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Appreciating Diversity

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Diversity is a common attribute in society that most of the population under-appreciates and would greatly benefit from learning more about. We’re aware by our everyday lives that we come from a wide range of races, cultures, religious beliefs, and backgrounds but tend to believe that this normality isn’t something to be floundered over. Gary Colombo, in his article “Thinking Critically” and from his book Rereading America, contributes this look over to the cultural myth placed in America called “the melting pot”. We celebrate equality so passionately that even when it is verbally spoken about, it isn’t noticed. Proof of this is further found in the same book in Gary Soto’s article “Looking for Work”, where Gary reminiscences on his childhood experiences. Looking back over specific and different memories, his childhood-self fails to recognize and awe in the wonder of diversity even when he was speaking about it directly. He instead saw it as an idea so common within his society that he didn’t even pause to take notice of it or ponder what attributes could be taken from the differences. Although they were two separate men, Colombo and Soto both recognized how diversity wasn’t being taken note of in everyday life, and how the only way to fully appreciate the larger spectrum of society was to acknowledge it. To be fully aware of our surroundings and the beauty found within it, we have to think critically. As Colombo mentions in his article, “although we are all surrounded by visual stimuli, we don’t always think critically about what we see.” (15). In other words, even if we do physically see with our eyes the diversity in our society, it won’t matter unless we actually process what is being seen. That proves tricky when looking at America’s melting pot which is preached very diligently through education. This theory engraves the idea into our minds that every unique ethnicity is still one in the same wh

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