Diversity, for a long time now, has been becoming a part of our society.
Each day our society becomes more and more diverse; we meet more people daily and each one brings a new perspective about something into our lives. People everywhere have different opinions and ideas that we might never have thought of. Our lives are filled with people, each with different backgrounds and experiences, who we interact with every day. Diversity shows itself peeking out from the corner in many different ways: race, sexuality, culture, values, religion, gender, and an abundance of other ways. Diversity has not always been welcomed with open arms, but more and more we see people opening their minds to others' ideas.
So, diversity is a growing and (mostly) progressive part of our society, but what makes diversity important? Why should we be willing to take others' perspectives into account if we know we are right? Simply put, it's because you are not right. Well not always at least, no one is always right. But if we don't let others' ideas into our lives, we will never know how wrong we really might be.
Allowing diversity into our lives is how we find out all the brilliant ideas out there in the world. It is how we learn more about the world around us. By exploring other ideas, beliefs, and lifestyles with an open mind, we open ourselves to exercise creativity and problem solving by looking at things from other lenses. If we only take one perspective about events in the world, we will never understand the other perspectives behind them and therefore lock ourselves into a sort of closed-minded ideology that has only led to hate, prejudice, and tragedy throughout history.
Hate is a harsh word to use, yet it's used quite often in society as a way to express discomfort towards another group of people. It's often used because people don't fully understand a part of another group's ideology. This ignorance can lead to misconceptions which prevent diversity and encourage hatred. The sad part about this is that it becomes a cycle of life for close-knit communities. If everyone else in the community doesn't like a specific group of people, it takes a lot for a person to go against what their entire community thinks. Also, this gets passed down to the next generation and then again after that and so forth, until it is stopped.
Once diversity is accepted into societies they can begin to be more productive innovators, by trying to approach problems in different ways and from different perspectives. Whether it is comic book writers or if it is international peacekeepers, it is important to take into consideration other groups' perspectives on what you are doing. Also, once diversity is accepted, the society has a much higher chance to be internally and externally peaceful due to the lack of ignorance about other people. Having a diverse group of people is important in any community or society, and lacking diversity can cause huge misconceptions about other people, so it only makes sense to keep an open mind and open arms to anyone who you encounter.
“No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive." -Mahatma Gandhi
