Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

     I had the opportunity to call four people I know and ask them what was their definition of culture and diversity is. Two of the people are from the same ethnicity as me and the other two are not.

D. says “culture is a way of doing things within a certain race and diversity to is having different races, genders and backgrounds”.

C. Says “culture deals with your surrounding and the way things work within your surroundings, it can also be from where you originate from.  Diversity does not exist. Things are diverse, but there is no diversity”.

S. says “culture is traditions beliefs and values.  Diversity is respecting every ones traditions and values and being aware of them”.

B. says “culture is how diverse we are in life.  Diversity is being around people who are not like you.

     As I read through each definition, they each shared an element of what I have been studying in this course. For instance, when each person talked about culture, one mentioned ideas that were surface along with a deeper meaning of culture, such as values, beliefs. We have talked about culture being the way we do things within a group of people. 

     When I asked people about diversity some of the answers were really interesting, especially the one that answered, things are diverse, but there is no diversity.  That is the beauty of diversity, everything is not the same and every response is not the same and I can respect that.  Though I can respect what this person said, I think this comment is a great example of omitting the fact that diversity does exist.  However this person went on to say that diversity has not existed because the dominant culture has worked hard to eliminate diversity and make the way they do things the best and only way.  In retrospect maybe the statement that this person made does not sound like what has been studied in this class but in actuality it is exactly what we have been discussing.

     Just that thought of” things are diverse but there is no diversity” got me to thinking about the deep effect that the dominant culture has had on diversity within the world. However no matter how dominant a culture is, diversity still exists.