Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week I spoke with two African American females( older & younger), and one African American male. All three persons, described culture as a family or group who have certain beliefs, and customs. One person used the example of religion. She said "some families share certain religious beliefs". Diversity was described as the difference in people, and cultures. During our discussion, I explained the definition of  what the US considers the dominant culture. One of the females responded by saying" The US is the melting pot now; there are all types of cultures and ethnicities represented in the US". She even went on to discuss how ridiculous it sounds, to say" blacks  should marry and have babies with blacks; whites have babies with whites", and so on. We discussed how beautiful diversity is, and how boring life would be without it(diversity). It is sad to see how closed minded people can be( including myself). In the 17th century, the dominant culture of the US, would called those different from themselves barbarians(Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). What a sad way to exist!  Diversity is what makes the world go around!