Black History Month
If everyone was the same wouldn't that be boring? That's the question Mountain Elementary School student Mirelle Naud posed in her essay about diversity. It was selected as the winning essay in a contest sponsored by the African American Diversity Working Group and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (HR-OEOD).
The essay and poster contest is part of the Laboratory's observance of national Black History Month in February. "Embracing Cultural Diversity" was the theme for the contests.
"Everyone has brown hair, everyone has light skin, and everyone celebrates the same thing. Sound boring?" Naud wrote. "So maybe we should celebrate diversity. But instead we find people ashamed, and we also find rejection and hatred just because somebody is different in some way. That's exactly the opposite of celebrating."
Naud, who is in Mary Plotner's sixth-grade class, notes civil rights pioneers Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Frederick Douglass in her essay, writing "those were the people who were rejected and thought wrongly of just because of their skin color.
"Think of their bravery and heroism to stand up to racism. They deserve equality. Everybody does. Everyone always deserved equality and kindness," Naud wrote. "When people are rejected because they are different [it] doesn't seem right . . ."
Naud's and one other essay, and winning posters will be displayed at the Mesa Public Library in downtown Los Alamos through February 26.
The Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity and the African American Diversity Working Group sponsor Black History Month events at the Laboratory. A subcommittee from HR-OEOD and the working group selected the winning essay and posters.
See the February 7 Daily NewsBulletin for more information about Black History Month at the Lab.
