't know, years," Bob Nelson said. "It was the invitation to come to the dinner that really helped us decide to get on our feet and begin to do something."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com