As I reflect over my life, I realize it has been filled with diversity throughout my childhood, marriage, and career. My experience with diversity dates back to birth. I was born and raised in a small town, Moss Point, MS. and notably the last state to abolish slavery, currently has a population of 13,704 people. The town consists of 73% Blacks or African Americans, 23% Caucasian, 1% Hispanic or Latino and 1% bi-racial. Regardless of my town’s homogeneous population, I grew up accepting diversity and was taught about different cultures even amid the same racial group. One of the first experiences of diversity I can recall as a child was the various religious beliefs within the Black community. My parents believed “exposure to the world around you” was one of the primary factors to raising a well-rounded individual. Therefore, we often visited different churches of various faiths. Within my own family, there were different doctrines. My great-grandmother was Pentecostal, my grandmother is Baptist and my mother is Atheist. While everyone seemed to have different belief systems, I participated in them all. I had to learn to adapt to each religious institution. In one church I was allowed to wear pants and women could also be pastors; whereas, in another, women could only were full length dresses and were not allowed in the pulpit. Nonetheless, my parents consistently reiterated the world is comprised of many different races and complexities which in turn make the universe a
"Good bye honey! Take care! Call us when you get there safely!" my mother cried. I can still hear those words as if it were yesterday and in reality it was fourteen years ago, that I packed up and left my small town back in southern New Jersey.
For two days, I observed the first ten individuals entering the Jones-Sampson building located on the JSU campus. Observing these individuals allowed me the opportunity to explore how diversity is perceived from a small sample of the campus. I believe, a college campus is the perfect setting to view the hop topic called diversity. The population at JSU includes people from various countries, social economic backgrounds, class, gender, occupations, and sexual-orientation. According to the Webster dictionary, diversity entails the quality or state of having different forms, types, and ideas about something. For the purpose of this observation, the first ten individuals encountered were evaluated based on both their similarities and differences. The factors observed
In “Thinking About Diversity”, Frank H. Wu details about his experiences as an Asian American. Wu says that, “some non-Asian students do, indeed, assume that I am gifted with mathematical, scientific, or computer-programming talents solely on account of my race” (Wu, 147), this concept shows the overview picture of Asians, but this does not apply to every Asians. The mathematic, science or computer programming is a universal subject that most industrialized places like Asia teach to students. Most Asian immigrants are familiar with those subjects because they already learn it back home and are able to do well on them, not because of a race. A race cannot provide a special intelligent to people, it’s just a different classify groups of people.
I was very excited when I saw this essay prompt because diversity is actually one of the main criteria that drew me into NC State. All throughout my schooling life, for as long as I can remember, I never attended any schools that were diverse. There was always one extremely predominant race or gender, and it’s something that truly disturbed me. I am excited to attend a college that is so diverse in many aspects, that I will be able to benefit from in multiple different ways. I will be able to learn and understand new perspectives which will help me gain an open mind and heart to be able to accept different kinds of people. I will be able to familiarize myself with different backgrounds and cultures, because I am so accustomed to my own, I
My pre-adolescent years were spent in a community thick with diversity. My friendships were as diverse as the environment in which I lived. It never struck me that racial and ethnic ideals separated people in society. However, upon moving to a predominately white upper-class community I began to question such racial and ethnic ideas. From my adolescent years through today I began noticing that certain people are viewed differently for reasons relating to race and ethnicity. As a result, the most recent community I grew up in has kept me sheltered from aspects of society. As a product of a community where majorities existed, I found myself unexposed to the full understanding of race and ethnicity. Prior to the class I had never fully dealt with issues of race or ethnicity, as a result I wondered why they would be of any importance in my life.
“The multicultural training movement has indeed contributed to a greater and much needed understanding of the differences among various racial, ethnic, and cultural groups (Speight, Myers, Cox and Highlen, 1991).” In looking at this statement counselors will need to expand their thinking outside of the Western European contexts. There is a difference between Western culture and other cultures. Sue & Sue, 2012 states “ each cultural/racial group may have its own distinct interpretation of reality and offer a different perspective on the nature of people, the origin of disorders, standards for judging normality and abnormality, and therapeutic approaches. (p. 45).” As we are brought together with more cultures it is imperative to understand the differences, which will enable counselors to become culturally competent.
The idea that "diversity" is one of the country's great strengths is now so firmly rooted that virtually anyone can evoke it, praise it, and wallow in it without fear of contradiction. It has become one of the great unassailably American ideas, like democracy, patriotism, the family, or Martin Luther King.
The article explains the importance of understanding race. Racial diversity is spreading in numerous organizations, including religion. The author states that “interracial churches will need to placate white members’ and affirm their religiocultural preferences and interests in order to sustain a racially diverse
Culture. Many think culture is color of your skin or where your from but it's more than color and where you were born. Culture is a label like how football players would be called jocks or Athletes, Anything you do will have a label that's just how our society is. When I was younger I always thought that culture was only for people who never lived in America. That's when I realized that I was more than just a plain old American I was and athlete, gamer and a fisher.
You made some very valid point in your discussion. This country was founded on social and economic diversity in which it does tend to categorize everyone into a certain group to feel a sense of validation of whom they believe they are or should be. European Americans did this categorization as a means to ensure that society will embrace them as the superior race and blacks and Indians as the inferior race. This segregation of humanity was denoted as “high” and “lower” class groups that became interconnected within the social and racial institution. Additionally, these distinctions such as skin color differences in America today are thought to explain perceived differences in intellectual, physical and artistic temperaments and to justify the
When the duchess of Windsor once said “A woman cannot be too rich or too thin.” No this does not apply to man. Men hold a different standard then woman are, it is okay for man to date woman with a lot of money and nothing is ever said about the man except that he must really love her. But if we flip it the other way around and a woman mad the statement that a man could never be to rich or too thin, then we have a whole new ball game. Woman would be ridiculed for making such a statement. People would say she is only dating him for his money, she is nothing but a gold digger, she does not love him she only loves the things he can buy her, or the places he can take her, she is just looking for someone to take care of her. They way society looks down on woman is not fair. It is discrimination to say that a woman cannot be happy with a man because he makes good money and is educated without people judging her. They always assume that there is an underling reason that she is with a wealthy older or younger man, and it can never be simply because she truly loves him.
It is important to understand our diverse Americans because our country is full of unique people from across the world. Our society is built with people that celebrate their religion In their own way and our country lets us embrace our religion. Our society is an environment where people can exercise their religion without persecution of religion, unlike in other parts of the world where individuals aren't free to practice their religion. In addition, there will always be that Americans will respect you no matter what your background is, unfortunately there's also a small portion of Americans out there that will disagree with you and the choices you will make. As of right now there aren't many places to go without witnessing diversity at
Growing up in the rural town of Browns Mills, being a Black girl was like a dime a dozen; it held no signifying factors for me. Whether you were White, Black, Spanish, or any other group, the people I grew up with accepted everyone despite it. Such acceptance while enjoyable, did not fortify me for the later struggles I would confront after leaving the socially idyllic neighborhood. Since my town was accepting of everyone there was never a need to learn about or claim aspects of my diversity. My biggest personal claim to diversity in my childhood was the being great (many times over) granddaughter of to a Seminole Chief. Even this story, passed down through my family, was hard to prove. I had a disinterest in carrying over my families
Regardless of my town’s homogeneous population, I grew up accepting diversity and valuing individual differences even amid the same racial group. One of the first experiences of diversity I can vividly recall is the various religious beliefs within the Black community. My parents believed “exposure to the world around you” was one of the primary factors for raising a well-rounded individual. Therefore, we often visited different churches of various faiths.
The concept of globalization, which is the increasing integration and interdependence of different countries from one another in terms of economic, communication, and technological aspects, leads one to address the concept of cultural diversity or multiculturalism. Cultural diversity in the health-care system touches lives of many Americans in one way or another. No matter what our own cultural background is, when we go receive medical care, we may encounter a care giver who comes from a different cultural background than ours(Naylor 1997,291).. In the concept of cultural diversity, it can be recognized that two terms are equally important. The first concept is culture, which refers to the total way of life of individuals, and the unique