Diversity Essay Showcase

Love Diversity
By Nicki Eckard, State College Area High School, Centre County
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Through my eyes I see a world full of hate, racism, and prejudice. In my dreams I see a world full of love, equality and acceptance. As a child of the future, it is up to me and my generation to ensure these worlds will collide. This can only be accomplished by learning to embrace diversity. In order to embrace and appreciate it though, we must realize its importance.

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. In 1995, over 10,469 people were victims of hate crimes reported to the FBI. That number is rising every year. Can a land be considered free when people are dying over mere differences such as color of skin or sexual preference? Are the people who live in this free land brave when they are killing their fellow countrymen over these differences? The answer is no. The only reason that hate exists is because people fear each other. If we learn about and accept each other despite color, sex, sexual preference or simply the kind of clothing we wear, the hate would fade away. That would be the ultimate achievement.

If your skin is colored and your eyes are slanted differently compared to the "normal" eyes and skin color, it is almost inevitable that you will experience racism. As a Korean-American teenage girl, I have sadly been a victim of racism. I have been called a "chink" or the "Chinese girl" and other racial slurs. Although these words are hurtful, my only consolation is that they make the person responsible for the "name-calling" look ridiculous considering I am Korean and not Chinese. Either way, it is still a horrible thing to do to anyone. Of course, the racism I have experienced has not been to the extent of the Apartheid of South Africa or The Holocaust, but tiny insults can lead to bigger things. Whether the size of the racism is big or small, it is still wrong and must be stopped. Was not Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to one day have a world where all people shall be treated equally? I feel that it is our duty to keep his dream alive. Racism is a huge problem; we should all be colorblind.

Prejudice has prevented many relationships in my life from developing. When I was younger, people would take my skin color and nationality and use it against me. It was almost as if my differences were a barrier between the world and myself. Many people would not get to know me or become friends with me because they had already formed their opinions about me based on stereotypes about my race and not the person that I was and still am inside. As I have grown older, I have realized that those kinds of people are not suitable friends, but the sting of rejection and prejudice will always linger in my heart.

Prejudice also creates a barrier between heterosexuals and homosexuals. I find this quite upsetting. If you hate another person based on their sexuality, you must not be comfortable with your own. That is the only reasonable explanation I can find for this. Being "gay" is just another way to love a person. Love is the most beautiful thing in the world and therefore should be accepted no matter what form it comes in.

f you were to take everyone's surface differences away, we would all be the same underneath. When it comes down to it, we are all human. Our differences are what make us unique and special, and should give us a sense of pride, not a sense of rejection. The twenty-first century has arrived and it is time for us to erase the hate and embrace the love.