Diversity Worksheet

1. What is diversity? Why is diversity valued?

Diversity is the condition of having or being composed of differing elements, variety, especially the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization. (http://www.merriam-webster.com ) I think diversity is valued because it gives everyone the opportunity to being themselves and create groups or organizations to be with others who share the same interest.

2. What is ethnocentrism? In what ways can ethnocentrism be detrimental to a society?

Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism) I think that ethnocentrism can be detrimental to a society in many ways; first it can make people judge before they actually know what is going on. We can think wrong of certain people and then we decide not to get to know them because we judged before we tried to get to know them. This can harm anyone and make us not like each other and create hate towards each other.

3. Define emigration and immigration.

Emigration- leaving a country to settle in another country. Immigration- Coming into new country as a permanent resident. (Racial and ethnic groups, Richard T. Schaefer).

4. What are some of the ways groups of people are identified?

There are many ways people are identified and they could be misidentified. We tend to identify people by their physical traits, religion, race, and gender. We can look at someone and think we have figured out everything we need to know about that person. We could also just think we know someone by finding out their religion and we think we have figured them out. We could look at someone and think we know their gender when we could be wrong.

5. Why do people label and group other people?

I think we label group people because we think it is what we are supposed to do. As human beings we forget we are a species and the same one just we can come in different ways. We tend to let our emotions judge and label each other to feel good. It is often mistaken and we think it is fine to judge or label people like if we are all the same. When we group certain type of people we do not think about if they are all alike.

6. Define culture. Is culture limited to racial and ethnic backgrounds? Explain.

Culture is when we have certain behaviors or belief’s that we follow. We could have the same values and be in the same society. I do not think that a culture is limited to racial and ethnic backgrounds for example Christmas to me it’s a culture to do Christmas we all believe in the same general idea and do the same things. No matter where you are from we all celebrate the same thing.