The Iowa State organization Kaleidoscope Peers presented a student-led workshop Wednesday night to help eliminate negativity and increase effective communication among people of different races.

“In the first minute you meet someone, you make 11 assumptions about them,” said Laura Sweeney, a senior in speech communication and one of the workshop’s leaders. “We’re not certified, we’re just students learning as we go along. We volunteer for these workshops to help others [with interracial communication].”

The specific focus of the workshop, called Enhancing Interracial Communication, was to teach students how to overcome fear and negative attitudes toward members of other groups and to avoid misinterpretations in cross-cultural communication.

Sweeney is involved with several groups on campus, including the Latino Council and the Iowa Council on Interracial Understanding.

“I’ve been through the stages [discussed in the workshops]… Moving from a small Iowa town that was 100 percent white, then coming to Iowa State and my first roommate being black,” Sweeney said. “Through this training I want to help others move through the stages better than I did.”

Tim Quick, a freshman in Spanish and business, led the workshop along with Sweeney.

Quick, whose birth mother is white and father is black, explained he became involved in Kaleidoscope Peers because he wanted to help others understand interracial communication. “If I can make one person rethink their perspective, I’ve made a difference,” he said.

During the workshop, Quick explained the Social Interaction Complex.

“It’s natural to make assumptions about people, but these assumptions often become stereotypes,” he said.

Quick said he thinks society influences the stereotypes people have.

“For example, T.V. shows often portray minorities involved with violence, which creates a negative stereotype,” he said. “We need to learn about cultural stereotypes. Inaccurate assumptions are made from inaccurate information, like ‘all black women are loud.’ It’s safe to say that all of us have some homophobic, racist, and sexist attitudes.”

Sweeney explained the difference in communication styles among black Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, and Indian Americans.

“But the difference in communication styles is not only cultural; it’s also gender-based,” she added.

Communication styles also differ by socioeconomic classes, political power and the generation people belong to, Sweeney explained.

Both Quick and Sweeney shared several personal stories — reasons they became interested in interracial communication.

By the end of the workshop, Quick and Sweeney hoped the group would be more comfortable which interracial communication.

Kaleidoscope Peers was developed by Dr. Suzanne Zilber.

They hold workshops for classes at ISU, Des Moines Area Community College and area high schools, as well as for conferences within the community.