Differences
Diversity has always been an interesting topic to me. I’ve been lucky enough to experience a variety of cultures in my life and feel that these experiences shaped me for the better. Having an appreciation for diversity allows us to experience people for who they are without holding too much weight on appearance. In Ben’s class, we constantly ask why something is wrong if it make someone happy. This is diversity. We may not have to agree with everything someone says or does, but we do have to appreciate people for who they are. I’m not saying that we should befriend a serial killer, but I am saying that we should try to make judgements for ourselves after we meet someone and not judge them before we even say hello.
I think that we do ourselves a disservice as a society by continuing the conversation on diversity. We kind of need to further the conversation at this point but it is saddening at times. In a dream world, we wouldn’t have any negative reactions when we think about different people. As I am typing through this, I can kind of see a relationship between change and diversity. Both of these topics are uncomfortable for people because it requires us to step outside of ourselves and think about a new way of doing something or a new way to think about something. Like a muscle, it is almost like our awareness of diversity is something that we need to continually exercise in order to fully appreciate it. If not, we will fall victim to the implicit attitudes we have. The saddest thing about our feelings on diversity is that we don’t always shave control of how we perceive difference. Society and television send us messages everyday about what is right, wrong, scary, attractive, etc. Most times, we don’t even think about these messages and just find ourselves terrified when we head into downtown Baltimore or some other inner city. I am watching the show “The Wire” right now. This show depicts the drug economy in downtown Baltimore. If you have never gone to Baltimore and watched this show, you might think that every street is like this and that you could get shot up at any moment. On the contrary, Baltimore is a fragmented city just like every other one. You have rough areas and you have nice ones.
People, in general, need to do a better job of arming themselves with the facts before forming an opinion. Some of us would watch The Wire and immediately think that all black people are drug dealing gangbangers just looking for the next dollar. Someone more informed would be able to call upon their experiences and knowledge to come up with an informed opinion based upon fact and not fiction. I view this as a huge problem. Too many times we see something on TV or read something on the internet and immediately regard it as fact. This is incredibly dangerous because people can create anything they want to. I look at the FIFA official who made a false claim that the USA was conspiring against him so that they could host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This official had read an article on the internet and immediately held the USA accountable for something that was totally fictitious. Crazy right?
On the other hand, the freedom that comes along with media outlets can be such a gift when it comes to diversity. TV shows and some websites provide us with the opportunities to learn about difference and appreciate the beauty in difference as opposed to being scared of it. The one network that stands out to me is The Learning Channel (TLC). They air some really extreme stuff. From hoarders, to extreme couponing, to adult babies, they find some of the most extreme examples of diversity that you won’t see anywhere else. Again, you watch some of these things and can see that they are different but you have to appreciate the difference because it serves a purpose for those specific people. Remember, we don’t have to agree with everyone’s beliefs or actions. Shoot, we may fully reject somethings. We do need to try and gain perspective from different points of view. That is the true essence of diversity.
