The Significance of Multiculturalism and Cultural Diversity in the 21st Century

Multiculturalism and cultural diversity have been given a tremendous amount of importance in the 21st century. Individuals, states and, global corporations take advantage of diversity by using the different beliefs and ideas presented as new discoveries which allows current issues to be solved innovatively. The efforts of making multiculturalism and cultural diversity a top priority has clearly come a long way which may lead you to think that uninformed individuals and groups no longer exist; However, it is surprising how much people still lack basic knowledge on what diversity truly is and even I myself was included in that group of people.

Multiculturalism and cultural diversity does not only mean the presence of people with different ethnic backgrounds gathered in the same region. Mutual respect must be observed at all times to ensure that peace and harmony may be present even in times of disagreement. Travelling across Asia, I realized that my perceptions may not and may never fully match the perceptions of other individuals. This realization somewhat scared me in the beginning but as I’ve given it more thought it allowed me to see the beauty in diversity. Indeed there is a distinction between acknowledging the presence of a group and acknowledging the difference. It was important for me to see that in order to understand these people, I must first understand their differences. The concept of acknowledging the presence and differences of certain cultures opened my eyes to understand why some groups are being excluded.

Society feeds us its biases and places certain ethnicities in higher regards which leads to the marginalized. I strongly believe that no ethnicity, race, religion and gender is above any; Therefore, giving less importance to one group only hinders us from achieving something greater than what we already know. Aside from this, another important concept I needed to learn was that in order to ignite the spark, we must continuously empower one another. This does not mean only empowering those we know of and already support. How will the marginalized ever be heard if we do not give them their voices? Enabling those who are typically excluded to contribute and engage in our endeavors will bring forth new opportunities. Let us encourage and show one another that no matter who they are and where they are from their thoughts and beliefs are valid.