Any positive diversity experiences?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I understand a couple of guys here are laser focused on the ills that a diverse country has, but I don’t want this thread to be about that. We’re good.

I was just sitting here on my couch, listening to a lo-fi chill Brazilian montage via youtube, drinking some imported coffee, and had a Nicaraguan cigar earlier. It occurred to me how limited or narrow our collective experiences would be if we were resigned to a sort of cloistered existence. Heck, my wife who is 1/2 American and 1/2 Brazilian (her dad fell in love with her mother while on his mission and wifed her up as soon as he finished his time there) has a book on Buddhism she’s working through, meditated this morning heavily influenced by Hindu mysticism (our incense burning right now is nag champa), is currently sipping on a tea she brought home from Africa, has another book she’s reading by Brian Herbert (background story on the Bene Gesserit which has heavy Arab influences I think), and we both recently finished a small book by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger (in fact we downloaded his ‘Country Path Conversations’). Also, later for our first meal of the day we’re going to eat beans, rice, and salsa prepared in a traditional northern Mexico manner (her grandmother was one of those colonial Mormons, Juarez area, and she was basically Mexican despite being primarily Scandinavian genetically).

It’s funny how interconnected we are these days, and we may not realize just how infused all these different cultures are in our day to day lives. What I described above was a very normal and organic experience for us, it’s a morning routine.

How are your lives positively impacted by the diversity you knowingly and maybe unknowingly have introduced into your realities?

- Doc

[drumdude]

I find that this is heavily dependent on where you live. If you live in Utah, outside of SLC, you probably only see a black person once a year. You would consider this a "diversity experience" when for other Americans where diversity is normal, they just call it a Tuesday.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I find that this is heavily dependent on where you live. If you live in Utah, outside of SLC, you probably only see a black person once a year. You would consider this a "diversity experience" when for other Americans where diversity is normal, they just call it a Tuesday.

I think I was more or less vibing with just how much influence other cultures have in our lives, and that people who moan about it don’t really think about just how thoroughly infused these ‘others’ are in our individual worlds. I sometimes try to imagine what life would be like if we were, in fact, divided up into ethnostates (what does that even mean at this point?) here in the US. I’ve been fortunate enough to live abroad in Peru and Korea, and then being in the military I’ve been all over the place for shorter stints. Other than being heavily influenced by cultural factors and trade, the two aforementioned places I’ve been were ethnically fairly ‘pure’ so I got a good sense of what they were about, and how they went about it. I can state, for me personally, that having a fairly cosmopolitan society is preferable to a fairly cloistered one <- I grew up in Spokane, Washington which was for all intents and purposes a sort of ethnostate of its own until recently, outside of religious affiliation, of course.

Anyway. I felt like sharing something positive that I noticed this morning, especially in context to the moaning some folks like to do with regard to ‘others’.

- Doc

[Jersey Girl]

How are your lives positively impacted by the diversity you knowingly and maybe unknowingly have introduced into your realities?

- Doc

Well, goodness I grew up in the proverbial melting pot. I was surrounded by cultural influences--pick a country! Your mention of food makes me want to mention food, too. My BFF from childhood (we're still friends) is Greek and Turkish so throughout my childhood I was often invited to have lunch with her at her aunt and grandmother's house. The end of our block was like a little Greek and Turkish enclave of her relatives in different houses so I went back and forth with her to visit. One of the dishes she had most often for lunch was a rice dish and I swear there was nothing in it but rice but...it was seasoned in the most aromatic way and tasted SO good. I've got to get the recipe from her. I'm not sure what spices were used (the rice had a yellow color to it) though I have a few guesses.

So anyway. As my own kids were growing up I made Hungarian and Ukranian recipes given to me by hubs relatives. They taught me to make various things one:one such as perogies (different fillings) and baked goods. Also got good children's books for them written by Patricia Polacco--the art work is the same as various pieces of art/craft type items we already had...Ukranian eggs (Psanky, real eggs), patterns on china, some religious art that sort of thing...nesting dolls, ornaments, etc. All of these things are in Polacco's books. I actually incorporated some of these into the curriculum that I wrote for children.

I made sure they had representations and influences of their own heritage which is...

Hungarian, Ukranian, Irish, Scottish, and German. I think Italian is in there, too but it's a distant person on the family tree and I haven't been DNA tested. We also have items brought from overseas by hubs from Sicily, Egypt, and Turkey. Items we collected together overseas from Germany and Holland. That sort of thing.

I'll bet I can think of other influences as well. That's it for now.

[Moksha]

I love to have baklava after pad Thai.

[Marcus]

How are your lives positively impacted by the diversity you knowingly and maybe unknowingly have introduced into your realities?

- Doc

Well, goodness I grew up in the proverbial melting pot. I was surrounded by cultural influences--pick a country! Your mention of food makes me want to mention food, too. My BFF from childhood (we're still friends) is Greek and Turkish so throughout my childhood I was often invited to have lunch with her at her aunt and grandmother's house. The end of our block was like a little Greek and Turkish enclave of her relatives in different houses so I went back and forth with her to visit. One of the dishes she had most often for lunch was a rice dish and I swear there was nothing in it but rice but...it was seasoned in the most aromatic way and tasted SO good. I've got to get the recipe from her. I'm not sure what spices were used (the rice had a yellow color to it) though I have a few guesses.

So anyway. As my own kids were growing up I made Hungarian and Ukranian recipes given to me by hubs relatives. They taught me to make various things one:one such as perogies (different fillings) and baked goods. Also got good children's books for them written by Patricia Polacco--the art work is the same as various pieces of art/craft type items we already had...Ukranian eggs (Psanky, real eggs), patterns on china, some religious art that sort of thing...nesting dolls, ornaments, etc. All of these things are in Polacco's books. I actually incorporated some of these into the curriculum that I wrote for children.

I made sure they had representations and influences of their own heritage which is...

Hungarian, Ukranian, Irish, Scottish, and German. I think Italian is in there, too but it's a distant person on the family tree and I haven't been DNA tested. We also have items brought from overseas by hubs from Sicily, Egypt, and Turkey. Items we collected together overseas from Germany and Holland. That sort of thing.

I'll bet I can think of other influences as well. That's it for now.

Out here on the east coast, where it's the same-- Nothing, but nothing beats the diversity in food, available at every meal. It is definitely one of the great parts of living here. Your memories are making me hungry!

[Jersey Girl]

Well, goodness I grew up in the proverbial melting pot. I was surrounded by cultural influences--pick a country! Your mention of food makes me want to mention food, too. My BFF from childhood (we're still friends) is Greek and Turkish so throughout my childhood I was often invited to have lunch with her at her aunt and grandmother's house. The end of our block was like a little Greek and Turkish enclave of her relatives in different houses so I went back and forth with her to visit. One of the dishes she had most often for lunch was a rice dish and I swear there was nothing in it but rice but...it was seasoned in the most aromatic way and tasted SO good. I've got to get the recipe from her. I'm not sure what spices were used (the rice had a yellow color to it) though I have a few guesses.

So anyway. As my own kids were growing up I made Hungarian and Ukranian recipes given to me by hubs relatives. They taught me to make various things one:one such as perogies (different fillings) and baked goods. Also got good children's books for them written by Patricia Polacco--the art work is the same as various pieces of art/craft type items we already had...Ukranian eggs (Psanky, real eggs), patterns on china, some religious art that sort of thing...nesting dolls, ornaments, etc. All of these things are in Polacco's books. I actually incorporated some of these into the curriculum that I wrote for children.

I made sure they had representations and influences of their own heritage which is...

Hungarian, Ukranian, Irish, Scottish, and German. I think Italian is in there, too but it's a distant person on the family tree and I haven't been DNA tested. We also have items brought from overseas by hubs from Sicily, Egypt, and Turkey. Items we collected together overseas from Germany and Holland. That sort of thing.

I'll bet I can think of other influences as well. That's it for now.

Out here on the east coast, where it's the same-- Nothing, but nothing beats the diversity in food, available at every meal. It is definitely one of the great parts of living here. Your memories are making me hungry!

Yep. East Coast!

[MeDotOrg]

Having been a Tour Guide for 5 years, I've had plenty of diverse experiences with Tourists, some bad, but the majority good. I used to lead walking tours of San Francisco's Chinatown. It's difficult for me to count the number of positive diversity experiences I've had. Since Covid has hit I spend a lot of time on my Ebike. Today I went to the Castro District, past the Theater where Matrix 4 premiered, and had a Napoleon and a Latte, served by a Vietnamese immigrant who owned the café. The Bank Guard I pass every morning is Nigerian. My go-to Coffee Shop is owned by a Chinese man.

When I lived in Provo in the late 70's, the only place I could find to buy an Afro Pick was a theatrical supply store. Spotting a BYU Coed at the ZCMI Mall who did NOT look like Farah Fawcett qualified as a diversity experience.

[Chap]

I understand a couple of guys here are laser focused on the ills that a diverse country has, but I don’t want this thread to be about that. We’re good.

[...]
How are your lives positively impacted by the diversity you knowingly and maybe unknowingly have introduced into your realities?

- Doc

I am trying hard to think of how I could possibly manage to live through a day in which I only had contact with material and cultural artefacts originating in my own north-west European ethno-cultural background.

Nope, can't do it. And what's more, why would I want to try? So much of the good stuff and interesting people in my life come from outside my ancestral world.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I understand a couple of guys here are laser focused on the ills that a diverse country has, but I don’t want this thread to be about that. We’re good.

[...]
How are your lives positively impacted by the diversity you knowingly and maybe unknowingly have introduced into your realities?

- Doc

I am trying hard to think of how I could possibly manage to live through a day in which I only had contact with material and cultural artefacts originating in my own north-west European ethnographic-cultural background.

Nope, can't do it. And what's more, why would I want to try? So much of the good stuff and interesting people in my life come from outside my ancestral world.

That’s totally what I’m getting at. I can’t really imagine a world that’s preferable to the one we have now, that isn’t some sort of utopian nonsense imagined by people who haven’t thought things through. Even in day to day life, I think people who don’t look or think like I do bring some sharp insight into matters that I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

For example, when I lived SLC I was on good terms with a “community activist” who was always kind of rabble rousing. In SLC there’s this sort of long-running inequity with how the wealthier east side is given preferential treatment over the blue collar west side. He roped me into engaging the city with regard to a cell tower array that was too large and out of compliance with zoning ordinances for the neighborhood. We ended up getting the cell array reduced in size and painted so the thing wasn’t such an eyesore in the west side neighborhood. As a result we started collaborating on issues where there were obvious discrepancies between how east side neighborhoods are treated versus west side neighborhoods. We got the state, with the help of a state senator, to erect a sound wall next to a poor west side neighborhood, the city to actually start implementing beautification projects iaw its master plan it had ignored for a decade, and a few other things that took time and diligence to hash out with government officials.

He’s hispanic, a faithful Mormon, and a Republican. I’m white, atheist, and a registered Democrat. He’s really deep with the Mexican civic center of SLC, and is definitely all about la raza, which I don’t like because it feels insular and gatekeeperish to me. In other words, we had no reason to really get to know one another, but we did through shared civic interests. So, we worked together, I’ve been to his home a few times, smoked cigars (don’t ask me how he squared that one with the WoW), and we developed a friendship (he even got me a very cool drought tolerant plant for my yard since he knew I was into that sort of thing). I like the guy, and I consider him a friend. I think about the things we accomplished together, despite our outward and inward differences, and it’s interesting because our differences were kind of always there, but they didn’t really matter. We worked together despite them and as a result made a few things happen and developed a friendship.

- Doc