I really don't know much, but I know I love you. I think that this line from a recently popular love song say a lot about diversity as an issue in todays society. It seems very clear to me that prejudice and racism are alive and well today. Just look at modern politics, the presidential debates and the race for the democrative primary. Why are we shocked or surprised when a two people who represent women and minorities are posed for the highest position in the country? It's because whether we liked to admit or not to ourselves and to others we are shocked. I am not young and I am not old. I have seen a lot of significant change in the area of my own personal diversity. I recently made a friend from another culture and it really changed my life, I started spending time with this person and sharing a carpool and when I did that I noticed that we were different and that we were not different at all. I started hearing this persons witness about diversity because we were both minorities but we were different minorities. Our differences disappeared in the things that we shared and the things that we had in common, but our friendship developed out of the things that he brought to the table that I would not have been able to bring to the table. I began to see him as a whole person, someone who loved to write and someone who liked spicy food. Someone who out of his modesty learned to express himself in a healthy way under very unhealthy circumstances.
I would like to suggest that diversity might begin in the simple acts of regular and total sharing and socialization that might occur naturally in any friendship.
Blessings,
irma
