Explain Why Cultural Diversity Is Important In A College Education Essay, Research Paper

Explain Why Cultural Diversity Is Important In A College Education

I come from a small town. Hannibal, MO, the boyhood home of Mark Twain,

is described its claim to fame as ?a sleepy town drowsing.? Most surely he has

never been more accurate, for this small enchanted river town has never awakened

total equality.

It is a town full of ignorance, where nobody has ever thought twice of

sharing and spreading their sly comments and idiotic judgements to anyone and

everyone who will listen, and most people do. It is a town where fathers,

mothers, brothers, sisters, and grandparents teach their kids to ?ignore those

no-good niggers,? stay away from those ?half-breeds? and give hell to anyone ?

nigger-lover? who refuses to believe the truth. It sickens me.

Last year, we had an issue to address at our school. It later became

known as The Cowboys vs. The Blacks, and never has our school been more

involved. The newspapers screamed of the hate, violence, and threat of gangs

that were corrupting our schools; the halls rang with the lastest gossip on the

next big showdown. This problem slapped a school full of apathetic kids into a

lively bunch ready to get involved. Involved in what? A controversy that all

had opinions on, but how could you not have an opinion? It was the talk at all

of the dinner tables, bars, and stores in town. Kids went home scared of the

racial tension. Parents whined and cried of violence in the school.

The parents whined and cried, and at the same time forgot to remember

that it was they, not the kids, who had taught the very prejudices that were ?

disrupting the education process.? My opinion is simple and elementary:

Children are not born to hate others, they must be taught to judge colors. If

we are taught prejudices, then obviously, the racial tensions at my school

didn’t disrupt education, rather enforced lessons often reviewed over fried

chicken and potatoes.

I cried once in my sophomore history class. The girl in front of me sang

and preached that life was just that way, no one could ever change anything, so

why should we even try? Prejudice is taught in the home, and the home is where

we learn everything we really need to know. I listened, fumed, and stood up to

interrupt her. (I rarely frown, let alone yell, but I had had enough of her

pessimism. All eyes and ears were on me, and as my dramatic nature began to

influence me, I started to preach.)

I have a theory. I created it. Some say I’m naive, others say I’m too

hopeful, but so far no one has told me to abandon it, so I cling to my idea and

share it as often as the issue comes up.

I have a story about my experiences. At my grandparents house, we

cannot watch Cosby without hearing a racist slur from my grandfather. Great guy,

but racially unfair. My dad grew up around jokes and hints about those ?half-

breeds’ and such, but I did not. Enter my theory. Somewhere in my family, the

racist ideas were tamed, not eliminated entirely, but curtailed in such a way

that I was able to escape them. How did my father, who was conditioned at an

early age to slight those of other cultures, unlearn?

Two words: education and experience. My dad played football and

studied with people of different ethnic backgrounds. Although he was still

exposed to the beliefs at home, he was beginning to slowly form his own. Always

around different cultural backgrounds, always aware and always learning that

maybe what he had been earlier taught wasn’t entirely true. Questioning all the

time, wondering if maybe they weren’t so low-down and no-good.

There comes a point in all of our lifes when we simply grow up. We no

longer blindly latch on to what our parents say. We believe ourselves before we

fall victim to other influences, and we question and reteach ourselves answers

we believe correct. We evaluate and review what we have been taught, and

sometimes, if lucky, we are able to unlearn.

If my dad had never studied, sweated, and sheltered others of different

ethnic backgrounds, I would have grown up hearing as many sly jokes and racist

comments that he did. I would not, however, repeat them to my children. Why?

Because I would have played in the sandbox at kindergarten with someone not like

me, cheered on a squad where not all have the same ethnic roots, and exchanged

math notes with a fascinating foreign exchange student.

Cultural diversity is not important in a college education, it is vital.

No other place is more ideal than college ke of success, everyone would unlearn

the prejudices taught to them, and learn of What we need here is not the

arrogance of power, but the cooperation of everyone to learn and to be open-

-minded.