.jpg)
Cultural Diversity:
Are We Really That Different?
Written by: Chenita “Infinite Apex” Dickerson
I am writing this article on the eve of Martin Luther King’s birthday, a few weeks before Black History Month, and just days after a devastating earthquake took the lives of many in Haiti and injured millions more physically and emotionally. It’s not hard to put myself in another’s shoes, but walking in them is another story.
Although I cannot imagine a time when equal rights didn’t exist, and I feel that the world is one big melting pot, often there are differences that seem to divide and conquer even if only in our minds. People will do things that don’t correlate to their thought process; give money to a cause, but won’t help the guy down the street. The disaster in Haiti appears to be the cause of the moment. I mean, why else would Former President Clinton and Bush come together and have a website combining both of their names in order to raise funds and awareness geared towards the victims in Haiti? The NFL paid 1.5 million dollars for a commercial to tell people to give money to the American Red Cross. Call me crazy, but give the 1.5 million to the Red Cross and hold a FREE press conference saying you did it to encourage others to give what they can. I just hope that the money raised far surpasses the money spent, although there is no real way of tracking the true numbers.
Every culture has had the good with the bad; the happy with the sad; the oppressed and the depressed. I am not being insensitive, but just trying to make a point. We don’t change; we just spin around, in another direction, and decide to grapple with the next “hot topic”, as Wendy Williams would say…
Fraudulent criminals are already sending out false e-mails and letters trying to swindle money from people who are attempting to get the funds to those in need. Are we really that different? Hell, No! One man’s disaster is another man’s dream come true… a politician’s chance to get his face in the place and in the good graces. We all want peace in the midst of the storm, but pray for change to come. Sad to say, one fellow’s found dollar is another’s lost one. A great price on a foreclosure is another’s homeless ticket. Everyone finds a way to make it about them.
Every race has had a hand at slavery and at being a slave master. Check your history, folks, and you will see that, yes, even Blacks (Africans, African-American, or whatever you identify by) have been slave owners (Michael Jackson’s song titled “Remember The Time” was about just that).
We find 100 millions when people are dying, but not through the years of the Haitian people crying… Were they not hungry enough, hurt enough, thirsty enough, Black enough before…? Red tape, governmental policies, protocol… Funny when the buildings came crumbling down we all ran in aide to help, but why not before?
Every culture has had the good with the bad; the happy with the sad; the oppressed and the depressed. I am not being insensitive, but just trying to make a point. We don’t change; we just spin around, in another direction, and decide to grapple with the next “hot topic”, as Wendy Williams would say. But, we ain’t trying to gossip. Wave the white flag, yell, “Time out,” and help mend and deal with the wounds of the present; forgetting the wisdom of times past and the warning of all the blood, sweat, and tears that came before, ran before, begged before us, screaming, yelling , yearning for someone to listen to CHANGE. Not change we can believe in, but just change: change the way we view each other, each other’s fears, dreams, realities, persecutions…
We find 100 millions when people are dying, but not through the years of the Haitian people crying… Were they not hungry enough, hurt enough, thirsty enough, Black enough before…? Red tape, governmental policies, protocol… Funny when the buildings came crumbling down we all ran in aide to help, but why not before?
We all have the same basic needs: to eat, sleep, be clothed, have shelter, and be loved (physical contact). Laughter and crying sound the same in any language and crosses all cultural boundaries. Life and death bridges us all together. We are all the same, greedy, selfish, arrogant, self-centered, and out for personal gain even if it’s to feel better about OUR selves, good in OUR spirits. Diversity is as diverse as ice cream… So many flavors, many different ingredients, but still ice cream, nonetheless…
