Diversity

When you hear the word "diversity" you usually think in terms of race or gender. A room with 20 whites, 20 blacks, 20 asians & 20 latinos would be considered diverse. Take those 80 people and make 40 male and 40 female and you really have diversity. But that kind of diversity only goes as far as a photo opt. Is it real diversity if all 80 people hold the same beliefs, or if 90% of the people hold the same beliefs? And can an organization that says it represents a certain kind of person, let's say women, as the National Organization of Women (NOW) claims, really make the assumption that all those people hold the same beliefs of that organization?

NOW assumes that all women believe and think the same. They assume that all women favor pro-choice policies and they see anyone who is not pro-choice as essentially being against women, or at least against the cause of women. Clearly a large number of women, perhaps even a majority, are not pro-choice. They are in fact very much pro-life. These women are every bit as much female as those who identify with the NOW agenda. Many of these women are highly accomplished, very independent, and probably more liberated than any of those in NOW. And yet they are ridiculed and treated as unequal by their counterparts. To me it seems odd that an organization that perhaps at one time was all about the equality of women has its own problems when it comes to equality. It also seems to me that NOW is not really about choice. To please NOW, women are required to accept the pro-choice mantra. In this sense, women are not free to think for themselves and to hold opposing views.

It seems pretty obvious to me that classes of people do not all share the same beliefs. Whenever I hear someone speak of or for the "black community", or when I hear someone say "as a women" before they state an opinion, I tend to believe that this person is being pretty arrogant to think they are speaking for and representing an entire group of people. Nonsense. All they can really be speaking for is themselves. Period. If NOW wants to be the Organization for Liberal Women, that's fine, but even then I doubt that all liberal women share the same beliefs and ideals. One thing is certain though, there are many, many women who have no use for NOW and would never identify with their ideology. And I'm sure they are offended anytime NOW presumes to speak for them. Okay, maybe I'm speaking for them here as well, but you know what I mean.