What Diversity and Multiculturalism Mean to Me

By

David Meads

What does Diversity and Multiculturalism mean to me? I believe that diversity has become so much more than just the basic qualities of race or gender. It now includes all qualities that make everyone unique, as individuals or as part of a larger group. It is also the acceptance, respect, and understanding of these unique qualities that makes diversity work in a given society. Multiculturalism is the system that is centered around the respect for and the promotion of ethnic and or gender diversity in the society. Multiculturalism is the status of several different ethnic, racial, religious or cultural groups co-existing in the same society. Today, in the U.S. we already …show more content…

It didn’t take me long to start appreciating those unique differences. My first roommate was white and he was from Boston. He was at school on a rifle scholarship. He was on the college rifle team and at the time he was ranked nineteenth in the nation. He was a junior and had a lot of friends. One day I was left alone in the room with one of his friends. He asked me how I liked rooming with a Jew. I didn’t answer the question because I didn’t have one and he knew it. Later I asked my roommate if he was in fact Jewish. He told me he was and asked me did I have a problem with it. I told him that I didn’t and that I had never met anyone who was Jewish. At the time I didn’t even know anything about the Jewish religion. We became close friends and still keep in touch. I get a birthday card from him every year and a Christmas card. I think it is funny that he would send me a Christmas card. Maybe he does too. For a long time I wondered why his friend would ask me such a question. After a couple of years of college I was eager to move on to something different. I had a chance to wipe out my college loans and serve my country. I joined the Air Force at the age of twenty-four. My first duty station was Germany. I embraced the opportunity to experience this new world with its rich history, solid culture, and beliefs. It was fun and challenging at the same time. I spent a lot of time in the general population of the