Mental Emancipation

Living in an environment as the one I did, one would become accustomed to the milieu in which I found myself surrounded by every day. However, the thoughts of my peers about my life contradict what actually happened. Indeed, I am no one special–just a regular girl with regular thoughts–but I have had the honor and the privilege of acquiring one of life’s most powerful sources of wisdom and dignity. I have been given the gift of diversity.

When first hearing the word, diversity, my mind revolts back to history and historical events that shaped our nation, such as the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. I am reminded of a famous quotation by Frederick Douglass. That quotation reads, “No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.” On the surface, any analysis of this quote would seem straightforward. Those who would read this quote, would more than likely identify it with slavery and the slave trade. However, I believe there is deeper meaning to it that goes beyond all racial boundaries. In my opinion, anyone–man or woman, black or white–that has the audacity to degrade another human being for whatever reason, will, in the end, discover nothing but trouble and heartache. Like the saying, “You can point your finger at me, but know that there will always be three fingers pointing back at you.”

Growing up, I was no stranger to the diverse community around me. My grandmother always told me that if something doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger. At the young age of four, I was experiencing the world and all it had to offer–the good and the bad. My mother never held a steady job and my siblings and I found ourselves living day by day. At one point in our lives, it seemed as though education was not an option. We lived to survive and, eventually, to die. Our first house burnt down. Eventually, we were evicted from our second house, and I found myself spending early childhood on the streets and, if lucky, in homeless shelters. I acquired a great deal of knowledge during this time. The most important lesson I learned is that this country was created from different races and cultures. Melissa Etheridge once said, “I feel my heart break to see a nation ripped apart by it’s own greatest strength–its diversity.” In theory, I believe that the ability to accept others into are lives regardless of their social or economic background is one that will enhance the greatness of our country in the end. However, the problem that presents itself is that many Americans that possess this ability, abandon it.

Being in the state of deprivation, whenever we were offered a place to stay or food to eat, we took it without contemplation. Thoughts of what race, religious background, or cultural background this person that was helping us, never crossed my mind That level of thinking transferred from my homeless state to my governed state and I soon realized the ignorance of the people I would newly be surrounded by. I became proud of my past experience because the strength it gave me.

On the subject of college it consider it my rightful and divine duty to open the eyes of my peers. I feel is thought, those who have previously lived in a fixed community have been the deprived from reality and what reality has to offer. Diversity is beyond what meets the eye and is deeper than what can be taught in a classroom. Diversity is a mind set. I believe, therefore, I am diverse.