Ryan Michaelson

English 101
Diversity Essay Rough Draft
17 OCT 2014

The Many Definitions of Diversity

Diversity has a wide range of definitions, if you ask ten people on the street what the
definition of diversity is youll most likely receive ten different answers. Even my own definition
of diversity spans between several different criteria. When I first think of the term diversity I
tend to immediately think of people being different ethnically. I think this is the most common
definition of diversity but to me this is not the only definition. The term diversity also
encompasses people from different socio-economic backgrounds. The last way I would define
diversity would be a range of people who come from different cultural backgrounds. Diversity is
often only thought of one of these three definitions but to me it is all three.
The most common definition of diversity that you might see would be people stating
that different ethnicities are what make groups diverse. I think this is an easy way of thinking to
fall into because it is an obvious answer. If you dig deeper into this way of thinking than you can
come to the realization that just because people are from different ethnic backgrounds that
doesnt necessarily make them diverse. For example a group of people that are different
ethnicities but were born and raised in the same city makes them less diverse. They may have

different color skin but they were all raised in the same culture and were all exposed to the
same experiences when growing up.
The second part of the definition of diversity for me is people that were raised in
different socio-economic backgrounds. To me this definition starts to explore the meaning of
diversity more than just stating a persons ethnicity is what makes them different. I think a
persons social experiences and the economic background in which they were raised play a
much more important role in type of person they are than what their ethnicity is. If you analyze
an underprivileged individual who was raised in a tough economic environment and compare
them to a more privileged and affluent individual you would see greater diversity in their lives
than compared to individuals who were only separated in similarity by ethnicity.
The final part of my definition of diversity relates to the culture the individual was raised
in. I think that this definition of diversity is the one that people miss the most when thinking of
the term. Its very easy in todays world to overlook something like culture as being the key to
diversity. Culture and its importance seem to be waning in society today. We forget that
ultimately what makes someone diverse is the different experiences they had when growing up
and how it shaped them into the person they are today. No one person was raised the same as
another person and that culture is what makes people diverse from one another.
The word diversity is itself diverse. Just like there are many different ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and cultures that people are raised in, there are many definitions for
the word diversity. There is no one definition that can correctly identify the word diversity, but
there are several that when combined can define its meaning.