I think people tend to have an incomplete understanding of
diversity. At the very least, they have
an incomplete understanding of the effect of diversity on society. As a present-day society, we tend to see
diversity at the surface level. That is,
we acknowledge skin color, sexual orientation, gender, religious affiliation,
and economic backgrounds as factors behind this term. We see that these factors can impact society
through different percentages and groups in general communities. We normally see (or should) that diversity
plays an important role in society and should exist.
But why is it important?
It’s great to strive for diversity but to what end does it make sense or
make a difference? There has to be some
goal behind having a diverse community of individuals, but we often hastily
come to the conclusion that diversity exists for the sake of diversity. The fact is, if this was its only purpose, it
would not be so imperative, so essential, to stress its existence and to strive
for more. I listened to a speaker last
night as he spoke over this topic and I came to believe that his words
described this other, often overlooked side of diversity. He said that we tend to fail at asking the
question, “Why do we strive to have diversity?”
He said the reason is to learn how to care for one another. He said that we attempt to have diversity for
the purpose of understanding and thereby creating an environment of different
people who can act as a community.
He also made the point that the result of forming such a
close community is that the problems and prejudice out of each minority group
are shared and discussed. The speaker
pointed out that when we pay attention to the life perspective of our neighbor
then we will want to help him, even stand by his side and fight with him for
his rights.
Diversity is not this shallow topic of how many people of
color or how many Muslims there are in a given community. It is much deeper than that. It brings into play an entire spectrum of
social justice; a platform and a medium through which to enact change. This is the more full view and representation
of diversity in my mind.
With that being said, the speaker urged the crowd to, “Maybe
start out a little ignorant.” He wanted
us to start off with a little prejudice in mind, but, through interaction in
the diverse community, he wanted that prejudice to eventually slip away.
There is a kind of a life philosophy that I grew hearing
about from my dad. He would talk about hating
one person at a time. At first I was
skeptical. “What??” How is it helping the situation to begin by
hating groups of people, or even just one person? I had failed, though, to see the true point
behind his words. In an ideal society,
no one would hate and prejudice and intolerance would be dispelled, but we do
not live in an ideal world. My dad was
being realistic by making the assumption that we all had prejudice within us,
to some degree. The philosophy of hating
one person at a time merely limits our options of prejudice and hate. If the rule is that we have to choose one
person, then we had better choose wisely.
In order to choose wisely, we need to get know the people in question,
put ourselves in their shoes, immerse ourselves in trying to understand their
point of view because we need to know why we hate them more than the rest of
the world.
The result of learning about the people you thought you
could hate is that you find out, “I can’t hate them. I have no grounds to be so against them. In fact, I really need to show them love. Show them that I care.” It changes the way you act and suddenly you
find that hate can be taken away with the absence of prejudice.
The point I would stress is that it is important to engage
others and understand their views. If we
make an effort to become accepting and to foster a desire to become more connected
to everyone, then the community environment becomes one based out of love, not
hate, and affection, not frustration. It
ceases to be a tolerant society, full of suppressed anger, and becomes a united
society unafraid to show outward care for one another. I challenge anyone to try and hate only one
person. See what the outcome is for you.
