#diversity

Our categories are important. We cannot organize a social life, a political movement, or our individual identities and desires without them. The fact that categories invariably leak and can never contain all the relevant "existing things" does not render them useless, only limited. Categories like “woman,” “butch,” “lesbian,” or “transsexual” are all imperfect, historical, temporary, and arbitrary. We use them, and they use us. We use them to construct meaningful lives, and they mold us into historically specific forms of personhood. Instead of fighting for immaculate classifications and impenetrable boundaries, let us strive to maintain a community that understands diversity as a gift, sees anomalies as precious, and treats all basic principles with a hefty dose of skepticism. ↗

— Gayle Rubin

#diversity #history #identity #labels #lesbian

He who is different from me does not impoverish me - he enriches me. Our unity is constituted in something higher than ourselves - in Man... For no man seeks to hear his own echo, or to find his reflection in the glass. ↗

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

#diversity #unity

If diversity is a source of wonder, its opposite - the ubiquitous condensation to some blandly amorphous and singulary generic modern culture that takes for granted an impoverished environment - is a source of dismay. There is, indeed, a fire burning over the earth, taking with it plants and animals, cultures, languages, ancient skills and visionary wisdom. Quelling this flame, and re-inventing the poetry of diversity is perhaps the most importent challenge of our times. ↗

— Wade Davis

#culture #diversity #survival #environment

One thing that I feel very, very strongly is that we talk about Islamic countries, Islamic people, Islamic leaders, as either moderates or extremists. It's almost like there are only two categories of Muslims. And actually, that doesn't show respect. It shows lack of understanding of the diversity of Muslim thought. ↗

— David Miliband

#actually #almost #categories #countries #diversity

We can take full comfort in realizing the continuing strength of our nation. America's lands remain radiantly rich with diversity, and freedom still reigns. ↗

— Ben Nelson

#comfort #continuing #diversity #freedom #full

With the Internet, we can choose the very communities we want to be a part of. ↗

— Alex Shakar

#communication #diversity #freedom #communication

I never knew anybody . . . who found life simple. I think a life or a time looks simple when you leave out the details. ↗

— Ursula K. Le Guin

#diversity #life

It angered him that his sexuality was an issue at all. As far as he was concerned, who he decided to sleep with was his business alone. ↗

— Christina Westover

#gay #homosexuality #kurt-cobain #lesbian-lgbt #love

In a culture of diversity, one group is likely not "just like everyone else." To deny that we have different needs, concerns, thought processes, worldview, is to refuse to look at the reason we are supposedly an identifiable community. ↗

— Anthony D. Ravenscroft

#equality #relationships #equality

Seeds have the power to preserve species, to enhance cultural as well as genetic diversity, to counter economic monopoly and to check the advance of conformity on all its many fronts. ↗

— Michael Pollan

#garden #gardening #nature #nonconformity #preservation