h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's a Ursula K. LeGuin novel called the Lathe of Heaven. The premise is that a slightly disturbed individual has begun dreaming, and what he dreams becomes real. A psychologist notices this, and begins to use his patient to try and make the world a better place. He asks the patient to dream of a world where there is no racism, no discrimination. The patient wakes up to a world where everybody is gray. There are no different skin tones, there's nothing to make anybody unique. (Then he dreams of world peace and wakes up to find everybody but him has vanished!) (Good book.)

It's a hard line to draw. We want everybody to celebrate their differences and to embrace diversity, but we want everybody to have the same opportunities. We can't all be the same kind of person - the world would be a very boring place. We've got to make the world an equal opportunity place for everyone - whether you're male or female, young or old, smart or stupid, clean-cut or shaggy, or even black or white.

Too right!! This is an imperfect world, but it's probably all the more interesting for that!!!!!

Bambi

If we were all the same, we'd get bored! But...

It's a sad and upsetting part of human nature that we pounce on differences between individuals and cultures and use them as weapons to beat one another with. (I suppose in earlier civilisations, differences meant dangerousness, a sign of being a member of an opposing group that might storm over in the night, burn your hovel, steal your cattle, etc etc......)

In this supposedly more enlightened century we should learn to accept each other's differences and (to borrow a phrase which gets the **** ripped out of it at work) celebrate our diversity. Sounds like airy fairy crap but we need to....

I agree - but not so much 'celebrate our diversity' (which sounds like a very American saying to me), but simply 'accept everyone is different' and 'different isn't a bad thing'.

However, although it's a problem the white middle classes are blamed for, it cuts both ways and many black/Asian/disabled need to learn to accept white/Western/healthy people too.

The problem is that resentment breeds resentment. I have a real problem with a phrase in common usage in the UK. The phrase is "The Black Community". It's also used for every other minority group... My feeling is that the African guy over the road is not part of the African Community, the Nigerian Community, the Black Community, but part of *MY* Community!! And phrases like that drive wedges between us.

Sorry, this turned into a bit of a rant!

'Celebrate diversity' is an American saying - more than that, it's become the workplace's catchphrase. Employees at my job have all attended 'diversity training' which was intended to help us accept and appreciate differences - any differences. We all have unique working styles, and sometimes we rub each other the wrong way. It's good to remember that yes, we are all different, and we all get our job done in our own special way!

Sometimes I think minorities refer to themselves as the '____ Community' not so much to alienate themselves from everybody else, as to share a unique culture and heritage. Hispanics in our area participate in 'Ballet Folklorico' and 'Ballet Azteca' which puts on traditional dances from Mexico. Blacks in Texas celebrate Juneteenth - the 19th day of June, when the Emanicpation Proclamation was read in Galveston, freeing the slaves. The Irish and Scottish in Texas gather for Celtic festivals across the state.

What I want to see is individuals from one culture enjoying other cultures. This doesn't mean go out and eat Chinese food... although that's a good way to start. I mean going to a production of 'Raisins in the Sun' at the Jubilation Theater, or celebrating Juneteenth with a barbecue.

The parent company of where I work is American....I must be getting assimilated ;o)

I've got to agree with you. Apparently there's an initiative in parts of Birmingham where white people are meeting Asians at the local community centre. They cook various foods, and basically chat to each other, so they learn about the culture and the people who are a part of it.

It makes me laugh when people assume this century should be more enlightened than others. Hum nature remains the same, we just get better at hiding our inherent nastiness towards other people. It's sad, but a fact, that we shouldn't be too eager to think "but this is the 21st century, we shouldn't be like that." It also makes me laugh to hear people saying things like "un-American" or "un-Australian" when talking about people who are doing naughty things. Wake up! People misbehave when they think others aren't watching!!!

Bambi - I agree absolutley. I think.

Wow, that was a short post.
I actually imagine people without racial differences would look kinda orangey.

I seem to remember some scientific study which created (by computer) a composite face of what we would look like if all our gene pools across the globe was mixed.

The resulting skin was a kind of pale coffee colour. I can't recall what the actual facial features were like.

But then I would imgine that we would somehow think up another way to differentiate "us" from "them".

Of course. Small-minded people always find a way to make them feel better about themselves. To totally eradicate discrimination, we would have to eradicate self-doubt, esteem issues, and social classes. It's possible - but it will take a very long time.