Parul Saxena
When my mom's family came to
They were amazed that the government of the
I owe a lot to
There are a lot of use here today that owe a lot to
What's the point of diversity?
What does it mean to be diverse?
The truth is that on a certain level there is no such thing as culture,
or race, or ethnicity, or religion, or any of the other labels that we use to
identify ourselves.
There is only one universal human culture that all of us share.
On another level, we are all entirely different from each
other--regardless of whether we happen to share a certain ethnicity or not.
Each family, each group of friends, each individual has his or her own
unique culture.
Either way, the traditional definition of culture--the one that
encompasses the labels of race, ethnicity, and religion--is completely void.
So why do we learn about those labels on Diversity Day?
What's the point?
It is only by learning about those labels that we learn about how they
join to form our common human culture.
Those labels are only a possible starting point for our understanding, a
possible springboard from which we can begin to learn about others.
The labels are not an end unto themselves.
By beginning to learn about those labels that we can begin to relate to the
individuals behind them, and by relating to them we can appreciate what we have
in common.