Narrative on Social Diversity and Multiculturalism

Social diversity can be defined as a society that lives together as different but equal units. Social class, race, gender, sexuality and others are what make people different but in that society they bring their own unique and special qualities that in some respects, bring us all together. Of course not everything is so positive; with differences in people come hatred for those differences and hatred based on those different but equal units can be very dangerous to a society. I said before that these different units bring unique and special qualities to the society as a whole; this can be defined as multiculturalism. Two or more cultures living together can be positive and negative as can hatred based on social class and sexuality. Social diversity has taught me how to live along with other people that are different than me and this is a very important thing for me. I think altogether that I haven't face many diversity issues being a middle-class white male, there is really nothing to complain about. I grew up in a town that had a few bad apples who tended to be racist in their everyday lives and watching things they do made me believe that I never wanted to be like that.

There has been one person who has been influential in shaping the ideas of social diversity and multiculturalism in my life and she is my mother. She was always tolerant of everybody in situations that some people would not be so tolerant. She taught me that everyone's the same and it's ridiculous to assume that skin color is a difference. I remember the first time I ever watched "American History X," it was and still is my favorite movie because it really delves into an important social issue at hand...hate groups. The movie depicted the life of a family sickened by Neo-Nazi ideals and the antisocial life of the other individuals in those groups. The most memorable part of the movie is the "curb-stomp" scene where the main character, a neo-nazi, comes out of his home to find a group of black gang members and proceeds to kill one by curb stomping him. This scene showed me the unreasonable brutality that some hate groups use all for the reason of diversity. This, to me, is the darkest side of social diversity. The side that I can't wrap my head around as to why people pursue those ideals and actions.

Being a Criminal Justice major, the social justice issues I am interested in investigating this semester are police racism and classism. More importantly, I want to look at what situations police use racism and why they do it. Whether it's to stereotype race and enforce law more efficiently but unethically or if it comes from hatred for another group or class of people. I think this is a very important topic to pursue because it is and has been one of the biggest social issues of the century and beyond. I believe it's important to understand why racism still exists and more importantly why it still exists in the police force.