College 101: Diversity and Cultures by jenna

College 101: Diversity and Cultures by jenna - February 2022 Scholarship Essay

The state of Colorado was sued last week for banning American Indian mascots in schools. Incredibly, it was the Native Americans that sued them! Even in this age of commodified imagery, Native Americans did not want their image banned! I think the most valuable elective class I can design is a class on diversity and culture because the most pressing social concern today is the marginalization of disadvantaged populations in America.

My school has an American Indian mascot. I pass it every day on my way to physics class. My school, Arapahoe High School, is named after the Arapaho. Biennially, a handful of students are competitively selected and bussed six hours north to the Wind River Reservation in Ethete, Wyoming, to embrace the culture of the Arapaho Tribe. We attend Indian School classes, eat traditional Native American foods, and learn ancestral dances. I wanted to understand disadvantaged populations like this because I want to be a doctor, so I applied and was chosen to go. I would design my elective class to be experiential and immersive with students directly engaging with half a dozen different cultures over a semester. Not everybody has a major that allows them to study abroad for an entire semester. The class would travel within our country and interact with diverse cultures for several days at a time. This would be far more impactful than studying cultures from a book, and not as much of a commitment as studying abroad for a whole semester and yet, still reap the benefits of the study abroad experience.

My experience on the reservation clarified to me why marginalized populations, like Native Americans, feel compelled to showcase their culture in parades, programs, mascots, and history books. I learned that there was a proud culture behind my high school mascot and the people in that culture wanted the right to speak for themselves. To bus non-Natives onto their homeland and dance for them, could be hastily misinterpreted as demeaning to these Natives, but this sincere act is what gave me insight into their ways and made me realize that only in this way can you connect with people and make them understand your values and traditions. The Arapaho fundamentally know that to be accepted and respected, they first need to be seen and understood. It made me recognize that the one difficulty that all marginalized populations share in America is that their few voices are often overpowered and outnumbered by those, with good intentions or not, who feel disposed to represent them.

My younger sister is special needs; she has epilepsy and an intellectual disability. She is a part of a disadvantaged, marginalized group like the Native Americans. Because the Arapaho danced for me and cooked for me to teach me about their culture, I vowed to always advocate for my sister and teach others about the challenges people like her face. Just because my sister’s seizures (or American Indian mascots) make people uncomfortable doesn’t mean that these minorities should be shunned. By suing them, the Native Americans were expressing their pride as a people and were demanding that they be the ones to control their own image, not others. The fact that the Native Americans had to go to such lengths by suing is evidence that more exposure of their culture is needed in our society and that is why an elective class in diversity and cultures is so badly needed. As a future doctor, I want to learn about different cultures because diseases don’t discriminate. I can help my future patients have a better understanding of what each culture values and how that influences their health decisions. We can all excel in different careers if each of us is more sensitive and understanding of the different cultures around us.

I think an elective class in diversity and cultures can help my sister and these marginalized populations, because disabilities, medical conditions, or economically diverse backgrounds can sometimes silence their voices that ask to be respected. This lawsuit that the Native Americans filed against Colorado is the same battle they’ve been fighting throughout American history and it’s the same battle my sister fights everyday - eradication. The Native Americans fight now not only for themselves, but for all unseen, marginalized groups that don’t have a voice. If everyone had to take an elective class in diversity and cultures, they would be more educated and welcoming of different people and cultures. The Native Americans fight today not with arrows and axes, but with lawyers and by performing tribal dances. As a person given the opportunity to design an elective class that would be the most beneficial to students, I would be fighting alongside them, and other marginalized groups, not with lawyers and tribal dances, but with an elective class designed to create cultural kinship through education and shared experiences!