And women. Want to meet a woman who doesn’t need SPF800 suncreen? Don’t go to the South Dakota picnic Putnam describes.
With democratic government, diversity becomes an essential element of society by reason of the fact that diverse minorities might be overwhelmed singly, but if they are suppressed in the society, they will join other minorities, and disgruntled elements of the majority, and become more influential. Over the long term, including minorities in government dilutes the monolithic power that particular minority holds. Attempts by a majority stop this, will create a diverse plurality, from which a consensus must be reached. Not as efficient, but efficiency in government is, at best, a mixed blessing.
Democracies are very hard to start. In order to start one, you must have either complete, and effective separation of dissimilar populations, or a de jure acceptance of the right to be included. Either choice has within it the seeds for the eventual creation of diverse populations in common cause, exercising the power of a majority.
Even a homogeneous population will find that separation of interests will particularize that population, and each segment will court heterogeneous influences within, and outside of the original populace. The more honest the government, the more easily this diversification process will proceed. In dishonest governments the process will proceed, but consequences will be less beneficial to all involved.
Tris
We’ve got diversity in the U.S. and Canada whether we want it or not, so it seems kind of pointless to worry about whether it’s a good thing or not. The only question is how to enable our various cultures to get along with each other. One thing that’s helpful is to make sure that every group has some members in the upper echelons of society. If, say, the military has lots of Black and Hispanic low-ranking soldiers, it’s useful to have Black and hispanic high-ranking officers.
Tell you what- if I owned a baseball team,I’d glady have a starting lineup of Roy Campanella at catcher, Hank Aaron at first, Joe Morgan at 2nd, Ozzie Smith at short, Jackie Robinson at 3rd, Frank Robinson in left, Dave Winfield in left, and Willie Mays in center. I’d also be mighty pleased with Bob Gibson, Fergie Jenkins, Dontrelle Willis, Dwight Gooden and Don Newcombe as my starters, with Lee Smith as my closer.
What’s that? They’re all black? Horrors! Well, I’ll just have to live with my lack of diversity, and settle for kicking your Rainbow Coalition’s backsides.
And I keep hearing about the culinary benefits of diversity. So… does that mean the nativists were right about hating the Irish, who brought crime and alcoholism but never opened a single decent restaurant (quick, when’s the last time you said, “I’m starving, let’s get some Irish food?”).
Part of the reason lack of diversity can be inherently bad is that it often exists as a result of artificial pressure to make everything/everybody conform. In cases where there is a decision to be made and there is an absolute (or maybe not) best and worst answer, in a diverse group, it’s more likely that someone will propose the right decision than it is in a group where all the eggs are in one basket.
Folks love them some Irish whiskey, though. And there’s no better place than an Irish pub to get your drink on.
In academia, once you’ve finished the dissertation, you have a license to more or less study or research whatever you wish. The biggest benefit for diversity in my field is that people with diverse perspectives investigate different phenomena, or bring different analytic lenses to a common issue. Clearly, if all academic research is located in one paradigm, one life experience, one set of priorities, one political lens, we have a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.
Two people can research the exact same topic from very different analytic lenses, and focus on different aspects of the phenomenon. Very few topics, especially in the social sciences, are absolutely answered - in fact, I can’t think of any - and there is always space for a new idea, or a reconceptualization of an old idea… and so on.
This is not just a defense of racial and/or ethnic diversity, but political, gender, and a multitude of other variants of diversity as well.