Diversity is now mainly seen as a good thing, fortunately, because it gives us a chance to experience bits of the lives of others. But what about those who seem to despise how dark-skinned someone is, those who cannot tolerate others who speak their own language in a public space? The world’s very own global superpower, the United States of America, has a president that refers to football players taking a knee as “sons of b*tches.” How people are getting killed and harassed for their gender identity and sexual orientation, how women are being denied their rights in many third-world countries, to this day, and how you can get harassed for simply practicing your religion (i.e, Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-Sikhism, the anti-Hindu sentiment).
With diversity, there comes benefits, such as an instant friendship with anyone of the same background as you, having fun with your cultural experiences and celebrations, but there comes many disadvantages. It’s no news that diversity makes you stick out, gives you (often false) stereotypes and it’s not all that fun when people can start asking questions that can hit close to home.
As someone with a diverse ethnicity, I hear these questions more often than not.
“Are you good at English?”
Thinking as someone who writes for a magazine, I guess.
“Have you ever met a terrorist?”
Yeah, I and the Al-Qaeda are besties.
“Where are you from? No, where are you from?
As you can probably tell, most of these are based of stereotypes, and they’re usually harmless, but these develop into bigger deals, such as the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, an engineer who was murdered because he was brown, and Trayvon Martin, Dontre Hamilton, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Ezell Ford, John Crawford, Dante Parker, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, who was killed by law enforcement, due to racial profiling. The deaths of India Monroe, Noony Norwood, Brandi Bledsoe, Jazz Alford, Crystal Edmonds, China Gibson, Andrew Nesbitt, and so many more LGBT people that were in the Orlando Shooting were also deaths that happened because someone decided that their diversity meant they had no right to live.
Many people also seem to forget about disabled people, as a very diverse group of people who are also very often discriminated against and ignored by media and activists. Like Kelly Thomas, Magdiel Sanchez, Connor Leibal, Jaco Stols, and much more disabled people because the world needed reminds on how disabled people aren’t animals.
If people could be more open-minded and accepting, we could realize everyone is special and diverse in their own way, and how diversity is something we should embrace, not be afraid of.
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