Reflective Essay: Diversity Is More Than Just Race

Reading the article helped me see that diversity is more than just race; it has variance between skin color, wealth, education level, religious beliefs, and gender identity. One of the concepts from the article that intrigued me was how someone could be dismissive when interacting with a diversity wheel, a diagram categorizing race, sex, social class, and other things related with society. To the person examining the wheel, it does not show anything unique. However, that same wheel could be remarkably different to someone else. Multiple diversity wheels contain various differences of backgrounds from person to person, making it easier to see diversity on paper. I was very interested in seeing that topic, because several weeks ago, we at class

I’ve spent nearly half of my life living in a largely white suburb in Minnesota. Despite the differences, I have always found a way to blend in with the community, and I have never felt as though my racial status has been a major burden on me. My experiences, however, could be very different compared with Somali Americans who would grow up in the cities instead of in towns further away. For instance, I have cousins that could understand issues that are more exclusive in the urban community better than I can. Furthermore, just because I haven’t had any experiences with racism in the past other than experiencing a couple of racial jokes doesn’t mean I won’t experience it in the near future. But for now, I don’t feel any regret with the social and racial status that I am in. The article has left me with several questions: can the diversity wheel be implemented in a work environment? Furthermore, will it show that higher racial and social variety can correlate with higher work performance? To me, a well-balanced workforce with people of different backgrounds could become more likely to reach a compromise and perform more efficiently than a workforce with homogeneous