The Rubik’s Cube That is American Diversity
October 30th 2008 16:33
"The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; It is this. "
~ Chinua Achebe (Nigerean Author)
~ Chinua Achebe (Nigerean Author)
While we sit in nervous anticipation for the selection of a new leader to guide our nation through the rough roads ahead...
I felt it was important for the people of the nation I love to have a discussion about the one thing that has simultaneously framed our utopian dream and torn us apart as a society.
This discussion doesn't include framed political one liner's, pointed fingers of historical mistakes committed by our ancestors or the divisiveness that still exists on the streets of the roughest ghetto or on the block of the plushest suburban neighborhood…
This discussion is simply about the diversity of a nation built by immigrants from every continent in the world and how we have applied these differences into our daily lives.
Every American has their own individual identity built through pride that was derived from their own personal family heritage.
We take this pride with us everywhere we go in our hearts and minds applying it to our daily lives.
The problem with diversity is not when we have pride in our heritage but when we fail to understand that others are also caring unique experiences within themselves and we fail to show this diversity the respect that it deserves.
I have personally been blessed to have been exposed to vast segments of Americana that has helped me to learn and understand the American experience in culture, entertainment and politics.
While it may seem strange for some people to understand an unboxed view of the world where a person can have a CD collection containing Guns & Roses, NWA, Jay Z, Aerosmith, Tim McGraw, David Alan Coe, Rascal Flats, Kanye West and Metallica but this is and has been a small part of my personal definition of diversity throughout my life through an open mind and diverse lifestyle.
I was raised to believe a person can listen to whatever music he finds enjoyable, talk to and form friendships with whomever he pleases, could dress with whatever clothing he sees fit and have friends of every race, gender, religion and sexual orientation without being judged but it has been my society that continuously tries to force me into the box of social expectations.
Rebuked by people of my own race for "acting white" fpr the way I dress and talk while also being looked down on by my social peers for not "fitting the mold"; I have spent a lifetime "doing my own thing" and formulating social thought based on my edcuation, personal experiences and not on the pigmentation of my skin.
I have never understood the correlation of a person being from a certain socioeconomic background, ethnicity, and gender or from a region of the country and the mental expectation that he or she should be categorized to act, vote or fit into a social stereotype.
It is through the stroke of my keyboard that I not only want to fire up the mass's to break down this social order but to also expand the American mind into destroying the boxes we place ourselves into socially, politically and economically.
There is no color category for hate and ignorance as it is a disease of the mind.
Education and information is the only cure for these social disorders but some people don't want to be helped and will do whatever they feel is radicaly nescessary for this illness to live and spread.
The situation only strengthens and becomes muddied when ignorance is met with anger as we don't try to listen and or find the root of the problem.
Some arguments will never be solved and other arguments can only be met by agreeing to disagree for the greater good but what we can't do is to write off each other because we don't understand the culture that defines how different Americans choose to live their lives or the things they hold close to their hearts.
In my writings I will never dream to imagine a world where we can all hold hands and be a utopian state where everybody got along.
I understand this notion is simply an impossibility but the more I talk to people from varying backgrounds about the problems we are facing in this country and the problems to come, the more I am hearing the same pain and disappointment in our government from both sides.
I believe this is the single point where we can all agree and the solution doesn't have to be a hard and fast rule that involves winners and losers because when we come at each other in blind rage for our personal points to come out on top instead of compromising the only losers are the American People and our childrens future.
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