Editorial: Growing diversity is a benefit

Talk about it

In the grand scheme of things Rosemount is not a diverse city. Walk down the street or flip through a Rosemount High School yearbook and it’s clear the city’s population is still overwhelmingly white.

That is changing, though, and it’s changing in ways that are not always obvious or expected. The city’s population is adding people not just of different skin tones but of different backgrounds. There are populations of Russian immigrants, families from Africa or South America or any of a number of other parts of the world. In many cases they come to the city knowing little to no English.

It can be an incredibly difficult transition, and there are many barriers to success.

On Monday, the day the country celebrated Martin Luther King, a group of Dakota County residents launched an effort to change that. Called Cries of the People, the session held by The Isaiah Group was intended to start a discussion about how to remove some of those barriers not just in Rosemount but around the county.

The discussion wasn’t just about race or about ethnicity, but social class and economic background. The idea is to create a community where everybody has the same opportunity to succeed.

It’s an important discussion. For all the challenges presented by increasing diversity, there are many valuable opportunities. If diverse ideas can be incorporated into the fabric of a community, the community itself becomes richer.

Just ask any teacher who has seen students introduced to a new culture by the presence of a student from another country.

It’s too early to say where this discussion will go. We hope, though, that it spreads beyond Monday’s meeting. We believe that is in everyone’s best interest.

Tags: opinion, rosemount, editorials