The article that I chose was “Timidity can hurt diversity” by Jerry Large. He writes about his experience at the Northwest Folklife Festival, and how the music is so diverse. Folklife, which occurs every year in the spring, features many different musicians, from all different parts of the world, and all different cultures. There are people who play almost every type of music, and there are also people who dance as well. This year, though, the overall theme of the festival was meant to focus on American Indians, or the First People, as I like to call them. The author goes on to write about the assimilation of the First People, from living in reservations to moving into cities, in the 1950s. But, at the same time, major segregation was going on for African Americans, causing somewhat of a cognitive dissonance.
The article later talks about interracial adoption, and the timidity that goes along with it. I think that there are still people who believe segregation should exist, and I think what is worse, is that there are people who don’t know what to think. They are timid, and try to stray away from the real issues of cultural diversity. In some ways, this may be an enlightened view, but in others, it can bring us back a few decades. It is fine to see people as people, but if we don’t acknowledge the differences that make us unique, like culture, we are no better than segregationists.
Article Referenced:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrylarge/2004444937_jdl29.html
(Word Count: Two Hundred Forty Seven)
Tags: Jerry, Jerry Large, Large, Large Jerry, The White man
23 July, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Culture, ethnic, racial, color, and etc! Segregation takes place in all these categories. I think that schooling background matters a lot when segregation comes in play. For example, my schooling experience in the United States has made me more acceptable to integration. I have been to many schools due to my family moving from time to time. All of my schools were within Bellevue, however, each school was different in its own ways. The level of diversity within students and teachers, importance of education, rules/regulations etc. were all different at each school. An important lesson I learned from such wonderful experiences is that the surroundings of the neighborhood directly impact the our way of thinking about diversity In your article’s case, people that are timid about integration come from a background where integration wasn’t acceptable or they weren’t exposed to it.
(Word Count 141)
Nayab Rifat