Different.

Different.

Have you ever sat back and watched people react to something different?

Like the first time I tried Indian food. I was maybe 7 years old and it was so different from anything I had ever tasted and I didn't like it all. I still don't.

As an adult and a self proclaimed human analyzer, I sit back sometimes and watch things happen. Lately I've been watching situations where a stable, covalent group of people are met with an individual who is not like them. In some cases I see people embrace the differences within that person sometimes even praising that person for their differences. Most times, however, the group typically separates themselves from that person. I remember reading about the law of attraction in my Cultural Diversity textbook. The theory states that people are attracted to people like them and they will most likely shun those who are not.

It's unfortunate that [theoretically] human nature works that way. From what I've learned in my studies is that we (human beings) naturally discriminate/are prejudice against one another. There is so much potential in people; even though one may not look like you, speak like you, comprehend the way you do, learn like you, walk like you, you like you, they may have the ability to benefit the group, your life, the situation drastically, if you just give them the chance to be them without interruption. Without the cold shoulder, the glares, the negative comments, the GOSSIP!!! the like...

I am currently witnessing a lady that is being discriminated against for not having the same style of thinking and learning as everybody else. People almost immediately got annoyed and impatient and now they are seeming to team up with one another to get her gone. I get along with the lady just fine; literally, the only thing that is the problem is that she does not learn with the method the group is using to teach. All we have to do is adjust to her learning style and she's got the processes in the BAG! The group would have her do all the extra special strenuous work (even though they show that they don't believe she has the brain capacity to complete the task correctly) and by maybe four occurrences, she had the process down because one person decided to teach her the way she should be taught. Treat her the way she should be treated.

The amount of people that talk about this person behind her back is ridiculous. A situation this morning, even, brought something else to my attention. Something that I learned very early in life (Like early school, 5 or 6 years old) that I had forgotten because... I myself seemed to fall into the category, or culture, per say. People will do what everyone else will do. And [don't you knock my grammar] what I mean by that is this; People crave the feeling of feeling important and unfortunately, this is a thirst that is hardly ever quenched. When one is accepted in a group, a bit of that craving is fulfilled and since we want so much to be accepted, we will continue to do what is acceptable. "When in Rome..." Try this at home. Next time you are at work make a situation where you have an idea. Have a buddy in on the test say that "Well that's a stupid idea" or the like and observe how the rest of the team reacts. Do the same for the opposite response ("Wow, that could really work." or "That's a good idea.") and observe how the team reacts to that as well. Unfortunately, because of this longing for acceptance, most humans are not very good at being true individuals.

Because that coded want to be important exists alongside the code of people wanting only for themselves as well as the code of not accepting others' difference, it causes indefinite separation in the community which is only counterproductive for the whole. Can we make it a goal to speak to or bond with somebody we never thought we would know? To share ideas with somebody you think is "crazy"?

If we all committed effort to build a relationship with just one person we would typically never talk to, we could learn a worlds worth of knowledge.

Let's try that.