I believe that the ability to understand and respect others is everything. I believe in diversity. I think it is important because without it, we would all be the same. Diversity allows us to begin to accept, understand, and respect those that are different from us. As Henry David Thoreau once said, “Acceptance—could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”
Humans have a tendency on an individual level to believe that we are superior to others. We tend to be biased towards others because of looks, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or any number of other differences. Due to an immoral reaction to diversity, people hurt, bully, or even kill others, particularly minorities. There are many cases of mass genocide in our past, such as the Cambodian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Bosnian Genocide, and the Darfur Genocide. These are obvious cases of personal feelings of superiority leading to the oppression and murder of many people. However, bias is not just present in these extreme historical cases.
We all have prejudices, whether we realize them or not. It has been over 150 years since the abolition of slavery and we are still not past racism. This has been proven in countless studies that have shown that identical applicants for a job except for the name will be either rejected or hired based how traditional or “white” their name is. From 2005 to 2012, nearly two African American men were killed by white police officers per week. These are police officers - who we’re supposed to trust to protect us. Not all of these murders get the same media coverage as the events in Ferguson, but the situation is almost the same every time. Racism is present in less obvious ways, as well, with the most common being African American teenagers being followed through stores. So many people claim that racism ended with the abolition of slavery, but it is impossible to argue with the facts. However, I don’t believe that this has to be permanent.
Even in school, we are judged by who we hang out with or what we wear, but not by who we are. I want everyone to judge me for me, not for what they hear about me. Instead, treat me based on how I treat you and what kind of person I am. That is what truly matters.
It took us years to get past things like slavery, and many lives have been lost in the process, but I believe that there will be a day that we can all walk among each other in peace without judging each other based on superficial qualities.
Travel has helped me to understand this. I have seen the horrors that self-superiority has caused. I’ve seen Dachau. I’ve seen Bergen-Belsen. Going to any of these concentration camps and seeing or reading about the horrors that occurred there has reinforced the atrocity of self-superiority. These are the worst occurrences of a violation of human rights based on personal feelings of supremacy that have ever happened.
I believe that we have the power to overcome those feelings of superiority and learn to judge each other individually for who we are. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his “I Have a Dream” speech, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” These comments are still relevant today. Racism - and prejudice on the whole - is not some far-off event that we have overcome. It is still present. King believed that his children would be judged on their character rather than their skin. We have made great strides towards achieving this, but we must still realize that we are not yet at the point where we can claim that we have achieved total social equality.
We, as a society, have made great improvements towards accepting and embracing diversity, something which has been made obvious to me through my travels, but we aren’t anywhere near perfect. We may never be perfect, but I believe that, at the very least, we can be better than we are today. We can’t set a final goal for ourselves, but we should encourage ourselves and each other to be as open-minded and non-judgmental as possible.
Diversity is a Necessity
By: Katie Trindell