2008 Woodie Awards
Embrace Differences in appearances and personalities
Feature of the Week: Diversity
Sarah Mitchell
Issue date: 2/18/05 Section: Feature
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Take a look around a classroom at Assumption College sometime. Chances are good that, on the surface, the majority of the students will all seem alike. They'll sound the same, dress the same, and maybe even believe the same things. "Diverse" is probably the last word that you'd use to describe this class.
But if you take a closer look and begin to peel away the layers, some differences will emerge. There are the obvious: blondes and brunettes, male and female, athletes and scholars. If you begin to talk to the students and get to know them, you'll find they're from different hometowns in different states, with different opinions on the same subjects, and all have a unique background which somehow brought them to A.C.
When people talk about diversity today, many automatically make the leap to skin color. "Diverse" campuses are those which are home to a variety of students from different races and ethnicities. Whether or not we like to admit it, "different" is still an ugly word in our society. There has been enormous progress made in the Civil Rights Movement and the Woman's Suffrage Movement, but many of us still fear what we don't quite know. If you take the time to really think about it, you might start to wonder what makes us fear this mysterious "other" so much.
We are probably all guilty of judging others in some context. How many of us have held our purses just a little bit tighter when we pass a stranger on the street? Or how many of us have formed an opinion of someone we don't know based entirely on the clothes they were wearing? I'm as guilty of such judgments as everyone else is; I start and end every day with a certain amount of ignorance and my own personal limitations. But I'm working towards taking the first steps to actively examine why I think the way I do and what led me to the beliefs that I have formed, in the hope of appreciating the diversity around me instead of shying away from it.
The first step in changing your outlook is to put yourself in the same position as the person. For example, think how angry we get when others generalize or stereotype us. How do you feel when you hear another blonde joke? Does it bother you when people say that everyone from Massachusetts is a Democrat? Or what if you read that all Americans are "lazy and selfish."
But if you take a closer look and begin to peel away the layers, some differences will emerge. There are the obvious: blondes and brunettes, male and female, athletes and scholars. If you begin to talk to the students and get to know them, you'll find they're from different hometowns in different states, with different opinions on the same subjects, and all have a unique background which somehow brought them to A.C.
When people talk about diversity today, many automatically make the leap to skin color. "Diverse" campuses are those which are home to a variety of students from different races and ethnicities. Whether or not we like to admit it, "different" is still an ugly word in our society. There has been enormous progress made in the Civil Rights Movement and the Woman's Suffrage Movement, but many of us still fear what we don't quite know. If you take the time to really think about it, you might start to wonder what makes us fear this mysterious "other" so much.
We are probably all guilty of judging others in some context. How many of us have held our purses just a little bit tighter when we pass a stranger on the street? Or how many of us have formed an opinion of someone we don't know based entirely on the clothes they were wearing? I'm as guilty of such judgments as everyone else is; I start and end every day with a certain amount of ignorance and my own personal limitations. But I'm working towards taking the first steps to actively examine why I think the way I do and what led me to the beliefs that I have formed, in the hope of appreciating the diversity around me instead of shying away from it.
The first step in changing your outlook is to put yourself in the same position as the person. For example, think how angry we get when others generalize or stereotype us. How do you feel when you hear another blonde joke? Does it bother you when people say that everyone from Massachusetts is a Democrat? Or what if you read that all Americans are "lazy and selfish."