A rant about diversity

An interesting thing happened to me over the weekend. I was approached by two students, one with a camera, and another with questions. They asked me if I could talk about diversity with them for a couple minutes. I did. Towards the end of the Q & A session, I was asked, "What makes you diverse?" I was stumbled by the question, and it took me almost a minute before I could sputter out a tidbit for an answer. The truth is, I have no idea what makes me diverse. Let's face it: I'm white, blonde, light-eyed and female, which is the technical majority, especially on college campuses. What is so diverse about me? If judging by looks: absolutely nothing.

For a while, I didn't believe in diversity, mostly because of this article from The Greatest Page in the Universe (Warning: NOT politically correct!). After the interview, I was reminded of this article and revisited it. I can see Maddox's point. By calling people "diverse," it's pointing out that the person is different. I agree with him in the sense that calling people diverse simply because of their skin color or sex is wrong, but that doesn't mean we should ignore people's differences completely. If we judge diversity on looks, I'm considered the majority and should feel no conflict with society ever. But that's not true, there are aspects about me that I have troubling relating to others.

For instance, my name is Melisa. Not Melissa, or even Mellisa. People assume my name has either two s's or two l's, so they don't bother listening when I tell them that's not the case. Even the people who created my credit card. Whoops. Also, I'm left-handed. Ten percent of the population is left handed. Though that equates to about 30 million people in the United States, sometimes I think society assumes only 30 people are this way. You couldn't imagine how many times in elementary school I was yelled at by teachers because I couldn't use right-handed scissors and they thought I was only being snobby and trying to get the "nicer" scissors.

It's not just in aspects I can't control either. I'm diverse by choice, so to say. I'm a blonde, hard-working, relatively social dean's list student that has never once picked up a drug who happens to love heavy metal music. Though the scene is growing, especially with women, this has yet to effect my friends and most people around me. I have missed out on dozens of concerts because I had no one to go with. It's frustrating sometimes, but it can have it's perks in unexpected ways. Desparately trying to avoid having to listen to my iPod, my friends often offer to drive when we go places, even if it's never to a metal concert.