My Experience With Diversity

This paper is going to cover my personal reflection of what diversity means to me. I will discuss the messages I learned as a child about various minorities and majorities, and how my views have changed since then. I will also describe a situation in which diversity directly influenced my life. This paper will also include reflections of the common read novel The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. I will detail how the main characters experienced diversity. I will give examples of how diversity changed their lives and which person I personally related to the most.

Famous author and speaker, Maya Angelou once said ““It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” Diversity can be defined as people coming together from different nationalities, races, religions, sexes and sexual orientation to form a group, organization or community. A diverse organization is one that values the difference and similarities in people. It is one that recognizes that different people can bring unique ideas and perception to different things. Diversity is what keeps the world spinning because without diversity everyone would be the same and you wouldn’t be able to truly understand yourself. Personally speaking, diversity is important to me because I’m a product

My diversity experience began on November 12, 2016 in Wilmington, North Carolina at the Jamaica’s Comfort Zone restaurant. I chose this experience because I feel I need to learn more about Jamaica, Jamaicans and their culture. Also, because there appears to be a large number of Jamaicans residing in various parts of the United States, particularly in New York, Florida, and Georgia (Atlanta). Prior to searching for an authentic Jamaican restaurant, I decided that I needed to do some research regarding the culture of Jamaica; and, as a result of my research, I discovered that the culture of Jamaica is quite interesting to learn about. In fact, Jamaica is a mountainous Caribbean island just south of Cuba (see Figure 1) with a population of approximately

I am a young black woman who is trying to pave the way to success through furthering my education. Everything I bring to the table adds to the spectrum of diversity. Growing up I always felt different. The elementary school I attended , I always could recognize where I differed from everybody else. My hair, my skin tone, my gap (before the braces), and especially height. It wasn’t easy but the older I became, I learned to embrace every aspect of me. Diversity to me is what you bring to the table (age, gender, sexual orientation, race, skills, etc.) that differs from everyone else. It’s what makes you stand out among the population. To me it means a lot because diversity brings positivity and it celebrates the special qualities

Everyone has their own experience with diversity growing up. Some kids grow up in a very diverse neighborhood and school district, while others grow up in small farm towns where their closest neighbor is five miles away. It is always interesting to see how everyone is raised, their beliefs, and their personal experience to diversity. No matter how an individual is raised, as an educator we need to make sure everyone feels welcome in our classroom no matter what their background is.

As I reflect over my life, I appreciate the many diverse experiences I’ve came to encounter. My experience with diversity dates back to birth. I am from a small rural town, Moss Point, MS. and notably the last state to abolish slavery. The town currently has a population of 13,704 people and consists of 73% Blacks or African Americans, 23% Caucasian, 1% Hispanic or Latino and 1% bi-racial.

“The multicultural training movement has indeed contributed to a greater and much needed understanding of the differences among various racial, ethnic, and cultural groups (Speight, Myers, Cox and Highlen, 1991).” In looking at this statement counselors will need to expand their thinking outside of the Western European contexts. There is a difference between Western culture and other cultures. Sue & Sue, 2012 states “ each cultural/racial group may have its own distinct interpretation of reality and offer a different perspective on the nature of people, the origin of disorders, standards for judging normality and abnormality, and therapeutic approaches. (p. 45).” As we are brought together with more cultures it is imperative to understand the differences, which will enable counselors to become culturally competent.

As an occupational therapist, healthcare worker, and an immigrant, I am a part of diverse communities. Living and working in diverse communities have not only helped me to become culturally competent but also grow personally and professionally.

1. When I first heard about this conference last year in the diversity club event, I thought of it as essentially a vacation in Atlanta. It sounded fun, but I wasn’t particularly interested in it. Still, I thought it might be worth checking out, so I decided to look online to see what its website said. What I found painted a picture very different from my first impression. It gave the impression of a legitimately powerful learning experience, which coupled with Ainsley’s testimony began to sound extremely worthwhile. I like to think of myself as a fairly culturally sensitive person, but I began to realize how little diversity I’ve been exposed to, growing up in New England. How much could I really understand cultures I had never even come

I always marveled at how Joshua’s Yakama managed to stay on. Sweat dripping and curls bouncing with each exercise, Joshua listened for my instruction. I had to be very articulate and an extremely good demonstrator when correcting Joshua with his exercises. A practicing Hasidic Jew, Joshua was not allowed to touch or be touched by a female.

When it comes to diversity of people, one will not learn to appreciate a different lifestyle without being educated. Diversity requires education, because it is very easy to place yourself in a bubble and not learn to coexist with all of the different varieties of people. Now that I have learned how diverse people are in more than terms of race or religion but experiences in life, I will be more open minded and considerate of others. Someone's physical appearance is not the same as someone's mentality, and it isn't fair to judge that person based on their appearance when you are almost always going to be wrong about that person and/or offend him/her. Knowing this information impacts my life in the way I use language and see the people around me. You don't know everyone's life story and you don't know what their emotional trigger is. If I have a comment or thought

As I slowly fell asleep with tears in my eyes, my concurrent dreams, the worry for humiliation silenced.

Interestingly enough, the main diversity-related obstacle I’ve faced in my life has been the categorization of diversity itself and the notion of being “enough” in these categories. I’m a person of color, and I’m a person of mixed race. My late father was English, and my mother is African American. It was always awkward growing up without my father, because I was a drastically different skin color from my mom as a very pale and white child. People often asked my mother ignorant questions like, “Is she yours? Are you watching her for someone else?”

Diversity is an ongoing discussion in day-to-day life. Not many situations occur without diversity having a role. There are a multitude of topics that introduces or involves diversity, to include age, sex, race, gender, ethnicity and so on. Prior to participating in this Diversity Awareness class, I’ve always thought diversity was more geared around discrimination and racism. Through weekly readings and discussions, I have discovered that diversity is much broader than that. There are many countries that are mixed culturally

We live in a society where people come from different countries, they belong to different cultural, religion, ethnic groups, and races. All these factors come together and contributes to differences that make us unique from each other. Hence, a multicultural country with huge diversity. This reflection journal will cover what “human race” is and what role it plays in ones’ personal life and in a nursing profession. Moreover, what bias, assumptions and judgements are, and how to avoid them. Lastly, what caring is and what role does it play in nursing.