Diversity

Social diversity is a weird thing for me.

I attended a diversity event though my STEM EE program and out of the many questions she asked of us, one question stood out above all others. She asked “what identity groups do you most think about?” The answer should have been simple enough. My Indian heritage has been, and continues to be, a huge influence in my life. I was raised through Hindu beliefs, spoke two languages before I knew English, went to the Indian temple every week, visited a lot of Indian families and attended a lot of Indian events. Being Indian was a big part of me but I never really thought about what it meant to be Indian. What came to mind the instance she asked the question was being a male. Not about the struggles of being a male but the struggles others probably face not being male. I have been asked by multiple female friends to walk them home at night or walk them to their cars because of a safety concern. I always happily oblige but it becomes ever increasingly evident that I do not have to face this challenge. There is just a certain level of safety that I feel walking around that people who are not males do not have the privilege of knowing. Talking to strangers, joining random conversations, joining random games, and many more situations are so easy for me to join in on because I do not worry about safety threats. Every time I walk someone home or see one of my friends walking someone home, I realize how scary the world is for others and it is very worrying. I really enjoyed this event. The woman who gave the lecture was very aware of her privileges and her challenges in life. She talked about how it is perfectly natural to feel bad and to feel like a lot of the things in your life were just handed to you if you did not have to go through the same obstacles others did.

One of the things that I believe she explained amazingly was the way people of privilege should look at people who do not have the same privileges. She explained that privilege is not something to feel bad about, rather, it should be taken advantage of. Privilege does not mean one person is better than another person, it means that a person with privilege might not have to experience or even consider an obstacle that others might have to. She then proceeded to tell us that people of privilege are in a unique situation where they can defend people who do not have the same privilege that they do by actively making the world a better place. They can make sure that they are positively influencing their community and making sure that whatever obstacles they face do not define the person. One of my friends talked about how he felt bad that he did not experience any of those obstacles in life and that even though he worked hard to get where he is, he still feels like things were handed to him on a silver platter. I really enjoyed the event and my major takeaway from it is that not everyone has privileges but it is always important to be aware of what privileges that one has and to be appreciative of those while also supporting those who do not have those privileges.

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