Diversity

Diversity:

Though as many of you will know, I have not gotten through a majority of what I had wished to this week, I still would like to discuss the topic of diversity one last time in the perspective of books. I may not be seen by some as a person who can speak about this topic because I am a straight, white man; though I mean no harm in what I am trying to say. 

Diversity is seen everywhere in the day and age, through the many social media outlets that we are all hooked into  daily, through the news and the press are all places where we are bombarded with the word diversity. Some may have become desensitized to the word and what it is trying to say, though I wish we all could take a step back and just breathe and realize the message behind the word, diversity. Diversity carries many different meanings to each person who discusses the issues surrounding the topic; the word diversity to  me means: supporting those who have a different race, ethnicity, sexuality, or experiences. With this being said, all of the persecution that has gone on in the past I feel that we all MUST move on and let the issues of the past go and move into a more inclusive world. 

Some of the issues I see within society are:

• Race issues with the African American communities
• Stigmas for many ethnicities 
• The stigma America harbors for muslims
• The stigma with gay,lesbian, and transgender people. 
• The disabled bodies vs. able bodies
• By this I mean that we as a society often times feel bad for those who are disabled and try to help them in any way possible, assuming that they cannot do it by themselves. This assumption can really hurt the feelings of a "disabled" person. 

There are many more issues than the few that I have listed above, however these are the key issues that I would like to change within society. I know that is something that will take a very long time to accomplish especially when some stigmas run deep, though I have a simplistic start to change. As a person who reads primarily fantasy and science fiction, I will be reading much more diverse literature after the awesome read-a-thon #DiverseAThon is done! I would like to highlight diverse authors each month to allow everyone to chat and step into the shoes of someone who is different from themselves. 

The reason diversity means so much to me is because there are many issues that we still exude surrounding people who are different from ourselves. I would love to see the issues resolved and everyone getting along regardless of skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and experiences; each and every one of us who are here on this earth have something to add to the many conversations that are happening across the globe. I hope that the term diversity and everyone under the terms umbrella will be accepted with open arms into society. Acceptance, those are my hopes and dreams for the future; together we can do our part through reading diverse books and gaining empathy for all those who we read from.

Books are a very inexpensive way for people to gain experiences or enlighten themselves, therefore I believe in order to solve our diversity issues we all need to read as widely as we can! I will be doing my part in supporting the acceptance of diversity and the many wonderful diverse authors that we have in our society today, by highlighting a different book/author every month to bring the hard hitting issues to the forefront of people's mind. The best way that we all can help with the acceptance of diversity is to chat about the issues, and challenge the status quo and share our many opposing opinions in a respectful way to spark conversations within society.