Diversity Reflection

Diversity Reflection

Temira Ricks

Webster University

ABSTRACT

Diversity is defined as different attributes, experiences and backgrounds. The United States was built by a diverse group of people. Strength, resilience and richness are based on the diversity of its citizens. Diversity creates an organization that is filled with people from different cultures and has experienced different experiences, lifestyles, backgrounds, perspectives, and ideas. Although I grew up in predominately African American community, my parents ensured that I had a very diverse background; which prepared me for the real world. Now that I am an adult and serve in the military I have a better vision of other cultures and lifestyles.

Diversity can sometimes exist within the same culture. I say this because although I was raised in a community that was 98 per cent African-American living at or below the poverty line, there were differences. In East St. Louis then and now, there are some middle-class families that will pair favorably well to their counterparts in more prominent communities such as Edwardsville, Belleville, and O'Fallon, Illinois. I myself grew up in East St Louis, but eventually moved to Shiloh, Illinois. My family afforded me the opportunity to have a private school education, finer clothing, better food selection, and better transportation than others in my neighborhood.

I originally attended school in the poverish neighborhood surrounded by public housing. The school doors had chains on them, I am not sure if it was to keep the kids in or the bad guys out. At school, it was quite clear what social class each kid was in. The poor students usually stayed home when school dismissed earlier than noon because of transportation issues. The extremely poor students usually went to school no matter the dismissal time because that insured that they would eat breakfast and sometimes lunch. The middle class students; which I fell into that bracket wore...