When I was in grad school we were asked a question: “Why is diversity important?”
I chose to be one of those in class that explained why diversity is important and my answer was…
My parents are an example of diversity, my father’s father was from a small town in Italy and my mother’s family was from Austria and England. For millenniums people married a spouse from probably less than 20 miles away, the gene pool was very small. But now here in America we can trace our roots to all over the world and that improved the gene pool here.
Cultures. What a blend of cultures we have. Where my grand parents grew up in Italy everyone was Catholic, for holidays everyone had the same holidays, the same parades. But here, in Hartford there is a Greek Festival, a Puerto Rican parade, a Columbus Day parade, a St. Patrick's Day parade, and on and on. How great is that! Being exposed to so many cultures all in one place!
Cultures spill over in to ways of thinking and it can lead to new discoveries, did you know that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak tried to sell their new idea of a personal computer to IBM but IBM didn’t want anything from these two hippies.
Did you know that the smartphone, laptop, and computers all use an idea that a trans woman and another person thought of? It revolutionized computers! Lynn Conway,
“For contributions to superscalar architecture, including multiple-issue dynamic instruction scheduling, and for the innovation and widespread teaching of simplified VLSI design methods.”From the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
Along with LGBTQ+ computer pioneers like Alan Turing, and Mary Ann Horton who lead the way for many inventions.
When you get a diverse group of people because of their cultures and backgrounds they approach problems from different directions that creates a synergy that comes up with new ideas. Diversity creates thinking outside of the box.
When you stamp out diversity, you create a homogeneous culture that stays in the box.
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June 1st @ 11 AM the Pride flag raising at the capitol!
Oh, BTW the professor loved my discussion on diversity.
Very good insight on diversity!
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