Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

We all grow up in different family dynamics, towns, schools, religions and cultures. We learn and gain so many different concepts and values from each experience. We take so much in from each interaction and experience that each moment shapes and changes who we are.

I asked several friends their definition of culture and diversity and the three that responded in time gave the following answers:

JD was born and raised in a small rural country town in N.C. said "Culture is the behaviors and beliefs that a social or ethnic group stereotypically posses. Funny how if u talk about a bad thing then your a racist. But if u ignore the bad behaviors and only pay attention to positive attributes your a scholar."  And diversity is "The difference between all of these groups and possibly within the same group. The study of the differences if you will."

Lori who lives in NYC but was born in Paraguay said "culture is made up of your upbringing and i guess where you were brought up, like location wise city vs burbs ... and who has kinda been an influence in your life. i kinda think that everyone has their own culture almost like their own personality, identity" and diversity is "the world i guess...no one person is the same...everyone is different therefore everyone is diverse."

Rj was born in California but has lived in Maryland for the last 15 years, said "Culture is the habits and traditions created and followed by a group of humans" and diversity is the "Differences in beliefs and culture."

The answers that my friends gave were quite interesting and similar. They all inadvertently stated that ones culture creates their social identity. Lori feels that each of our cultures is interrelated with our personality. JD has had limited amounts of exposure to other cultures and is uneducated in diversity and how it plays a role in our world in this day in age. Lori has grow up with a lot of exposure to other cultures and has even been seen as a minority. Rj has grown up with a moderate amount of exposure to different cultures and has a good understanding and acceptance of others. Lori moved to the States around the age of 3 months, she was adopted by a single white female. Lori looks nothing like her mother and has been mistaken as  'Spanish' several times in her life. She knows what it is like to be an immigrant from another country and not the majority. Since we are all different and come from vastly diverse upbringings, for a variety of reasons, our ideas towards culture and diversity are going to be dissimilar yet congruent. My thinking has not changed much on what I define culture and diversity to be, I agree with all three of my friends definitions but also feel like family plays a bigger role within ones culture and society plays a bigger role in regards to diversity.