Hector H. Hernandez
Civil & Environmental Engineering
Diversity, Race, and Ethnicity were not issues for me growing up. I was part of the majority. Only later, after moving to Florida, did I become aware of not being part of the majority. Even then, my closed Hispanic, religious community kept me protected from the grossest forms of discrimination, but by consequence it also kept me from being exposed to the opportunities afforded to others for advancement of mind and body. This sheltering has had a deep impact in how I approach issues of relationships involving diversity, race, and ethnicity.
My first encounters with diversity issues were not pleasant. When younger, I was involved with music and arts. Due to my involvement in the arts my parents told me that people might talk about my sexual orientation, and I should be careful about choosing my friends. I could never comprehend this idea of wrong or right attraction. I felt individuals should be judged on their actions and ideals, not with whom they chose to spend their precious private moments. Later I was exposed to the idea that my racial upbringing would dictate what I would do in life. I was turned off by the prospect of limiting my future possibilities on someone else’s expectation of me.
Humans, by nature, tend to group things into categories that they understand and are familiar with. Diverse cultural upbringing leads us to unfamiliar and uncharted interactive topography. This can bring about unpleasant and misconstrued encounters. It took me time to understand that the reason for these prejudices against me and my friends was because of limited exposure and experience in dealing with circumstances outside of the daily routine of peoples busy lives.
I eventually formulated a living credence which still governs how I guide my life and actions. When younger I was very confrontational and I did not reflect on people’s diverse upbringing. I wanted to force people to see how they were wrong. I wanted to throw in their faces their own shortcoming and misguided ideals. I since then have realized that experience is what makes up each person’s individual view of the world. If you have a limited experience, you view will probably be limited by that experience.
In light of this, I have tried to lead an educational approach in dealing with issues of diversity. Break it down. Look at the familiar between cultures, not the unfamiliar. Look for ties that bind. This can bring individuals together to a level playing field and thus make our commonalities our shared strengths.
You might say, Hector, what about all those people that in light of the truth, refuse to see things differently and perpetuate their narrow view of the hierarchal structure in community relations. I am very pragmatic in understanding how far people are willing to stretch and change their perspective on who is and who is not allowed into their community, but that does not excuse my being silent or my standing by and letting others do what is needed to allow for the experience of multicultural interactions to take place in my community.
I just want to close with this thought. Diversity matters. This being said, no individual group at MIT can accomplish this alone. Expose yourself to the different cultural biases which separate us so that we can become familiar with the unfamiliar and raise our community diversity. I urge every one of you to become more than just research and academic ambassadors for MIT. I urge you to become community ambassadors for MIT. We will all be better for it.