If you’ve been through enough history classes you may have looked at the “me-us” continuum that runs through societies. During World War II you have an “us” period. WE have to ration supplies for the war effort. WE have to show those Japanese what happens when you mess with US.

At the present we’re amidst a “me” period. Look at MY new leased BMW and clothes; never mind the maxed-out Master Card.

In the current era of “me-ness” it seems rather odd that the topic of diversity should pop up. Diversity, after all, is about understanding other people’s cultures so that we can all get along together.

However, it seems to me that diversity has gone the way of family values. Family values is a vague term that at one point in time sort of meant something. Now politicians, the media and the general public have warped and distorted the term beyond resemblance of any meaning it might have once had.

Diversity in its present incarnation is more “damn it, look at my culture/religion/sexual orientation” than it is about understanding others. Granted, much of this comes from groups that have long been overlooked and suppressed by whomever you feel like blaming today, but the promotion of the “me” under the pretense of understanding “us” is a sad commentary about people and our inability to see beyond the time we live in.

What’s even worse is that our institutions of higher learning have gotten caught up in the craze. When the good old cardinal and gold came up with the diversity requirement I was rather dismayed.

The diversity requirement is the university equivalent of your mom paying the kids on your block to be your friends. It might look good on the surface, but you don’t really have friends, and it increases tensions between people as they are being forced to act in a way they wouldn’t normally.

It all boils down to the fact that you can’t force people to anything unless they want to. You can’t legislate ideas or behaviors. The government made freon manufacture illegal overnight with lofty ideas, or at least pressure from lobbyists, of protecting the environment. Now freon is second only to illegal drugs in being smuggled over the Mexican border.

Making diversity a requirement pisses people off so that they enter classes with the same negative attitude that they approach all of their other general education requirements.

It is very difficult to teach about other cultures without making the cultures look silly or coming off as anecdotal. The French eat frogs. Native Americans of the Southwest use hallucinogens as part of their religion. These are the things that stick in your mind, which does more to accentuate differences than demonstrate similarities.

Learning about diversity is very simple. Before diversity became a buzz word I learned that it’s really just the fact that not everyone looks the same or does things the same way, but it doesn’t mean you can’t still be friends.

When I was in elementary school every now and then there would be a day when a good number of people were missing from school. After a while I would be able to put two and two together to realize that it must be Rosh Hashanah. As a result, we wouldn’t do anything too important that day.

We weren’t allowed to put up Christmas decorations, only generic winter ones. When I tell people this they usually think that it’s sacrilege, but we could all get along without causing anyone any grief. We knew what religion everyone was, but it didn’t come up very often.

It was never my job to know what Rosh Hashanah is. I have my own culture, or lack thereof, to worry about. All that’s important is to recognize and respect it as someone else’s special day.

The real secret to diversity doesn’t take a semester to figure out. There are a large number of religions and cultures, all of which are equally important to those who belong to them.

You should avoid racial, ethnic and religious slurs unless you’re an equal-opportunity asshole.

You shouldn’t toss around terms like “camel jockey” unless you also find yourself saying “I could go to that party and watch a bunch of backwoods Iowa crackers try and get their groove on, or else I could stay home and stare at the wall.”

I’ve heard the saying “I got Jewed” more here in Ames in three years than I have anywhere else in 17. That’s fine, I guess, but you might considered the term “Christianed” when you are pressured or forced to do something against your beliefs. “I didn’t believe in paying taxes, so the IRS took my house and bass boat and threw me in jail. I got totally Christianed.”

Diversity is nothing more than not scheduling the company picnic on the Chinese new year. Diversity is the realization that everyone who bangs their elbows on the table will have tingling sensations shoot up their arms.

Diversity is the fact that if you’re walking across the middle of nowhere in Kenya with a bunch of Masai Warriors — despite differences in language, religion and clothing; despite the fact that you’re an accountant and they hunt and trade for a living — if a baboon jumps out of a tree and punches you in the nuts, you’re all guys, and you’ll spend at least 10 minutes rolling on the ground laughing.

---

Erik Hoversten is a senior in math and physics from Eagan, Minn.