Essay 103

Random quotes that have deep meaning even out of context…

“…The signs of mobility and assimilation are everywhere — not assimilation as in becoming the same as everyone else, but assimilation as in becoming citizens, taking part in politics, enlisting in the army, paying taxes and speaking English.”
> The Economist, Degrees of Separation: A Survey of America, July 16, 2005, economist.com

“Multiculturalism resists the notion that people of color must assimilate in order to become accepted in society. Cultural difference is ‘recognized, acknowledged, and respected, without its individual members being coerced into a single homogenized amalgamation.’”
> KaaVonia Hinton-Johnson, Multicultural Review, Subverting Beauty Aesthetics in African-American Young Adult Literature, Summer 2005, mcreview.com

“The Blacks fought for their civil rights. These illegal immigrants are coming in here and having everything just handed to them.”
> Imperial Wizard Billy Jeffrey of the North Georgia White Knights, expressing displeasure over Hispanic immigrants

“It is just a fact that, by and large, the media types who pontificate about sports — in newspaper columns, on television — are so much older and whiter than the athletes who are their subjects that they might as well be wearing powdered wigs and wooden teeth. Most of the noise that surrounds our games isn’t controlled by the voices of those who actually play them.”
> Dan Le Batard, ESPN The Magazine, August 15, 2005, espn.com

“If you want your smart people to be as smart as possible, seek a diversity of ideas. Find people with different experiences, opinions, backgrounds, weights, heights, races, facial hair styles, colors, past-times, favorite items of clothing, philosophies and beliefs. Unify them around the results you want, not the means or approaches they are expected to use. It’s the only way to guarantee that the best ideas from your smartest people will be received openly by the people around them. On your own, avoid homogenous books, films, music, food, sex, media and people. Actually experience life by going to places you don’t usually go, spending time with people you don’t usually spend time with. Be in the moment and be open to it. Until recently in history, life was much less predictable and we were forced to encounter things not always of our own choosing. We are capable of more interesting and creative lives than our modern cultures often provide for us. If you go out of your way to find diverse experiences it will become impossible for you to miss ideas simply because your homogenous outlook filtered them out.”
> Scott Berkun, Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas, August 2005, changethis.com

“Proversity™ \ noun 1. progressive diversity: the product of bringing together individuals who appear different, but who have many common characteristics. 2. a more advanced and progressive form of diversity planning. 3. a description of individuals who look different on the exterior, but are actually quite similar. 4. the condition of having similar characteristics on a deep level in spite of existing surface characteristics that look different.”
> Lawrence Otis Graham, Proversity, 1998, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

MultiCultClassics Members are cordially invited to further study any of the quotes listed above.