Spring into Diversity

Tomorrow our Diversity Team is putting together a diversity potluck event titled "Spring into Diversity."

As a member of the Diversity Team, I've gained some first-hand experience of how diversity is practiced and promoted at workplace. We have organized a couple of very interesting events. My favorite one so far is having a UW professor come and speak on the subject of immigration during lunch hour at work a few months ago. As an immigrant myself, I gained insight into how this "melting pot" really came about, and how the 'pot' functions and, how its components changed over different historical periods. Generations of immigrants have endured storms on the sea and in this melting pot. My appreciation grows each day I live here.

At work, there are many diversity events lined up this spring and summer. Today, I stumbled upon a preparation meeting meant for Asian Americans. The meeting organizer was very nice to have cooked huge pots of food enough to feed everybody around the meeting table. As we all know, free food can boost attendance.

At the table, there are Asian peoples of different descents: Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipinos, Malaysian and a few other hard-to-tell looks. I was sitting there thinking: what an interesting picture this is! Our ancestor or home countries may have had pleasant or unpleasant chapters in history; but today we are lumped together as Asians due to our looks and proximate geographic locations. And we want to share with other non-Asian groups our cultural heritages as one single group. Does this add to my sense of belonging? No. But don't we all like to group people into different categories, for better or for worse. For now, it's a good-sized manageable group with fair mount of visibility and voice in the decision process at work. And that what really matters.

We brainstormed. Most of the ideas are familiar items on a typical agenda of a Diversity Event: ethnic food, traditional costume and cultrually distinctive music. I overcame my urge to stay silent, and put in my two-cents: "Don't you think these traditional items would only reinforce the cultural stereotypes that other non-Asian people have developed over years? Maybe it's time to bring in something new and exciting to show the other side of Asians: fun-loving, creative and humorous.

My two cents met with pretty good response. Now the group has decided to do a video montage to showcase modern day Asian cultures, and demonstrate that Asian cultures have also taken on a global aura.

The cultural, racial, ethnic and religious diversity in the States is the pretty side of the reality. The ugly side is the division among diverse groups. Practising diversity without genuine integration can only lead to disasters, which have happend in many parts of the world.

But how do we really integrate?