Tag: inclusion
-
The Restrictions of Religion
I hail from Muskogee, Oklahoma- the county seat with a population of around 30,000 kind, traditional and somewhat conformist individuals. I had 114 in my graduating class. Of these 114 people there was little religious/ spiritual variety. Last weekend in a conversation with my mom, we discussed how most students and staff from my high…
-
The Advantage of Viewpoint
Within the political paradigm, the cultural concept, the religious routine, emphasis is placed on distinction. In an effort to maintain their identities, members of certain groups keep to themselves, lest they be tempted to a new way of thought. “Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling…
-
There is room
“Sometimes you have two children born at the same time; one is stillborn but the other one alive and healthy because the dead one gave the other a life transfusion in the womb and in essence sacrificed itself” Edwidge Danticat’s. Danticat likens discrimination, and the subsequent prejudice and oppression, caused by a perceived scarcity of…
-
Include Yourself
We often exclude ourselves. One of my professors, a Brooklyn Native, told my class how she befriends and interacts with members of her Puerto Rican culture who weren’t born in the continental US. She spoke about how much fun they have together. As the only American, she is often asked about cultural norms and policies, but…
-
Give Me Gemeinschaft, or Give Me Greatness
gemeinschaft [German guh–mahyn-shahf-tuh n] Sociology. a society or group characterized chiefly by a strong sense of common identity, close personal relationships, and an attachment to traditional and sentimental concerns. We know the dangers of groupthink, the atrocities that occur, the prejudices it produces, the wars it wages and the inclusion it inhibits. Groupthink can be comfortable, it’s familiar and builds a sense of community at the expense of the exclusion of diversity. “Diversity, the act of thinking independently together.” …
-
I’m my brother’s keeper, and my brother keeps me
After murdering his brother, God asks Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” Cain responds, “I don’t know.” Cain then turns his feigned oblivion into a universal question; a question asked by families, generations and nations of people throughout the course of history. In Genesis 4:9, Cain asks God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Perhaps both Cain’s and…
Kalen Nicole 