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My Understanding Of Diversity

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Growing up, my understanding of diversity came from watching television and reading books; from these sources, I deduced that diversity meant embracing people with a different skin color or culture from your own in order to realize that they are people just like everyone else. This narrow view of diversity came from the fact that I had little personal experience with diversity. I grew up in a small town, and everyone in my school was either Native American or white. There didn’t appear to be any discrimination based on this difference; any adversity that anyone faced was based on personality differences or family feuds. That all changed when I started college. In college, I met people from all walks of life; students there came from all around the world and had many differentiating attributes. The attribute that has changed my understanding of diversity the most is ability level, …show more content…

While we were at the bowling alley, something happened that I will never forget. Matt had come up behind a fellow student and placed his hand on her shoulder while she was in a conversation to let her know he wanted by. She jumped and said to me, “I wish he wouldn’t do that. I didn’t even know he was behind me.” I had laughed and told her, “Now you know how he feels every day of his life.” What she said next changed my understanding of diversity. She said, “I already did. I’m hard of hearing and can’t hear people unless they are right in front of me.” Immediately, I apologized and told her I hadn’t realized. She looks the same as everyone else and she has no deaf accent, so I hadn’t realized that she was hard of hearing. It made me realize that even people without the apparent markers of diversity face discrimination. Diversity isn’t always obvious; just because someone doesn’t look, or sound, as though they are different doesn’t mean they don’t face the discrimination and challenges that come from being

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