Different, but Human

Photo by Mario Purisic on Unsplash

Last week I had the opportunity to volunteer at the “Be You” campaign hosted by BYU’s Women’s Services and Resources. The campaign lasted a little over a week and it celebrated our self-worth and differences. On one of the days, I snapped Polaroid pictures of students and encouraged them to write down what made them unique on the picture. Though BYU is a rather homogenous school, everyone wrote various and interesting adjectives to describe themselves. As for me, I listed “creative” for my special attribute. Despite everyone’s differences, we stuck the Polaroids on one large board to represent fellowship among the students.

Today, we live in a world where we are expected to accept everybody’s differences. Whether it be skin color or sexuality, any hint of discrimination is frowned upon. Our dissimilarities and choices are what make us human. If someone does not share our beliefs, we do not think of them as less than human. Rather, we try to understand their background. Our modern day world of acceptance would be completely alien to those who came before us.

In my groups, we discussed people’s views on humanism when exploring new worlds. In the Renaissance, people appeared to think very highly of themselves. Pico della Mirandola proclaimed in The Oration on the Dignity of Man, “—man is the most fortunate of living things and, consequently, deserving of all admiration.” When the Europeans observed how different people were across the sea, they didn’t think of them as equals. The explorers failed to see their traditional values, or themselves, within the foreign people. Thus, to show off their superiority, they mistreated the indigenous people. The explorers and rulers of the time felt justified in conquering the world because they were taught that humankind held the highest status compared to any other living thing.

During the Protestant Reformation, the Europeans fought one another over religious differences. They treated each other inhumanly because of their opposing beliefs. The persecution got so bad, people escaped to the New World. Since they were not accepted in Europe as human beings, the colonizers may have hoped to start fresh in a new land. Hence, they could freely practice their religion and treat each other as proper human beings.  However, even though the colonizers witnessed discrimination themselves, the Europeans continued to abuse those from different racial backgrounds. Throughout American history, we learn of unethical treatment of the natives and African people. In fact, African Americans used to be seen as three-fifths of a person! It is a very modern concept to accept all people and treat them equally.

Though we still see mistreatment of human beings today, I believe we have made great progress in accepting others' differences. As Americans, we hold to the belief that “all man are created equal.” When I looked at everyone’s Polaroid pictures it helped me to appreciate our human diversity. We can be unique and still be a human.