Diversity, the "state of being diverse", "difference", "multiformity" according to the dictionary. And unbeknown to the dictionary, there is actually another definition for diversity, and that's the United States.
Really it makes sense, after all. America is the land of immigrants. It started with those pesky English Puritans and goatee-famous French merchants and moved on to thousands of Irishmen and Germans and now Mexicans. Four hundred years ago, Columbus put a big billboard on top of America saying "HEY! LOOK! FREE LAND!" And as a result half of Europe flocked to American shores. People who would be fighting at each other's throats in Europe are forced to work together in a big new land, create families together. And so while in Europe, the French and English are slaughtering each other left and right, here in America at the same time we see the world's finest family of half-French, half-Englishmen.
If you want to know about America's diversity, just read Walt Whitman. He nails it down good, and rather poetically too. *wink*
And hey, diversity is a good thing, right? I'm certainly all for it. So when I hear about this Diversity Day happening at my school, my eyes light up with excitement. I think to myself, "Oh, goodie! I've always wanted to learn about different cultures!" I got pictures in my head of kids from different ethnic cultures standing up and talking about their traditions and cultures. The people in charge of the 'Diversity Day' discussed how the day was about promoting people's 'differences', and that if your different then you should STAND OUT. On coming to Diversity Day, we were supposed to wear clothing that was 'uniquely you'. Wear clothes that describe yourself, or your background, etc.
This is where my train came to a crashing halt. When I was told to dress as myself, I just blink and go, "What? I always dress like myself." And then when they started speaking about promoting people's differences, I think, "Wait, shouldn't we be promoting our similarities?" The Diversity Day was supposed to be about fighting discrimination, after all.
Before going to Diversity Day, each student was given a questionnaire to fill out about their background. One of the questions was about our ethnic background. I kept searching for the check box for "Caucasian" but failed to see it. Instead, they had "British Isles", "Eastern Europe", and "Western Europe". I wasn't quite sure what I was. I had to do a quick cell phone call to my parents and ask them where I was from. I eventually checked British Isles (turns out I'm Scottish-Irish). But later I found it rather pitiful that I had to call my parents and ask them, and a tad bit hilarious.
It didn't really matter though, because during Diversity Day we hardly talked about Caucasians. The day involved a series of lectures and activities, most of which talked about minorities...Mexicans, Jews, and Muslims were top on the list. Only about 20% of my school falls into these categories, and so the remaining 80% didn't really talk about their cultures or backgrounds. What we did hear about is how minorities are often discriminated, and I heard one story about how two people of 'feuding' races (Muslim and Jew, in this case) are successful coworkers in America. And that's all fine and good. It's great, in fact.
The only time the other 80% of us got to talk about our backgrounds was when, towards the beginning of Diversity Day, we sat down in our ethnic groups and talked about our 'ethnicity'. We spent half of this time making a poster where we listed all the bad names our ethnic group has been called. I was a bit puzzled at this point, because I didn't know any bad names that "British Isles" people have been called. I think I ended up putting down leprechauns, though I've never been called a leprechaun before. But again, it doesn't really matter, because I was quickly learning that "Diversity Day" was more about promoting minorities than discussing diversity.
I actually like the idea of Diversity Day. I like the idea of once a year, at every school, people sit down and talk about their different cultures and backgrounds. My school had the right idea about creating a Diversity Day, but I think in this case it could have been executed differently. People should be shown that, despite their backgrounds, we all live in the same land and we have more similarities than we think. That's the true way to fight against discrimination. But then I might be wrong. I'm not a minority in any sort of way, so I don't know what it's like to be a minority.
Diversity. The definition of Diversity is to divide, but in America it is our diversity that makes us unique. We remain United in our Diversity. But what does it mean to be diverse?
Oh, and here's a random tidbit for you. In Texas, while we lump Mexicans as a minority, they aren't really. Statistically, there are almost as many Spanish-speaking people in Texas as their are English. And if you go down to Brownsville, then you might visit the only city in America where Caucasians are the minority! Think on that. o_O
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America really is diverse. Many people can't even say the come from one ethnic group. I really like your school's idea of Diversity Day. It sounds really interesting.