Diversity Is A Privilege
I consider myself lucky to have grown up in Los Angeles and so many people from so many places.
At the time, I thought it was normal to live next-door to Persians, share lunch with Filipinos, sit next to someone who was Chinese during math class, talk trash with your Mexican friends during class breaks and then call your Salvadoran friend on the phone when you got home. To me, being able to gain access to other ways of living life so easily was normal.
When I grew up, I realized that I was wrong. Most people for most of recorded human history have not had the privilege of getting to learn about cultures other than their own, and even in our country, the much-lauded “melting pot,” people in many parts of the country are not as lucky as I was to grow up in a big city and get to know people whose families come from all over the place.
The more time has passed and the more opportunities I’ve had professionally to meet new people, the more I realize how fortunate I am to have grown up in a world where difference was so, well, normal. Growing up in a place that allowed me to see and experience things foreign to my home life made me a much more open and accepting person. I’ve been witness to some startling ignorance on the part of colleagues, associates and even bosses that could have been completely avoided if, at some point during their lives, they’d had to simply make do and get along with people who weren’t replicas of themselves.
But it’s not that simple.
All the fuss over the Census goes to show that, while this country has been changing and in many parts of the world people have been forced to live with others unlike them, not everyone embraces diversity as a gift. We need only look at places like Arizona to see an example, but there are many others as we all know. And yet, I also have to realize that there are regional versions of the DREAM Act and legislators fighting for people unlike themselves, people who, out of the goodness of their hearts, try to make the world a better place.
I always try to find a way to take the good with the bad and see how things will work out in the end. I know that I wasn’t the only one who grew up lucky enough to know people of all stripes, and that the others I do know who were this lucky benefited from it, too.
The future of this country is going to be a stark departure from the experience of the previous generation. China is going to continue to grow and, eventually, will displace the U.S. as a super power, at least that’s what “they” say. Immigration will continue to be a big part of this country’s heritage, especially immigration from Latin America. And, the fact that our school system sucks guarantees that we’re going to need highly educated workers imported from other parts of the world.
I, of course, am excited to see what my country looks like on the other end, and I hope we’ll be better, that we’ll have evolved. Because diversity is a privilege, but it’s also inevitable. So the question we must ask ourselves is, when you’re faced with a Chinese businessman, Latino teacher or Indian doctor, are you going to find a reason to make it work, or not?
