Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I asked three people their definition of culture and their definition of diversity. I asked a middle school teacher in her mid thirties, a nurse in her sixties, and an accountant in her late thirties. 

Dana:

Culture is all the little things that make up a person. Diversity is accepting people who are different than you with an open heart.

Marcy:

Culture is your family and what you believe and holidays you celebrate and your heritage. Diversity is all the different people being in one place. Like you can have a diverse family and that would mean that you have your core white family and some Asian or Black people that have married into the family.

Amanda:

Culture is what makes a person who they are. Diversity is the beauty that makes a person special and the reaction of love from others.

I was surprised by the answers I received. I tried to pick a diverse group of people knowing that one in particular had biases. I was also surprised that most of the individuals thought of culture in a surface definition instead of deep culture. I thought that Dana gave the closest definition of culture to my reading from this week and seemed to really understand what culture was. Diversity seemed to be the most difficult for each person to define. They spent a lot of time thinking about each answer and even after giving one seemed unsure about their response. When it came diversity I loved Amanda’s answer and thought it was well stated. Diversity can be beautiful. I was also surprised how nervous people were to answer. I even had people say they would rather not answer. This was an interesting experiment of sorts to do.