Everyone is not equally graced with diversity; some people are just mainstream. However, being white does not preclude you from having a "diversity statement." Look, for instance, at this question:
" Describe an experience you've had that speaks to the problems and possibilities of diversity in an educational or work setting."
That essay doesn't require you to be a minority, or to meet any other particular definition of diversity; it only asks that you value diversity in your life. One of my clients was able to show that he valued diversity by referring to elements in his personal statement. He spent his childhood on New Jersey, then his family moved south, a move which never suited him.
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I am pretty sure I am the third generation on my dad's side of the family and the sixth or seventh generation on my mom's side to be born in the U.S. My dad's side were immigrants from Eastern Europe and my mom's family was from Ireland. I was born in New Jersey, and constantly moved around the Northeast portion of the state for most of my early childhood.
[details omitted]
We moved when I was 14. The move opened by eyes to the masses of uneducated bigots who pervade our society. In New Jersey you can be as big a bigot as you want; but if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it… too loud. In Florida many people I met had no qualms about using racial slurs because it was the norm. You go from reading Tom Sawyer to actually hearing and dealing with racial and ethnic intolerance every day. When I got into fights over being Jewish my eyes were forced open and I changed forever. The only true friend I had was a guy who people would constantly pick on and call a "faggot" or "homo." I knew something was different about him, but I felt that was no excuse to torture the guy. I stood up for him, and he in turn helped tutor me in math. He did turn out to be gay and I was glad I could be there to help him.
When we were looking at colleges, my parents saw there was a distinct difference between the educational opportunities at a big state college and a small private one. All of my friends were staying in state and would ultimately be lost in the mix of numbers which state schools are notorious for. Because of my low SAT scores, Furman was the best school I could get into . [details omitted] I remember seeing a cartoon in the student newspaper in which there was an SUV next to a sports car. The caption was, "Diversity at Furman." There were some students who had never met a Black person before, literally.
I was ready to get out of Furman, but then a friend of mine told me to look into a particular fraternity on campus. I told him he was crazy; most of the Greek organizations were whole-heartedly white bread. He asked me to join him over lunch with one of the brothers. I agreed because they had chili in the dining hall. When we were joined at the table by a black guy I was shocked. There were interracial fraternities here? This I had to see.
Sure enough, walking into a chapter meeting was like sitting in on a micro session of the United Nations; White, Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Indian, as well as various religions; Sikh, Hindi, Greek Orthodox, Buddhist, Jewish, Atheist, in addition to Protestant and Catholic denominations. I finally found my niche. The great thing was our differences made us even better people. On the west coast, our frat has had a terrible reputation. Yet our chapter is one of the best in the nation. It was my rock for four years against the rising tide of over-privileged uniformity.
That's what I'm looking for in a law school. There is still that love of difference which makes me despise the fact that people are attacked for who they are. It doesn't matter what type of law I end up practicing; my life experiences will not permit me to become swept up in the status quo.
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Having used that essay as his personal statement, he was further able to show his passion for diversity in this supplemental essay:
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My proudest achievement would have to be the paper I wrote about the tactics employed by the Atlanta Police Department in the Little Five Points area. Little Five Points is a Bohemian type section on the fringes of Atlanta comparable to the Village in NYC, although much smaller and more concentrated. The idea for the paper came about when I saw how the police interacted with the people in the area, which wasn't very pleasant.
Almost every weekend for about three months in my sophomore year, the class of upper level soc students would travel by van Atlanta, putting in a full day of research and questioning members of the community. I mainly focused on the outcasts: the homeless, punks, Rastafarians, bikers, poor Vietnam veterans and others who live outside mainstream society. I had never taken the time to "hang out" with the homeless, or members of a "counterculture" before. [details omitted] Little Five was an eye opener in a lot of ways. As a white kid you are told to trust the cops and respect them. In Little Five cops avoided contact with community members, threatened those who showed the least bit of defiance, and had an elitist view of themselves. It almost seemed Gestapo in tactics. Swoop in, bust some heads, abuse power and leave. I am not ignorant of what goes on; however, seeing it first hand is shocking.
[details omitted]
After the initial draft of the paper was completed and turned in for class credit the next step was making a book out of it. I stayed around the whole summer working for the school while editing and beefing up my section of the book. By the start of the winter term, almost a full year after the work had been started, "Street Deviance: The Social Ecology of Atlanta's Little Five Points" was published. By all accounts, local scholars loved the book.
The many hours I spent with the assorted peoples of Little Five Points allowed me to confront apprehensions I had never felt before. I am now more confident in my approach with individuals because when compared to what I have already dealt with, a guy in a suit is not a formidable presence. There were also the secondary effects. I got to send my mother an autographed copy of the book as a gift. Moreover, the fact that the critics, my peers in the field of sociology, held it in such high esteem without making reference to the fact we were still undergrads, made it that much more satisfying.
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Notice how we consolidate his concern for minorities and diversity. We show that he understands how marginal elements of society can be treated poorly. At the same time, he doesn't pretend to want to make civil rights his life's work.
But suppose a school doesn't have broad diversity question; what if only people who were personally disadvantaged get to write a diversity statement? If you're allowed some extra length in your personal statement, you can combine the two, thus:
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I am pretty sure I am the third generation on my dad's side of the family and the sixth or seventh generation on my mom's side to be born in the U.S. My dad's side were immigrants from Eastern Europe and my mom's family was from Ireland. I was born in New Jersey, and constantly moved around the Northeast portion of the state for most of my early childhood.
[details omitted]
We moved when I was 14. The move opened by eyes to the masses of uneducated bigots who pervade our society. In New Jersey you can be as big a bigot as you want; but if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it… too loud. In Florida many people I met had no qualms about using racial slurs because it was the norm. You go from reading Tom Sawyer to actually hearing and dealing with racial and ethnic intolerance every day. When I got into fights over being Jewish my eyes were forced open and I changed forever. The only true friend I had was a guy who people would constantly pick on and call a "faggot" or "homo." I knew something was different about him, but I felt that was no excuse to torture the guy. I stood up for him, and he in turn helped tutor me in math. He did turn out to be gay and I was glad I could be there to help him.
When we were looking at colleges, my parents saw there was a distinct difference between the educational opportunities at a big state college and a small private one. All of my friends were staying in state and would ultimately be lost in the mix of numbers which state schools are notorious for. Because of my low SAT scores, Furman was the best school I could get into . [details omitted] I remember seeing a cartoon in the student newspaper in which there was an SUV next to a sports car. The caption was, "Diversity at Furman." There were some students who had never met a Black person before, literally.
I was ready to get out of Furman, but then a friend of mine told me to look into a particular fraternity on campus. I told him he was crazy; most of the Greek organizations were whole-heartedly white bread. He asked me to join him over lunch with one of the brothers. I agreed because they had chili in the dining hall. When we were joined at the table by a black guy I was shocked. There were interracial fraternities here? This I had to see.
Sure enough, walking into a chapter meeting was like sitting in on a micro session of the United Nations; White, Black, Hispanic, Chinese, Indian, as well as various religions; Sikh, Hindi, Greek Orthodox, Buddhist, Jewish, Atheist, in addition to Protestant and Catholic denominations. I finally found my niche. The great thing was our differences made us even better people. On the west coast, our frat has had a terrible reputation. Yet our chapter is one of the best in the nation. It was my rock for four years against the rising tide of over-privileged uniformity.
The only other place I found the diversity I craved was at Little Five Points in Atlanta. Almost every weekend for about three months in my sophomore year, the class of upper level soc students would travel by van Atlanta, putting in a full day of research and questioning members of the community. I mainly focused on the outcasts: the homeless, punks, Rastafarians, bikers, poor Vietnam veterans and others who live outside mainstream society. I had never taken the time to "hang out" with the homeless, or members of a "counterculture" before. [details omitted] Little Five was an eye opener in a lot of ways. As a white kid you are told to trust the cops and respect them. In Little Five cops avoided contact with community members, threatened those who showed the least bit of defiance, and had an elitist view of themselves. It almost seemed Gestapo in tactics. Swoop in, bust some heads, abuse power and leave. I am not ignorant of what goes on; however, seeing it first hand is shocking.
Little Five was an eye opener in a lot of ways. As a white kid you are told to trust the cops and respect them. As a black kid you are taught the same things, but you don't buy into it because statistically, before you are 18, you will have been profiled and "shaken down" on many an occasion. The first time you see these protectors of society roughing up citizens, you think to yourself the people who got stomped must have done something wrong. Little Five made me realize that wasn't the case and just because people have authority does not make them right.
After the initial draft of the paper was completed and turned in for class credit the next step was making a book out of it. I stayed around the whole summer working for the school while editing and beefing up my section of the book. By the start of the winter term, almost a full year after the work had been started, "Street Deviance: The Social Ecology of Atlanta's Little Five Points" was published. By all accounts, local scholars loved the book.
The many hours I spent with the assorted peoples of Little Five Points allowed me to confront apprehensions I had never felt before. I am now more confident in my approach with individuals because when compared to what I have already dealt with, a guy in a suit is not a formidable presence. There were also the secondary effects. I got to send my mother an autographed copy of the book as a gift. Moreover, the fact that the critics, my peers in the field of sociology, held it in such high esteem without making reference to the fact we were still undergrads, made it that much more satisfying.
My experiences in New Jersey and Florida, at Furman and at Little Five Points, have shaped what I'm looking for in a law school. There is still that love of difference which makes me despise the fact that people are attacked for who they are. It doesn't matter what type of law I end up practicing; my life experiences will not permit me to become swept up in the status quo.
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With a single transition sentence and a new conclusion (both marked in bold), we have made a personal statement plus a diversity statement into a single essay. If a shorter essay is needed, more details could be omitted without changing the basic structure of the essay.
This example should help you see that designations like personal statement and diversity statement are to a certain extent arbitrary. Some information will float gracefully from one place to another.