Perspectives on Culture and Diversity

This week, I was to ask friends for their perspectives on culture and diversity. So I do not misquote, I will cut and paste their responses:

First was a friend from high school, Carolyn (same race, gender, age as myself. Carolyn is in a wheelchair due to a genetic condition, which manifested after graduation):
culture...the beliefs of any particular group, diversity...a variety of cultures.

Debbie, a co-worker who is the same race and gender, but a bit older then myself:
Culture is something learned by participating in family or environmental day to day activities. It varies in degree from one individual to another depending on how immersed they are in the particular culture. It includes language, foods, music, fashion, religion, holiday customs, etc. Diversity is the existence of multiple cultures existing side by side, tolerating and eventually accepting each other's cultures.

Karen, a former preschool parent--same gender and race, several years older than myself, adoptive mother of two Russian children:
 Culture is a system of beliefs and traditions shared among a group of people or family. To me, diversity means a peaceful blending of people from different cultures or ethnic backgrounds who live/work in proximity to one another. It does not mean affirmative action or forced quotas to prove that there is equal distribution of cultures/ethnic backgrounds in a workplace or geographic region.

Sheryl, another friend from high school--same race, gender, age:
To me culture is the arts it's a sharing of experiences and traditions. I agree diversity is a peaceful blending of people from different ethnic and cultural heritages. Where I work many languages are spoken. There are many religious differences in the employees and we all work together with respect and harmony.

Lastly, Ron, a friend (and former boyfriend) from high school--same age and race, has lived in Europe for over 10 years:
I'm not so sure about culture, but I'm pretty sure diversity is defined as blonde, brunette & redhead.
Then, he realized that this was part of an assignment and offered the following:
I guess people are trying to be helpful to you and my smarta** response was out of place. But I thought that I should try to keep up my image.
Anyway, I've been sitting here thinking about what I think culture is. I think it is a little different in the U.S. than in the rest of the world. Every country that I've been to has had its own culture, which I define as the traditions and way of life that they all share. And because they have been living them for generations they are embedded into everything that they do. Most of the time it is religious based and therefore driven deeply into their soul and does not change very quickly.
Now since the U.S. is s melting pot, the culture there is more of a chaotic nature. Take for example the towns along the Lackawanna River that were originally populated by immigrants from different countries. They all tried to maintain the cultures of the places their families came from, but over time these have all bended together to form a unique culture of the valley. As a result, I think that over time the original cultures that they are attempting to preserve have lost their meaning.
Diversity is a tougher one to define for me. The problem is I think diversity is a product of the political correctness mentality. It has become sort of a utopian idea where we should embrace people's differences and uniqueness. But the problem is "cultures" have instilled in us a sense of us and them and I think this has led to people not wanting to accept diversity. Just take the Muslim religion for example. To us they are one culture dominated by their religion. But to thiem they see a Sunni and Shiite division that is unacceptable. Heck the same can be said here in Europe when the Protestants split off them the Catholics. The both worshipped the same God and yet they fought have each other over the centuries, right up to the trouble in Ireland a few decades ago. My point is everyone who is responding to your post with a feel good definition about diversity is full of it. People deep down do not see diversity as a good thing. It is what is causing most of the fighting in the world. Sure we should accept the different thoughts, beliefs and ideologies of people, but in the end we see them as foreign and something that is a threat to our group's culture.
Now that I have written all of this down I guess I can give you my personal definitions:
Culture = my way of life Diversity = everyone else's way of life

In reading these responses, I realize that most people view culture as surface culture, and don't really think about the deep culture that truly makes up one's personal identity. language, holidays, foods, etc--these are the things most people think about when thinking about culture.

Among my friends, there was a division of thoughts as to diversity. While the women tended to view it as different people from different backgrounds peacefully coexisting, Ron offered a different point of view: diversity is the thing that drives a wedge in between people and causes problems. I like the way he summed it up:
Culture= my way of life; diversity= everyone else's way of life. This is quite simplistic, but actually pretty true.

I agree that people's differences can and do cause problems and fuel fighting worldwide. I am optimistic enough to hope that we, as a planet, can become more educated, more tolerant, more accepting, and peacefully get along.