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That is total B.S. The root of the word diversity is DIV meaning seperate. Diversity is not about "bringing people together". Its about getting special treatment because you are not white.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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I enjoy living among people from diverse cultures and ethnicities. I just can't stand when people lump one group as if they were homogenous! Not all Caucasians are alike. We come from diverse cultural backgrounds (English, French, Dutch, Irish, Italian, Polish, etc.) Same can be said for Hispanics (Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Guatamalan, Peruvian, etc.). Same can be said for Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, etc.). I dislike broad assumptions made because of the color of one's skin and their facial features. Nowadays, we find more and more people who are mixed and are bi-cultural. Let's just treat each other as the individuals we are instead of lumping groups of people with similar features into a broad categories that are really superficial!
I can say that my group of friends might look like that if you got them all together. what you said is important though. you don't go out looking for people. I think a lot of people actually go out trying to draft friends. oh, I don't have a korean, perhaps I should search myspace for asians. I don't have a gay friend, I am not very diverse, I should go to a gay bar. I seriously know people who do this. I hang out with people because we have something in common, or get along really well. if the people were all white, or all black, I wouldn't feel bad. it just so happens that I grew up in the DC area, and you just end up making friends with the guy or girl who sits next to you in class, and most of the times, it wasn't a white guy.
Which is really my entire point of posting in this thread. I grew up in Miami and Southern California, very racially diverse areas. So chances of me having something in common with the kid of another color next to me, were greater. Now that is no longer just an urban thing, so the chances of a white kid making friends with an asian, black or latino kid are far greater now everywhere.
Having said all that, I don't think shoving diversity down peoples throats is going to change a person's mind.
And eating at a Thai restaurant doesn't make you enlightened, that I can agree on. I saw this funny humor book, it was called "What White People Like". The third or fourth page said "ethnic food". Very funny but also somewhat true. And I'm white.
I know people who like "food X", but the minute you talk about actually embracing something else from culture X, they get very defensive, like you are some kind of wierdo. But somehow ethnic food is OK. Sometimes people are incredibly shallow.
but at the same time, I have a problem with someone calling someone else a bigot, or not diverse if they don't have every race and culture in their group of friends. who cares. if someone grew up in maine, chances are, they are going to have white friends. if someone grew up in detroit, chances are they are going to have mostly black friends, and I don't have a problem with either one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mach50
Which is really my entire point of posting in this thread. I grew up in Miami and Southern California, very racially diverse areas. So chances of me having something in common with the kid of another color next to me, were greater. Now that is no longer just an urban thing, so the chances of a white kid making friends with an asian, black or latino kid are far greater now everywhere.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mach50
I can happily say that our (wife and I) group of friends does look like that, when we go out to eat we have Persians, Black, Chinese, Jewish, White, Latino, Pakistan, Vietnamese, Chinese, many who are mixed couples too.
It is not like we go out searching for different people either, but I think when you are open, others sense your open, and see there will be no hang-ups.
I agree. I am Irish-American/Caucasian/white (however you want to define me) who has friends from a variety of ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds. It is not something I deliberately set out to do but just a matter of chance. I am open and that's what draws people to me.
Diversity as a means to an end is one thing. But when diversity is the "end" it's nothing but a charade.
Real diversity is just tolerance and acceptance of other people who are different from us, minding our business and being kind to one another.
Few of us have a problem with that kind of diversity.
The new, improved, trendy "diversi-tay" is fake and contrived. Seeking out a different culture to live amongst just to make you feel trendy is poseur behavior. It's like saying "My kids don't watch tv, they watch pbs. (All day long)."
People are people; there is nothing wrong with living in a community of all whites or all blacks, or Pakistani or whatever. Why would that be wrong for God's sake?
And more relevantly, what makes you think that Pakistani neighborhood wants your lily white holier-than thou self plopping your clan in the middle of their perfectly comfortable neighborhood? AND all in the name of making your kids more culturally aware.
When you move into someone's neighborhood so you can "learn how they live and be exposed to their culture and diet" it makes them more like an exhibit, there for your education. Who would want that?
It's obnoxious. They're people, not animals at the zoo.
Having said all that, I don't think shoving diversity down peoples throats is going to change a person's mind.
And eating at a Thai restaurant doesn't make you enlightened, that I can agree on. I saw this funny humor book, it was called "What White People Like". The third or fourth page said "ethnic food". Very funny but also somewhat true. And I'm white.
I know people who like "food X", but the minute you talk about actually embracing something else from culture X, they get very defensive, like you are some kind of wierdo. But somehow ethnic food is OK. Sometimes people are incredibly shallow.
This has always been precisely my point....funny, I've even used the "Thai restaurant" example. "Lite" diversity (which MOST people are talking about when they 'embrace diversity') is fine IMHO..it's good, and it makes life interesting. This includes "Thai restaurants" (i.e., foods)...diversity in music, in art, in celebrations, in entertainment, etc. It may also include the non-elective diversity of race and ethnicity. All these things make society well-rounded.
However, I DO NOT embrace (nor do I believe most others do, either) the deeper diversity of core values, ethics, etc..sometimes referred to as 'multiculturalism'. Culture includes our parameters of what's right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable..and at some point, we must 'choose sides'. Cultures are not altogether compatible.
It's fine with me if I want to barbecue while my next door neighbor has a vegetarian banquet. I may even join him some time. We'll share ideas and etc. However, it's NOT OK for me, if my neighbor teaches his kids to use violent revenge as a way to settle arguments....or if he regularly beats his wife because "she's his", and that's "his right"...or if he forces his 12-year old daughter into marrying a 35-year old she's never met. Diversity at THAT level (and it certainly does exist, today, among the many groups of mankind) is NOT OK, at the neighborhood level....and there are many things which go on "over there" (wherever 'there' may be) which are NOT acceptable 'over here'....and saying this doesn't make one a 'bigot' or even a 'grump'.
Perhaps we could put it this way...I'm fine with going to a Thai restaurant....or to the Russian ballet, or to see Chinese opera, or an 'Oktoberfest'. But I don't want to LIVE under the laws and customs of Thailand, or of Russia, China, or Germany. When it comes to the basic structure and the protections we have in American society, at that point I no longer want to be 'diverse', nor do I want to 'experiment'. I prefer the American system, and don't want that to change. This means there's a limit to just HOW diverse I want to be.
So we should pursue a group of friends who are as diverse as possible. Don't have a friend from China? We should seek one out. Do we get an imaginary sticker if we adopt an Indian friend?
Do we get points taken away if we haven't been able to find a French friend yet and we have too many whitebread Americans?
Here is what I think is so funny about all of you arguing if diversity is good or not. Where my wife's family lives would be considered not so diverse because the majority of residents in the area happen to be caucasion (white), 92% in fact. Where some of my family lives, not CA, it is considered a diverse area because the whites are not the majority but, and this is the huge but here; the majority is not white but the majority is people of Mexican descent. The place is not diverse by any stretch of any imagination at all. The culture there is purely Mexican and the people who happen to be of Mexican descent get mad when people from another ethnicity, usually whites, want something done their way. The place is not diverse but idiots will and do call it that and only because of the fact that whites are not in the majority. All anyone has done, if they happen to move there, is to exchange one place that is not diverse for another that is not diverse. Nothing else people.
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