Theories of Difference and Diversity

Running head: THEORIES OF DIFFERENCE AND DIVERSITY
Theories of Difference and Diversity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1Runing head: THEORIES OF DIFFERENCE AND DIVERSITY
Biography
The event that I am going to narrate happened with me when I was 6 years old. We used to
live in a house that was no short of a palace, being the richest family in the town. However, I
never let our financial status or religion or caste come into the way of making friends. I had
friends who were both rich and poor.
One evening, my mother and father took me to shopping in a shopping mall that has been
built exclusively for the rich and the privileged in the city. Two of my school friends had
decided to accompany me in the journey to the mall. Everything was fine until we tried to
enter the mall. I was surprised to see that the security guard allowed my family and one of my
friends inside but did not allow my second friend to come inside. When my father questioned
him on this, the guard that she was not capable of purchasing the products that were being
sold in the mall. He said that she was from a family whose economic status were lower than
us as is evidenced by the clothes she was wearing and on top of that she was a Muslim. The
guard told us that he had been ordered not to allow Muslims inside the mall because they are
terrorists and always carry guns and bombs with them. As the doors of the mall closed behind
us, I saw the sad disappointed face of my friend with tears in her eyes staring at me through
the glass from the outside.
Later that night, I questioned my father on this and got to know the fact that the townspeople
look down upon Muslims and the fact that my friend was a Muslim was the greater reason
why she was not allowed in to the mall. Hearing this, I realized for the first time that human
beings are not as good as I have been taught from my childhood. I realized for the first time
that I am different from my friends – not only in financial status but in my caste, class,
ethnicity as well as in faith itself.