When each of us respects diversity
we will all get stronger – together.
This is a line I wrote some years back and I fully believe the power of those words – not because I wrote them, but the meaning of them. Yes, it sounds as simple as most solutions sound, but with this one we can start at home and work our way from there. The results could be so awesome. Don’t you think?
Among the billions of human beings we live with, there are such multitudes of differences: skin-color, nationalities, languages, religions, traditions, values and the list of our differences is extremely long. But why don’t we more so look at the list of what we have in common instead of what we do not have in common; wouldn’t that make sense? Isn’t that a much better place to start?
We are all stuck on this globe-thing together; the moon is not ready to be invaded yet. Universally we all want to live happy lives, we want to survive whatever situations we are faced with, we want to love, be loved, be happy and care for our children, our families and friends and then die from natural causes, like old age; how simple is that? And that is what we ALL want, no question about it.
We are intensely suspicious about our differences. That’s why we have insecurities when facing people “not like us”, starting with some of our neighbors and that is not good. We should make the effort to understand each other much better by communicating a lot more. Bigotry, racism and homophobia (to name a few) are just factions I strongly believe could be diminished in strength by simple communication, learning, knowledge, understanding and from that: respecting. Yes, I am that naïve, but I do trust it can work a lot better than it does.
If we gather a few people from a multitude of different countries and place them in one space, I am convinced that they will quickly find common ground, based on simple human needs, instincts, feelings, emotions and simple zest for living. And it will work, because they get to know each other as human beings first, without borders and without molds we believed they belonged in. “IMAGINE”, John Lennon asked us to do…
We have a tendency to discard things and people and stuff that are different from ourselves; diverse makes us uncomfortable, so we react defensively. When we lack knowledge about something, we have a penchant to quickly ignore and discard instead of seeking understanding and learn. So we become ignorant, instead of wise and sympathetic.
When we look around within our little world of home, family, work and leisure, we’ll find that we are not fully embracing the power of understanding each other when faced with diversity. Insecurities make us judge and pass sentence, instead of accepting and respect. Based on one person’s actions, we blame his or her race world-wide. Like when swearing at somebody on the freeway who just cut you off – perhaps referring to that person’s ethnic background? When faced with a group of young boys being loud and “young”, obviously having a great time, do you tend to meet that with a negative thought, or do you smile and wave and do the “hi”-thing? They are young, for crying out loud and you used to be young as well – don’t you remember? Or do we go: All boys are loud and stupid? Admittedly, generalization is fast and easy, but also ignorant and for the most part: silly. Don’t you agree?
When we face the true understanding of diversity, we primarily translate it into a racial issue. True, race is obviously a big one; but is racial only a color concern? It is unfortunately so much more. Living in Copenhagen (being the cool ones, of course) we made jokes about the “farmers & fishermen” living in the western part of Denmark; or we explained simple things in a derogatory way so the people living in Aarhus (a larger city in western Denmark) could understand it. Was it funny? No. Was it ignorant? Yes. Did I get some laughs out of it? Yes. But it was cheap and pathetic. Jokes and comments about someone different from you, are applied unfairly because we are ignorant and lack knowledge, and that does not move us any closer to a better understanding of each other. Yes, I have sinned millions of times, but as I have gotten more mature (older), I find regrets in every stupid comment I have ever made in that department – I really do.
As an example, I have never thought “dumb blond” jokes were funny – seriously. So I was happy when I could close the diversity gap with this “dumb blond” joke:
“Why are dumb blond jokes so short?”
“So men can understand them…”
But then we are being insensitive to men; yet another “diversity” issue. Crap, it’s not getting any easier, is it? It was supposed to…
We are told to tip-toe around racial issues to stay political correct. We are suing each other for bigotry and being racists by not using the correct language. A Negro is no longer a Negro, and no longer a black person, but is at the moment an African-American. I’m still a white dude – so seriously, should I be offended when I have to check the box on the form that says WHITE? Perhaps it should say: Caucasian; but nobody can really spell or pronounce it correctly. Does all this sound silly to you? It should, because it is - really silly.
So what are we doing? We are supposed to get along, respect diversity, but instead we come up with new names for the same things, broadening the gap when we need to narrow it. We are told to tip-toe around our differences, when we should learn, respect and seek to understand these differences a lot better instead and then acknowledge all our sameness. So why can’t we just do that? We must make it easier to learn and understand each other, so we can move forward hand in hand; and I truly believe that is what we all want and must do.
For the most part we treat diversity with disrespect because of insecurities, ignorance and lack of information. Instead we should embrace diversity and acknowledge how unique and awesome it really is. And we can start doing so by dealing with issues around ourselves, solve our small insignificant “differences” with understanding and respect, and then work our way from that point – and when each of us respect diversity more, we will all get along a lot better – are you ready to try it?
I respect you for who you are; whatever gender, color or creed, sexual orientation, faith, nationality and choice of favorite soccer-team (which is the tough one, of course); yes, I stand by this entire acceptance, respect and perhaps a bit of LOVE? (As long as you are not on the wrong side of the judicial system and well-known to the police, Interpol, CIA or FBI – my diversity acceptance does have limits, just so you know)…
Until next Monday – get to know thy neighbor (there’s a start…)
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