Diversity and Damage

“Unity in Diversity” is a phrase I grew up with. It meant that know matter what our race, culture, etc is, we all stand united.

This is a great saying, but unfortunately is not completely true.

Growing up and becoming more observant makes you realise what harm occurred due to diversity among human beings.

Blacks in America, Jewish genocide, religious discrimination are few of the gifts diversity has brought us. This is not to say that diversity in itself is something bad or evil, but, we as humans have repeatedly shown intolerance to diversity among ourselves.

Let’s take the example of a simple World War I and World War II. If all nations of the world were really one and did not differ in their ideals (like communism and democracy) millions of soldiers would not have died in wars fought to show one nation superior to the other.

Occasionally we see people across different racial groups, religion, etc come together to fight against something wrong. Yet, such incidents are rare and most of them that do occur, are aimed at another community, all of which would not have taken place had there been no diversity.

Maybe the ingrained gene for dominance, or simply the ego of adults could be the cause for such intolerance, but the fact still remains that human beings still continue to discriminate against each other if they belong to diverse social communities.

It takes a lot of time and the effort of select individuals like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Michael Jackson, and some other angels to restore harmony and unity in society.

Despite the effort of these great people phrases such as “Paki” (commonly used by some British people against South Asians), "Ching chong" (used to mock people with Chinese looks) are commonly used today.

Diversity can sure be like different colours of paint on a canvas, but with the human mindset it gets reduced to red vs blue and black vs white, thus ruining the painter’s original intention of a beautiful painting.

Movies, songs, slogans, etc, do come from time to time from people who want unity in diversity, but we humans, it seems...just never learn.

Hi!
Even I have grown up with this slogan- 'UNITY IN DIVERSITY'. And what you've written is very true.
It is so wrong to discriminate people on the basis of their color, creed, religion, gender or caste. And to fight in the name of one's color is what I find the worst.
Color is something which is not in the hand of a person. People who are born near or in the tropical regions have dark color whereas people born in cool places have a lighter tone.
I feel South Africa is one of the best examples of the nations who strove to spread peace and brotherhood in the world. It did not launch any unconscious body like UN, nor did it blast up any nation, saying that it was a necessary step. But what it did was, even after decades of atrocities committed on it by the British, after its independence it chose to live peacefully with them.
I feel no country would have done this as well as South Africa.
The only advantage Britain had over other nations was that industrial revolution started over there first. The worst thing the British did was that they said that countries like India and Africa are uncivilized. Whereas it has been seen that the roots of many scientific theories and operations have been traced to India.
Also, it was so cruel of the British to rob India of all its wealth. Once known as 'The Golden Bird', India or Bharat is now one of the poorest nations of the world.

It is all too true that people fight because of the way that they look, to show superiority, or religion. It is in our human nature to fight and argue. Anger and happiness are our strongest emotions, and when they clash, it is a battle of whether all people are created equal, or they should be separated, like species of people. People shouldn't live in fear for who they are, what country they come from, or what they look like. Your writing is very true about diversity and the damage it causes. Very nice work.