Michael Marquez

HD 485

Diversity Analysis

My theory of diversity is living in a diverse country, there are oppressions such as

racism, social class and culture sensitivity that shape our development. Even though we live in

the 21st century racism and division of social classes still exist. Ive had various life

experiences that have formed patterns in my behavior. I believe others can relate to my theory

but assumptions can be made from my theory as well. My theory affected my development and

has hindered my human development. I have been able to use these to grow as an individual.

My first experience is growing up with my grandmother and her forming a biased view

against Hispanics, even though she was Hispanic herself. It was through these observations of

her interactions with Hispanics that I learned to form biased views about my own culture. This

was a negative pattern in the way I would judge others. I believed that there was a race of

superiority, just as those of being racist. Even though we live in the 21st century, being

prejudice and using stereotypes still exist against and within all races. I did not see myself as

being stereotypical or prejudiced at the time, but I was able to recognize these negative

patterns that I was forming. I remember one of my friends in high school pointing out to me that

I made a racial remark and who was I to make that remark, even if I was of the same race. I got

into an argument and said You probably say the same things, and he replied no I dont,

because I dont think I am better than anyone. This made me question if what I was doing was

wrong.
 I was able to turn this negative pattern, into a positive one at my first job. My first job

was at Federally Qualified Health Center, which 90% of the patients that came for care were of

Hispanic descent. It was here that I really learned about my culture and wanted to advocate for

them. I was able to see the poverty of the patients that the community clinic was serving and I

then realized who was I to pass judgement on any ethnicity whether it be the ethnicity I

associated with or any other ethnicity. I was able to see people that would line up for health

care, because these patients did not have access to care anywhere else. This experience really

made me develop a sense of empathy towards my ethnicity and others because we are all humans

and we should all be treated the same no matter our ethnicity. My co-workers would tell me,

these patients could be your family and treat them as if they were. I have used my experience to

teach others that I have dealt with or heard have a biased stereotype of their own ethnicity or of

other ethnicities.

Another experience of superiority happened at a previous job in which all the supervisor's

were of one race and our director was of another race. The new director would be-little all

supervisors for not knowing information that was never learned on the job. The director would

make comments and question us as to why all of us never did things right, all the things that we

did previous to her becoming director were wrong. I developed a fear of expressing myself or

sharing ideas because they would get shot down or viewed as wrong. The new director

emphasized that she would be celebrating a Jewish holiday and it made put her on a pedestal

because of her culture. I developed this superiority from my grandmother telling people she was

Jewish in order for her ideas or thoughts to be credible. This shaped a negative pattern that
affected my self esteem. I would think she was better, due to her experience in the field, her

degree and her culture. I started to question my knowledge and felt as she was the boss, she has

the power so I am just going to do as she tells me to. It got to the point that I thought I was not

good enough for other companies, that I was lucky that I had this job. It played an emotional toll

on me and my co-workers as well.

I was able to use this negative experience and turn it into a positive one and my self-

esteem boosted the day I submitted my resignation to the organization in which I was working

for at the time. The day I submitted my resignation, I remember my director announcing it in a

meeting to all my fellow colleagues and she made a comment I am not letting him leave. It

was after the announcement she made, she pulled me to the side and said out of all my

supervisors I think you are an excellent, smart, and knowledgeable employee and I will do

anything I need to do to keep you working here. This boosted my self-esteem and I learned that

just because someone is of a different race that thinks theyre superior of another, think their

smarter, more educated, and more experienced does not give them the right to be-little people. I

learned that everyones definition of being smart is different and everyone has a different way of

measuring success. From these experience I have learned that culture and race play no part in

our success. We are free to express the way we feel and if we feel belittled we should address it

to the person that is making us feel this way.

Even though we live in a diverse society there still exists a division of social classes in

the society in which we currently live in. One experience with social class was my high school
years when I was bussed from the inner city to the suburbs to attend school. I remember at the

time the movie Clueless was popular and I could relate to the negative pattern of feeling

privileged. There were divisions of social classes within the school. The students that attended

the school that lived in the same community of the school, were mostly Caucasian. The

students that were bussed were mostly minorities, such as Hispanic, African-American, and

Asian. There were many groups that formed in high school, they were the athletes and

cheerleaders, stoners, gangsters, nerds, and the in or cool kids. All the groups were

mostly divided as well by social class. I have always been social and would talk to a lot of the

in kids, before I knew it I was hanging around with them. At that time in life I was looking to

fit in and wanted to be accepted. This formed a negative pattern of being superior, or better, due

to the fact that the group was the majority. We attend events that others could not, we would go

places that others were not able to, this boosted my self-esteem in a negative way.

I was able turn my negative patterns of feeling privileged into positive patterns of not

needing to fit into the norm, that I am an individual and we always need to stay humble. I

have learned that a social class should not define you and you should not use it towards your

advantage. I had high self-esteem at that point in my life, but it was for all the wrong reasons. I

have learned that we as humans want to fit in, feel accepted and want to belong to something. I

feel we shouldnt have to be divided into social classes, but in our society it still exists. I have

learned to be humble about things and we must remember we are all human, no one is better than

anybody else.

Another experience that I learned from is one of my most recent experiences and that is
dealing with different cultures and our understanding of them. I work with a diverse group of

colleagues and communities which have different ways of expressing themselves. I have learned

that we need to be sensitive to all other cultures in which we have interactions with. I have been

able to travel around the world and learn about different cultures and understand them and learn

to be sensitive to their ways of expressing themselves. I have been able to use these examples to

teach my colleagues that we are all different and we need to be understanding of our cultural

differences and be sensitive to them as well.

My theory of living in a diverse country, there are oppressions such as racism, social

class and culture sensitivity that shape our development, speaks for many people not just

myself. I believe people that have experienced racism, social class division and not having the

understanding of others cultures can relate to my theory. I believe that all these factors shape our

development and our interactions with others. They can lead to negative patterns of our

development from our childhood all the way to our adulthood, or we can use them as positive

patterns to expand our development.

My theory does not address those that have not experienced racism, that may live a

society that all social classes are equal and may not live in diversified society with many

cultures. There are still some people that live in a bubble which may not have many interactions

with other groups of society. These individuals will not have the experiences to shape their

development. Some people may not want to grow or not want to deal with the oppression of our

society so they continue in the same patterns.

 I have learned through human development that some people may not have the ability to

use their experiences to grow. There are some individuals that will continue to be oppressed by

our society and they are ok with it, some people do not know how to change patterns in their

lives. There are individuals that live in a society that may not include diversity. My theory can

be more inclusive to say only those that have experienced racism, social class division and are

culturally diverse may experience oppression to shape their development.