Reply to comment

As we discussed in class on Tuesday, there is no easy definition for diversity; it can be placed within the realm of the genetic, physical, experiential, and so on. My personal feeling is that diversity is not solely one of these, but rather diversity exists in the absence of homogeneity. I also have to put forward the opinion that there is not hierarchy of diversity, in that one should seek one type of diversity preferentially. I felt that the example of the body as a summation of a diversity of cells as inadequate to discuss the topic, or at least the mental/experiential aspect of diversity. Cells in the body are diverse, however, they do not experience their diversity in the same way a mind experiences it. I believe someone brought up the idea that diversity begets diversity, in that personal background affects experience, and thus mental diversity. Alex T. (I believe) brought up the need not to discount diversity of experience, a point with which I agree. Just the scope and breadth of the discussion was indicative of the vastly different experiences we have had as a class.

Throughout the discussion the same idea kept popping into my head, but I was unable to fit it in to the discussion, somewhat of an alternate example to that of Paul’s NASA example. Just as diversity creates a synergy that is beneficial for the whole, homogeneity can do just the opposite. When one examines cases of ethnic cleansing in Croatia and Serbia in the mid-1990s or Rwanda in the same period, one can see that the groups that perpetrated and planned the killings were built around a singular purpose: creating a homogeneous state. Essentially, extremism begets extremism, which in this case was a lack of diversity of opinions; as there was no moderate voice to counterbalance the extreme push towards violence. This domino effect begins with ignorance and fear of others, thus the need for a push to have diversified institutions. I do feel that our educational systems, especially those which will generate our leaders, need experience with diversity as much as our institutions need diversity of experience.