Diversity in Your Community
Diversity and Your Community
Kelley Boulet
Cultural Diversity
Sally Kwitkowski
My hometown is Wichita Kansas, in which I was surrounded by numerous cultures and ethnicities. Wichita is the biggest city in Kansas, located in the south-central part of the state on the Arkansas River and approximately 140 miles south of the capital city of Topeka. It is also conveniently located just 197 miles from Kansas City and 161 miles from Oklahoma City, both with over 1 million people in population. Growing up in the area I did, I was around people of different cultures and ethnicities which made me more aware of the differences between us. I was never one to prejudge someone because of the color or their skin or what language they spoke; to me we were all the same. I remember one instance in my life when they opened up a new elementary school closer to our house which made my parents happy that we could go to school close to home. One day on the way home from school one of our friends who was going to that school was stabbed by a stranger while he was walking home and almost died. It was at that point that my parents decided to bus us to a school outside our neighborhood so that we would get to school safe. This new school happens to be in the predominantly African American part of town. Because we were white it was kind of different at first but then we grew accustomed to it and the shock wore off. Some of the people that I met while attending this school also attended the same middle school and high school with. After graduating from high school and working for a few years, I joined the military which has a more diverse population of cultures. This experience also gave me the understanding about the differences between me and others I worked around. Several years ago I moved to a small town about 30 minutes to the northwest of Wichita called Halstead. This is a town with a very small population of 2,085, according to the
Kelley Boulet
Cultural Diversity
Sally Kwitkowski
My hometown is Wichita Kansas, in which I was surrounded by numerous cultures and ethnicities. Wichita is the biggest city in Kansas, located in the south-central part of the state on the Arkansas River and approximately 140 miles south of the capital city of Topeka. It is also conveniently located just 197 miles from Kansas City and 161 miles from Oklahoma City, both with over 1 million people in population. Growing up in the area I did, I was around people of different cultures and ethnicities which made me more aware of the differences between us. I was never one to prejudge someone because of the color or their skin or what language they spoke; to me we were all the same. I remember one instance in my life when they opened up a new elementary school closer to our house which made my parents happy that we could go to school close to home. One day on the way home from school one of our friends who was going to that school was stabbed by a stranger while he was walking home and almost died. It was at that point that my parents decided to bus us to a school outside our neighborhood so that we would get to school safe. This new school happens to be in the predominantly African American part of town. Because we were white it was kind of different at first but then we grew accustomed to it and the shock wore off. Some of the people that I met while attending this school also attended the same middle school and high school with. After graduating from high school and working for a few years, I joined the military which has a more diverse population of cultures. This experience also gave me the understanding about the differences between me and others I worked around. Several years ago I moved to a small town about 30 minutes to the northwest of Wichita called Halstead. This is a town with a very small population of 2,085, according to the
References: Mann, Fred, (2011) A More Diverse Kansas: Racial, Ethnic Profile Dramatically Changes, The Wichita Eagle, March 04, 2011; retrieved from http://www.kansas.com/2011/03/04/v-print/1746244/re-diverse-kansas.html. U.S. Census, (2010) Demographic Profile Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/popfinder Waste Connections, (2009) Affirmative Action Plan Younger, Dave (2011)