Why Is Diversity Important

Many times we default to what is most comfortable to us whether that be a job, a friendship, or even a restaurant. We have defaults for everything. The most dangerous kind of default, though, is in sticking to one kind of group, or rather people. Obviously, an accountant would get along more with other accounts; they could talk about cases and make math jokes. The danger comes in getting too comfortable – when we just go along to get along. When we get too comfortable we forget that there are other people not like us. Not like us, here, does not have a negative meaning; where as in other places it would. Simply, I mean someone who is not an accountant. Someone who could challenge the way you look at the world.

Why is it important for our views
to be challenged? For one, being shown other types of people or lifestyles may actually help you grow. For example, If a transgendered man or woman started at your work tomorrow, in this situation you have never met a transgendered man or woman before, you might feel yourself standing on unchartered territory. You might be thinking about what is appropriate to say, to do, to ask, to joke about, etc. The introduction of someone new makes us think about our old conventions – is this okay to say or is it hurtful, etc. It also forces us, hopefully, to have conversations. One day you will have to talk to this new coworker, and one day you may ask about their story. Hearing someone else talk in person about issues, you may have only heard about on the news, gives you a deeper connection with these issues and with that person; they become less of a token and more of a human.

Diversity is important.
Discovering worlds other than your own is important, and necessary for one’s growth as a person. If you only experience one way of living, you have no concept of the world – the world as in the billions of people that do things a billions different ways. Diversity forces us to see the cracks in our foundation and makes us want to fix them. Without diversity, Viola Davis, an amazing actress, would not be the first black woman to win and Emmy for best lead actress in a drama. The winner would have been a white woman, like we are used to. With this example, we can really see the danger of “going along to get along”. It seems ludicrous that a black woman has never won that award before, as there are many great black female actresses. But, maybe we did not think about this before she won. I, for one, had no idea a black woman had never won an Emmy for best lead actress in a drama. This case of diversifying the people we consider good entertainers has shown a lot of people that this industry is not totally equal. This realization probably shocked people and made them re think things they had said or felt about the entertainment industry.

This feeling of shock, though, is not a bad thing. It is one of the best things, in fact. This shock first embarrasses us for thinking the way we did, then makes us realize why it wrong and turns us to face our misconceptions. This kind of shock is one of change. The only way this change can be brought on is to diversify
the experiences we subject ourselves to. To be a well rounded prarticipant of our world, we have to know who else is in it.