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Utah grows much more diverse in its makeup
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I grew up in a large city out of the state, went to a high school with much diversity. I've also been blessed to do some traveling outside the country. These experiences have enriched my life.
Where most Utahns see diversity as meaning "race", it should actually refer to the true dividers among our population: religion, age, economic status, educatopm. type of job.
Who knows maybe someday the Utah State Legislators might join the rest of the United States and celebrate black people on Martin Luther King Day.
But I wouldn't hold my breath.
One language.
One religion.
One world order.
These people are truly insane.
However, according to the Diversity Gestapo this doesn't count as "diversity" because the majority of those Serb, Japanese, Finnish, Mexican, and Greek miners all learned English and became Americans.
Diversity is only good when the immigrants reject American values and culture and refuse to assimilate.
I agree with Mike Mayers that we need to co-exist and bring on diversity. However, I disagree that Utah is significantly behind the rest of the country in terms of attitudes of co-existing.
Live and let live.
Adult immigrants tend to have a harder time learning English than their children, for reasons you can't fully appreciate unless you've tried moving to a foreign country as an adult and picking up the local language while trying to make a living doing long hours of menial labor. Passing a law declaring a national language does nothing to help these people, it is just a way to make them feel more out of place.
The social dynamic of our country is enough to propel most immigrants to learn English to the best of their ability. If you want to help them improve their language skills, do so not by passing laws but by inviting some of them over for dinner on a regular basis.
"Diversity is only good when the immigrants reject American values and culture and refuse to assimilate"
Old assimilationist ideas go back to the 19th and 20th centuries when imperialist forces went out and tried to "make other people like us."
Instead of assimilating people into "the American way of life" they should be educated about the American way of life, but preserve their own cherished traditions --- nothing wrong with that.
Just because a certain population consists primarily of a a certain group doesn't mean that this group would be better served to have quotas for certain numbers of people from different groups to come to live in that population JUST to make it diverse.
Mike Mayers and other who think "we" would be better off with less of one culture and more of other cultures simply don't like the Utah culture (whatever that may be?)they say is lacking diversity. The Utah culture that is "so deserving of more diversity" is no less of a culture than any other.
Yes, we've got some words and phrases that have come down, some recipes, some traditions and habits. Any family has those. What we don't have is divided loyalty. I'm not a German-American, I'm just an American.
Diversity means little to me as I don't really care where your from or what color your skin happens to be. I care about our collective AMERICAN experience. Hang on to your heritage and be proud, but be proud to be an American first. I would assume that's why you came to America in the first place, to be an American.
I want Utah to a place that is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Change is bad. Anything that is not what I am is bad. Anything that makes me see the world differently is bad. Anything that makes me more accepting of others is bad. Anything that causes change is bad.
It is not uncommon for me to go for a run in Provo, meet a runner I had never met before, start a conversation, and discover that he is fluent in my native language, which is Russian.
One time my wife and I decided to do a little prank on BYU campus. We randomly yelled a Russian name at a passing student to see how he would react. He turned around, greeted us in Russian, and we talked. Turned out he had served a mission in Novosibirsk.
If diversity were to be measured by the ability to interact with another culture Utah would probably be the most diverse state in the nation.
Somehow their turning a vast desert wasteland into a hospitable and productive environment, including agriculture and mining, is insufficient. (Yeah, the greenies don't like that kind of diversity!)
Among those criticizing the "lack" of diversity in Utah, there is an amazing refusal to accept anyone but the officially approved liberal brands of diversity. Apparently thousands of Mormon Missionaries living in foreign countries and knocking on doors (as opposed to yuppie tourist trips) somehow fail to provide approved exposure to different people and cultures.
I am not a native Utahn, but have been around the world and in 49 of the 50 states, so I have seen "diversity." I voluntarily elected to Utah as having the highest moral values, work ethic, acceptance of (non-LDS) outsiders, and patriotic values of any area I had seen.
We do not need to praise and encourage "diversity" which lowers our culture, and different is not always better.
Frankly, "diversity" has become nothing more than political correctness run amok.
Worthless article.
As long as the Bosnians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Kosovars, etc. thought of themselves as Yugoslavs, they had peace and prosperity.
When they started "preserving their own cherished traditions" by thinking of themselves as members of a certain ethnic or religious group who happened to live in Yugoslavia that's when the problems started.
Let's all look alike.
Dress alike.
Talk alike.
Think alike.
Worship alike.
Now, wouldn't that be a grand world?
LOL!
LOL!
So keep trying to resist diversity and I'll sit back and watch Utah collapse.
The LDS church has changed and adapted to diverse peoples its entire history. Maybe more diverse people want to come here because this is a great state that has lots of good people.
As a Mormon I see this as an opportunity to interact with these non-Mormons and show them how great of a people we are. Maybe if we are accepting of them being here we can even convert a few of them.
By resisting them coming here they will keep judging Mormons as negative and bad people. We need good PR as a church after Prop 8 and the negativity out there becuase of that issue.
Utah, you do not need to feel insecure because the folks next to you are speaking another language.
Would it make you feel any better to know that most folks regardless of the language they are speaking have many of the same concerns that you do....care about their families, wanting to get that special Christmas gift for their children, or even that milk is on sale at the local market. In other words, they are not talking about you.
Maybe you should know that many non English speakers try hard to learn English. They do face a few challenges such as working at low paying jobs and often working more than one job; it's a bit hard to schedule English lessons under those circumstances.
Have a heart, put yourself in their place.
The idea that one cannot identify with foreign-born ancestors or cultivate heritage traditions and simultaneously be a card-carrying, loyal citizen is absolute fallacy. The danger lies not in a strong connection to one's heritage but in the attitude that "you can't have a seat at the table unless you [look/act/speak/dress/etc.] like me."
But on diversity. Utah is not diverse, maybe more so than before, but compared to other states it is not that diverse. I grow up in Vegas and now live in Provo, Vegas is a diverse community in terms of race, religion, ethnicity and life styles and Utah has little diversity in any of those areas. But i must say that is not really a bad thing, Utah does just fine without diversity and other communities do just fine with diversity.
The color of one's skin keeps him from worthiness.
After a law suit, somebody had a revelation and voila! Instant diversity in Utah.
Who knows, maybe the State Legislature can join the rest of the U.S. and start acknowledging blacks on Martin Luther King Day.
LOL!
What happened in Rome is very different from what is happening today in the United States, where people from all over the world voluntarily, nay eagerly, come here to find a job or safety or freedom because there is none in their native lands.
However, I'm not surprised that someone who advocates modern multiculturalism is incapable of understanding the difference.
Diversity is not all its cracked up to be.
Maybe we all can be one person some fine day.
Thinking alike, dressing alike, worshipping alike is diverse?
LOL!
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