Diversity in the 21st Century
By Fatima Clarke, Mt. Nittany Middle School, Centre County
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Diversity in the 21st century is a significant issue. It is an issue that is frequently brought up in everyday life. I think it's important to understand diversity today because we live in a society where there are many different races and cultures wherever we go.

In my opinion, if people fear or hate difference, or anything dealing with diversity, they don't care about themselves. For example, Adolf Hitler, a nazi German was against people who didn't look like him, and he was opposing people who had certain religious backgrounds, especially Jews. He had a grandmother that was a Jew but did he care? That's why he killed himself. Hitler also killed himself because he gave up on what he was trying to do. He was trying to take over the world. He murdered himself because he didn't love himself.

Kids and young adults need to start and make a difference. We sometimes are being pushed around with peer pressure and stress. Kids are the future. We are the next generation. We must understand that no matter an age, ethnicity, gender, race, class, spiritual belief, or anything else, we must treat everyone equally.

We must value diversity today because we need to learn about our past to get to the future. We need to do this because some things that we do are based on what our parents did and we should follow some of them to learn. It is important to learn about the many different generations that our grandparents lived in, our parents lived in, our great-great grandparents and etc. For example, I didn't know that I had Caucasian, and Native American blood but did I fret about it? I, a 12 year old, thought it was a wonderful experience to hear my 94-year-old great grandmother, tell about when she was a little girl and how things have completely changed from what they were in 1907. When people have that kind of experience to learn about their past, they should take advantage of it and learn a few things they didn't know before.

We must value diversity today because if we don't know about different humanities, we'll be scared and think differently about them. Diversity is a sacred issue that should be brought out into the media more positively and not always negatively no matter what people have to say. We all need to learn about different people.

We must cherish diversity in the 21st century because without diversity, there would be no life and excitement. It would be a pretty gloomy world with no excitement. Where would the history that we learn in school be if we didn't have diversity? Where would everything be without the influence of those who fought for diversity and equality and people's rights; Marcus Garvey, and Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and more.

In the majority of public schools today, there are many people from different nationalities different ages, genders, physical and mental [dis]abilities, spiritual habits, etc. You can never run away from diversity. It will always be with you and will always be around you. Fairmount Elementary School in State College, PA has so many different races in that school that you would probably have at least one friend from a different country. At Fairmount Elementary, there were about 54 different languages spoken from about 200-275 children. My point is that most of the kids there learn about different cultures and religious practices. The children there aren't apprehensive to say that they have a friend from a different country and it doesn't mean that they were going to treat he/she differently.

Parents should play a big role in teaching their kid(s) about different cultures and ethnicity. There are some parents that are so afraid that their kid(s) is going to come up and say, "Why do people treat people of color rudely?" They are afraid because either their parents didn't say anything about different people, or they are too prejudice to tell the kid(s) that really did happen and for centuries and centuries, people have been so torn up from racism. Racism is around and there is absolutely no way to get away from it. It is all over the world. We cannot escape racism. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is a white supremacy group that hates people of color. They originated a few years after the Civil War. A lot of us think the Ku Klux Klan is in the south. What some of us don't know is that Pennsylvania is one of the top leading (or supporting) states for the KKK. We must know that racism is around us.

I recently read a true story that happened in Wisconsin some years ago. Basically the Hispanic people lived together, the Caucasian people lived together, and any other different minority lived together. At one of the high schools, there was a problem. The Caucasian and Hispanic football players usually got along, but not the parents. During the games, almost everyone would make mistakes. When a Hispanic player made a mistake the white parents in the stands would use foul language and tell them to go and sit on the bench and tell the coach that they were crazy that they had Hispanic players on the team. When a white player made a mistake, the white parents in the stands would just say that they did a good job and they should just try again. This disturbed the football players and they decided to do something about it. The football players had a meeting and decided to quit the football team before something major happens. The football players went to the coaches. The coaches refused to let them quit the football team. They didn't quit. They got some help from a student councilman, and announced over the P.A. system that a number of students meet in a room and help write a letter to the parents about the racism that was taking place and how it wasn't right. After writing the letter, they went to the principal and asked for permission to read at half time during the homecoming game. They were rejected to read the letter during half time. They decided to go to the superintendent and he said that they were permitted to do this. At the homecoming game, one of the players went to the microphone and asked for attention of the crowd. The football players were scared about how the parents were going to react. The letter also had said that the next person who swears would be escorted out of the premises by the authorities. The powerful letter was applauded and the judging of the Hispanics never happened again. We must realize that these kinds of situations can happen anywhere. So many kids have tried to change the way people have acted towards different people. Kids are the future.

We must understand that everyone is different. There are no two people alike. We must understand that we should all be treated the way we want to be treated. Hopefully this essay that I have written will change or influence somebody's thoughts about anybody's difference no matter what it be. We must all be treated with respect. We must do all we can to make a difference about diversity; not just kids, adults too. Adults need to teach kids and kids can teach adults. We must learn all we can to be successful in life and we can learn from our neighbors, families, friends, teachers, books, or any other source that can help us to get through life. We should always believe in ourselves and never ever give up. If we put our minds in to what we're doing, we can achieve our goals. There are a million different things we can be and there are a million different things we can learn, especially about diversity. Diversity is a powerful thing that somehow holds this world together. Diversity must be taught in order for equality and dignity to be established. In my opinion, no matter what age, you are not too young learn. In some ways, this world is magnificent and we can learn from any part of the world. We must at least try to understand different minorities, sexual orientations, ages, classes, ethnicity, genders, physical and mental [dis]abilities, spiritual practices, and anything that has anything to do with diversity. Try to visit somewhere where there is a different ethnic culture. Try to figure out if you feel comfortable, and if you feel really uncomfortable, read this essay again! Let's take a stand on diversity!