Unity is not pretending there are no differences between us.

The text below is excerpted from a speech that Leonard Pitts Jr, then a columnist for the Miami Herald, gave on Feb 2002 at the Friends Select School in Philadelphia:

"Unity is respecting difference, honouring difference, valuing difference, learning from difference, but understanding that difference is not destiny....and that, if there are 10 things that divide us, there are a 100 by which we are drawn together....

....So often, race is the difference that trumps all similarities. So that you look at me and maybe the first thing you register is that I am a member of the black team. And that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. But here's the thing: I'm also a member of the male team, the fortysomething team, the born-in-California team, the husband team, the father team, the journalist team, the taxpayer team, the never-miss-an-episode-of The Sopranos team, the can't-get-my-computer-to-act-right team, the putting-a-few-unwanted-pounds team, the American team.

Why is it that so few people are able to see me as a member of many teams? Why is it that so many people want to define me, consign me, condemn me, wholly, solely, completely, by that one factor of my existence?.....

....But it's my hope and faith that someday, people will finally....learn to value difference, embrace similarity and disagree with respect. they have chosen to come together, not because they were born that way, not because they fear an external threat makes it necessary to be that way, but because they want to be that way. Because they choose to unite around a common belief in the value of human freedom, the dignity of human life.....

And that is going to be a strange and wondrous day. Somebody will be able to look at a man like me, a man like you, a woman like you, and wonder what all the fighting was about. We were on the same team all along."

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Watch this video from TEDx. In her talk, Mariana Atencio, NBC News journalist who has traveled all around the world, tells us how the people she's met along the way and her own immigrant experience have taught her that we are all different and special but we all have in common our human condition. Get ready to 'get human' and embrace what makes you different! Take a stand to defend your race: the human race!

 

 

1. What makes you special or different? Type your answer in the AnswerGarden below. You can submit more than one answer but you have a limit of 20 characters.

 

 

2.What do you have in common with other people? Think about your passions, hobbies, lifestyle, interests, fears or whatever comes into your mind. Type your answer in the AnswerGarden below. You can submit more than one answer, you have a limit of 40 characters for this survey.

 

 

3. Let's discuss and share opinions on the FORUM.

Write at least one post in each of the three  threads for discussion:

1.Why do you think people exclude one another?

2.Are people more likely to include or exclude others in our schools?

3."They won't let me play!" -  How does it feel to be an outsider? Have you ever thought about it? Or have you ever felt unfairly excluded?