Understanding Diversity

Human beings have the tendency to classify, to give orientation, to want to control the surrounding environment, and to want to keep this order as constant and protected as possible. This tendency of “categorization” is inevitably also extended to peoples, human groups, and individuals.

From this basis arises the stereotype which in itself would not be entirely negative if it were not, in fact, the antechamber of prejudice, that evaluation which precedes the experience, a judgment formulated a priori, before having the data necessary to know and understand reality. This characteristic of prejudice proves that it is potentially wrong since the information is insufficient.

An incorrect concept and judgment are always possible, but they transform into prejudice when they remain irreversible despite new cognitive data.

Every culture has its prejudices and also acts through these prejudices, which may be multiple, but still capable of constraining reasoning and orienting choices in acting.

Socio-cultural prejudices, connected to ideology, are guarded by groups and are unconsciously assumed by people. They act, almost always unconsciously, through language, behaviors, reactions, beliefs, and principles.

The only way to go beyond stereotypes and prejudices is to get to know the other person thoroughly: meet them, listen to them, understand them, and accept them.

Among the many educational tasks, what is perhaps most difficult is teaching to accept and respect others regardless of skin color, religion, or social and cultural diversity.

Often, in fact, diversity is seen as a problem, an obstacle, and not as a resource for discussion, exchange of ideas, and personal growth.

Accepting diversity does not only mean accepting those who are different from us but also “seeing” them as an opportunity for growth and not as a threat. Seeing him as a bearer of ideas, experiences, and values that we do not know, can actually enrich us and help us better understand the world around us.

This, in other words, means educating about diversity in the family and at school, making people understand the value of diversity as a resource, and overcoming stereotypes and prejudices.

The value of diversity lies precisely in the acceptance of others, in authentic friendship, in exchange, and in mutual respect, where everyone is the bearer of their own knowledge and behavior. Everyone has their own set of resources and knowledge, everyone has a talent, an ability, a value to be respected, to be discovered precisely in the encounter with diversity.

Through diversity, we improve our knowledge. And, therefore, diversity is wealth.

I like to underline that diversity, to be thought of as a resource and an opportunity for growth, also presupposes the introduction and understanding of the concept of interculture. This term refers to the model of coexistence and knowledge of current typically multicultural societies. A model, that is, which sees the same space inhabited by different ethnic groups, religions, and cultures, with their own identities, who collaborate and coexist.

In this sense, the goal is not simply hospitality, but rather the creation of a shared culture that arises from mutual comparison, dialogue, and meeting.

Interculture has the task of challenging prejudices, and cognitive canons, and leads us beyond identities, without denying them, and towards a new horizon built on encounter and dialogue. A new approach to life, relationships, and exchange in which the rule is to place oneself with others, agree together and develop common spaces, respectful of differences.