Walking your neighbor home: a simple concept of getting to know others before passing judgment echoed in the minds of attendees at a diversity session Tuesday. 

The World is All Around Us was an interactive session on diversity led by Lee Mun Wah, an international Chinese-American educator who emphasized the dangers of assumptions and standing up for the mistreated.

“Unless you stand up and fight for them you’ll lose them one by one, and that’s why you’re doing this session,” Wah said. “Don’t wait for another president, and don’t wait for another Martin Luther King because there won’t be one.”

In addition to being an educator, Lee is also a documentary filmmaker, author and poet. He worked as a high school resource specialist and consulted for public and private institutions on severe learning and behavioral issues for more than 25 years.

He later became the founder and executive director of StirFry Seminars and Consulting, a company that focuses on diversity training and provides educational tools for cross-cultural communication.

“In a time right now where our world, our nation, is so divided, we need to figure out how we can work together,” Shawn Williams, community member, said. 

He hoped to gain new information on how he can contribute to his community by attending Lee’s session.

“Iowa State is a community of 36,000 students,” Williams said. “Where is a better place to start then here?”

Before the interaction began, Lee said we all think we are multicultural, when we are all multiracial, because multicultural actually means getting to know one another.

During the session, everyone was able to meet someone they had never met before, someone who had experiences and perspectives completely different than their own.

They were able to learn their partner’s name, ethnicity and something they could not physically see.

Wah tied the activity into a lesson on the issues that come from snap judgments strictly based on appearance and first impressions. 

“Assumptions can get you killed or decide whether you get a promotion,” he said. “Don’t you think it’s time to talk about our assumptions?”  

He spoke of how, at the state the country is in, people can move forward in regard to race. The session left Iowa State students, faculty and staff who attended reflecting on these concepts.

“Seeing different perspectives made us realize many times we only see through our own lens,” said Jesus Lizarraga, assistant director of admissions recruitment for underrepresented populations.

He went on to say that Iowa State University is known to be predominantly white and we could be doing more to recruit and retain more staff and students of more diverse backgrounds.

“As a minority at Iowa State University, I don’t feel there [are] many people like me, but this definitely influenced me to be aware of my surroundings and be careful in what I say when I speak to individuals,” Atakilti Berhe, senior in biological systems engineering, said. 

As the event ended, Wah emphasized the importance of walking each other home and holding back on assumptions before actually getting to know the person.