What does diversity mean? To me it means to be surrounded by people who don't resemble or look like you. To be surrounded by people growing up with different traditions and cultures. But what does it really mean for some families? Does it mean losing your traditions and cultures as you grow? Or does it mean exposure and respect for everyone? Similarly, uniformity is also reality for those who live in a place where everyone around them has the same culture and traditions. Do those children lack basic inclusivity, or is this better to keep traditions and culture alive? But between these two concepts there is a connection. What happens when you are exposed to both?
Diversity is the state of variety. In places like the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and even some African countries, this is not uncommon and is often reality. Children growing up in these environments are exposed to different people, cultures, and traditions. People often view this in positive ways for exposure and respect. But sometimes diversity is the thing that drives people away.
“When I was a child I was very lucky to be surrounded by these different communities,” one source says. She claims that growing up in these different places shaped her idea that differences are interesting and they are something to explore. She says that oftentimes, immigrants come in with a sort of fear of others who they have not encountered and a fear of different people. She recalls her childhood saying that “I was living two lives simultaneously” when living in California. This demonstrates the struggle every child goes through, whether coming from immigrant parents or not, to fit in with their peers even if that's not what they do at home.
But despite growing up in lots of diversity and in a different country, she stayed connected to her roots. Currently she volunteers at religious centers and teaches young children about their cultures and traditions. It is a great example of honoring your roots, especially living in a different area.
However there is the latter, of people who grew up in uniformity. There is often a misconception that people who grew up like this aren't open minded to new people. In fact, it is completely on the person to be open minded or not, and is rather a person-to-person trait than a trait in general for people who grew up with a lack of diversity. An interviewee states, “When you grow up in a consistent culture, you don't think about other cultures.” He says when growing up in a traditional rural community where everyone is almost the same, you never really think of people outside of that bubble.
He states that coming to a new place with no experience with new people doesn't mean you are close minded. He says that coming to the US, he came with a mindset of exploration and curiosity rather than fear. He did depend on people from his community and found comfort with people from his culture to learn and adapt to a completely new environment. But growing up in a place where everyone had the same expectations led to extreme pressure to do better.
When parents expect the same things from their kids and teach them the same things, spots become limited. He grew up in a place where everybody had similar experiences, and it was very common for them to have the same mindset too. Because of this there were limited spots for everything. There was often immense pressure to achieve that level of success due to the limited spots and high expectation to do better than your peers.
However, the cultural gap between people who grew up in diversity and uniformity has been shrinking by day. With the popularity of the internet and social media, everybody is exposed to people from all around the world. They learn about different cultures, traditions and respect through the internet, and help expose children from a young age to the world around them. Now, knowing about the basic culture and traditions of others is almost customary.
The internet has also helped with representation of others and letting them feel seen. This helps young children feel seen and become proud of their culture even if they don't see it in their everyday life. It provides a base for the children to grow from and end up passing their culture to the next generations. This is slowly bridging the gap between people who grew up in different environments and is helping people learn and accept themselves and other people.
To summarize, there are often misconceptions about both sides of both types of people. It doesn't mean they aren't true, but they also aren't as common as you think. People who grew up in diversity can be as connected to their culture and history as they can be, and people who grew up in uniformity can be extremely open minded to everyone. As time keeps going, the distance between people closes. Pros and cons about these ways of living doesn't indicate anything about those types of people, but just demonstrates how people see the world.