Where Do I Find Diversity?
Diversity, of course, starts right in your own family. You probably share things like the shape of your nose or texture of your hair, but each person is still different. Even identical twins are unique!

But to really check out diversity, look around your town or city and around your school. How many shades of skin color do you see? How many hair and eye colors? How many body shapes?

Then think about the different ways people in your community worship, work, and play. Where do their families come from? What languages do they speak to communicate? How do they study and learn at school? It's not the same for everyone - that's for sure.

All of this incredible diversity is why the United States is sometimes called a "melting pot." This means that people of different races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds have all come together to share their lives. Americans share a number of very important beliefs; in democracy, in freedom of speech, and in the right to worship as they choose. These common beliefs give an important foundation on which to build a nation. Americans stand for these beliefs and defend them.

Americans also celebrate their different cultures, differing political viewpoints, and differing tastes in food, art, music, and just about everything you can think of. From the birth of the nation, these differences have strengthened and enriched the country. The diversity that Americans have valued throughout their history has a lot to do with making this world an exciting and interesting place to live!

What Is Prejudice?
Unfortunately, not everyone sees diversity as such a positive thing. With diversity can come prejudice (say: pre-jeh-dess).

People show prejudice when they form a negative opinion without knowing all the facts. (That's not fair!) These opinions might be based on someone else's race, religion, or ethnic background. They might be based on a person's gender, age, or disability, or even income or education level. Then prejudice can turn into hatred or unfair treatment of a person belonging to a particular group.

Do you recognize prejudice when you hear it? As soon as people are lumped together in a group, unfair opinions are probably being expressed. Consider the beginnings of these statements, for example: "All African-Americans are . . ."; "Every white person is . . ."; "Catholics always . . ."; "All Italian people . . ."; "Everybody in a wheelchair . . ."; "Poor people are . . ."; "Girls are always . . ."; "Old people are . . ."

Comments like these don't have anything to do with looking at a person as an individual, do they? Instead, prejudice divides people into groups and says who's in and who's out. Rather than building bridges between people, prejudice puts up walls. People who show prejudice often fear diversity for some reason. Instead of welcoming diversity, they're afraid of or uncomfortable with people who are somehow "different" than they are. This kind of thinking can lead to hatred and even violence.

What Is Respect?
But there's another way to look at diversity in the world around us. People who see others as individuals instead of labeling them according to the group they belong to are people who show respect for each other. (Some people use the word "tolerance" to mean the same thing.)

Respect for one another means being willing to accept other people's differences - even if they look different from you, have a different religion, or come from a different land. It also means treating other people the way you'd want to be treated.

Does this mean that all behaviors should be tolerated? No way! Behaviors that disrespect or hurt others, like being mean or bullying, or behaviors that break social rules, like lying or stealing, should not be tolerated. Respect is about accepting people for who they are, for their best selves - not about accepting bad behavior.

Practicing Respect
But isn't it easier just to be with kids who are like you? Kids who have the same skin and hair color? Who speak the same language? Who think the way you do?

Easier, maybe. But sticking with the easy way also means missing out. You won't get to find out about different cultures or learn about new ideas, places, or ways of looking at the world. You'll also miss out on making new friends.

Getting to know someone who's different than you might seem a little uncomfortable at first. Here's how a kid named Mike puts it: "When I see somebody who's not like me, my first reaction is to keep my distance. But after getting to know this really cool kid - who's totally unlike me - I realized that everybody's just looking for a friend."

A smile and a simple "hi" are all you need. All it takes is one person to take the first step. Why not you?

Updated and reviewed by: Neil Izenberg, MD, and D'Arcy Lyness, PhD
Date reviewed: September 2001
Originally reviewed by: Douglas Tynan, PhD