Diversity and Inclusion - The Culture.

Where diversity dwells there is mutual respect and appreciation of the similarities and differences such as age, culture, education, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc., to which that breeds inclusivity and uniqueness within groups and teams. This over the past few decades have been proven to allow for effective application of individual skill set, expertise as a united team front in pursuit of excellence, set targets and objectives to a highly competitive standard and grail. 

Demographic characteristics can be described as what a person becomes based on their background at the same time ethnicity is more of reflection of cultural predisposition and affection of a certain class or classes. Ethnicity theory has been able to highlight differences within individuals of certain culture and ethnic groups yet not overlooking that individuals are quite capable of learning and respecting cultural differences and etiquettes of other distinct groups thus fostering diversity.

 The term race has been coined to classify people into subgroups based on biological or physical characteristics or shared ancestry, however how certain individual behavior is more of a cultural factor other than biological factors. Increased tolerance towards different behavior of various individual in workplaces, academia or industrial allows paving of more diverse and inclusive societies. We certainly cannot talk about diversity without mentioning culture.

 Culture is arguably something which one is born with, and several defections are applicable to the term culture itself, it could also possibly be learnt, and most individuals have physical appearances which are associated with a particular culture like accent color etc., which however are not definitive in ascertaining association with practices or beliefs of a particular cultural group. Noteworthily culture is intrinsically related to diversity and it's how diversity is created, natured and lost over time. In the quest to preserve and conserve diversity over time, it is of paramount importance that societies from time to time acknowledge the need for diversity by facilitating social learning and choosing, acquiring, and assimilating knowledge from unfamiliar cultural repertoire. 

As humans we are at the center of diversity, and it is key that each cultural group play a role to in acquiring a diverse and inclusive society as this brings value to what matters in life among other things.  A diverse and inclusive society allows for cultural information exchange which allow continuity of diversity yet at the same time evolution of culture which is also influential in allowing individuals to interact and cooperate effectively which otherwise would limit diversity and bring dysfunctionality to modern human societies.

How can we then reach highly diverse societies? Highly diverse cultures in workspaces and schools?  It can only be because of massive information dissemination to raise awareness about the need for diverse societies and its impact. Most people are prisoners of their background-Culture which they mostly inherit, and they make judgments based on information and or knowledge they have or acquire to reinforce or reject or choose to ignore at the outset and sadly the outcomes of those decisions are what drive cultural revolution which can either hurt or nature the diversity quest. Culture is more important in addressing the need for diversity and inclusion issues in the 21st century since cultural behavior, affection and values are more common within societies and some may become less prevalent and disappear once awareness is not raised as of why the society might or might not need to keep a certain cultural aspect. 

A neglected cultural phenomenon -diversity has risen and can either survive and spread like wildfire within the population or perish if we all do not play our part in talking about it. Thus, we all must play our part in this old new diversity phenomenon and associate it with cultural evolution which are both a consequence of myriad aggregation of societal decisions and event turnover, which is also applicable to individual levels.

 

Location: Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa

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