Color of DIversity by M Jelita C

                Diversity, such a familiar word but so little embraces it. In a world where every snowflake is different and thousands of types of flowers exist, differences among human beings are still something people belittle. As defined by The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, diversity is the fact or quality of being diverse. To me the concept of diversity is the respect that everyone is unique and different in their own way. Diversity comes in many ways whether it’s race, physical abilities, gender, religious beliefs, and much more.

            Diversity plays a big role in my life as I come from a country known for its diverse culture. In fact, Indonesia’s national motto if translated to English says “Unity in Diversity” and it’s self-explanatory. Although we have been taught that motto our whole life conflicts and chaos still happens because people still do not accept other’s differences. The first acknowledgement of diversity is that it can be difficult. Although the world has accepted and equally treats differences among people society is still having a hard time embracing it. As a teenager in this modern generation I have seen a lot of the internet and a lot of time I stumble upon videos of people discriminating and despising people with a different race. Knowing how many people still haven’t accepted diversity makes my heart sink. We live in a world where millions of varieties of faunas exist so why can’t we treat human beings like that? Why can’t we love our differences just like how we love the different types of dogs there are.

            So it is, diversity may lead to conflicts and misunderstandings. But what’s the upside of diversity? Of course we would not think of building a house without engineers, architects, and designers. So what good comes from the diversity of race, religious belief, and gender? In life problems will appear no matter what and every time we run into them we will find a way to solve it. Everyone has their own ways to solve a problem. If a group of people consisting of people from different places with different backgrounds are send to fix a problem they will unite, hand in hand, and work on how to solve the problem with the different information, opinion and perspectives they each bring.

            A group of diverse people will work better and more efficiently than a group of similar people. It’s like sending a group of designers and a group of architects, interior designers, construction laborers, and engineers to build a tall skyscraper. It’s obvious that the group of designers won’t be able to do the task as they can only design the exterior.

            Our world is filled with advanced countries pushing forward to make a better world for the people. Imagine the possibilities we can achieve when we decide to embrace diversity.  Imagine the breakthrough innovations when we unite our heads and become one. Diversity isn’t only about bringing different opinions to the table but also about changing behaviors and the need to achieve agreement. By adding diversity people might not find agreement easily but it will make people work harder to come to consensus. This is the pro and con of diversity; people might not like it when other’s opinion changes their expectations but on the other side it can lead to better outcome.

            I see diversity as something beautiful in this world. And I’m sure if everyone decides to become one we will be able to reach higher. And I hope people can discover the beauty in diversity, because like what Michelle Obama said, “Our glorious diversity is not a threat to who we are, it makes us who we are.”