Diversity, Community and School Writing Assignment

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Diversity, Community and School
The Coral Gables campus of the University of Miami creates and maintains an environment of inclusiveness which brings about appreciation for diversity and unity. This paper documents the observations made of a particular group/space on the University of Miami’s campus that I belong to. The space is the university’s Coral Gables campus. How the ideas of community and diversity intersect the university population at Coral Gables campus is described. The cosmopolitan ethic in which people communicate across boundaries of difference is also described. The rhetoric of space and its participants is also explained. The essay references the works of Kwame Anthony Appiah and Rebeka Nathan for context and definitions.
The Coral Gables Campus comprises a multicultural population. It is a diverse community that consists of a rich mixture of people who have distinctive points of view. Being a diverse community, the space/group at the Coral Gables campus is an inclusive mix of people’s similarities and differences represented by national origin, gender, ethnicity, color, culture, race, religion, physical abilities, socioeconomic status, language, sexual orientation, age in addition to other dimensions of life. The group encourages inclusion and diversity in the student body, staffs and even faculty, and difference among members is understood and appreciated as a source of strength.
In his text Making Conversation and Primacy of Practice, the Ghanaian author Kwame Appiah shares his viewpoint as a philosopher that as a global community, people need to mutually respect one another’s practices, beliefs and cultures. This is something that was actually observed at the Coral Gables campus. Here, the community is blind to religion, race and gender. Everyone at the campus including faculty, students, and staffs do not just acknowledge, but also strive to celebrate the diversity of the community and promote tolerance.
Appiah also points out that a mutual respect starts with conversation. Conversation, according to Appiah (82), “does not have to lead to consensus about anything, especially not values; it is enough that it helps people get used to each other.”All through Making Conversation, the author talks about the challenges encountered in living in a world that is divided by the societal and social evolution, using examples from his childhood living in a community that is multi-cultural. Challenges that people of diverse backgrounds face when interacting with each other were also observed at the Coral Gables campus. These included challenges relating to different cultures, languages, viewpoints, and customs. It is worth mentioning that interacting across cultures with diverse people is not just educational and enlightening for members of the Coral Gables campus community, but is also challenging at the same time. Traditions, customs, worldviews, culture and language usually become obstacles which prevent individuals from developing cross-cultural relationships. However, by meeting new people who are different than oneself and interacting with as many of people as possible of diverse backgrounds, indivi...