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Diversity.

It’s a simple word that means variety. It’s something we’re told we should strive for. Nobody wants us all to be clones of each other.

But, what does the word mean in the bigger context? It means that we have to find the things that differentiate us. Bob is good at science. Sally writes very persuasively. Joe produces wonderful art. That means if the three of them get together, they could produce a book on science that none of them could create on their own.

Diversity.

What happens if, instead of looking at their skin color or sex instead of their talent? Well, there is two men and one woman, so they’re diverse there. That’s great. But, they all happen to be white. Now, suddenly, they aren’t so diverse. We’re told that they aren’t representative of who we are. But what if they are black, hispanic and asian? Now they’re wonderfully diverse again. Something to be admired. But… wait, something is wrong. White people are still the majority and it doesn’t include any.

And that is where it begins.

Diversity.

The goal of diversity is to decrease homogeneity. That is, the principle behind it is that if we get a wider variety of people, ideas, etc, it strengthens us by making us more dynamic and adaptable to change. It’s back to sounding pretty good again, isn’t it?

Diversity.

If you take some money out of your pocket, you’ll find on it the words “e pluribus unum.” It means “out of many, one.” But what does that really mean? It means that no matter our differences, we’ve bonded together to make one town, one county, one state and one country. Our differences don’t matter because we’re one.

Diversity.

But, what if, instead of focusing on being the best one, we focus on our differences? Bob’s skin color, Sally’s gender and Joe’s sexual orientation. What purpose does it serve beside breed tension over our differences? Bob never cared about Sally’s gender or Joe’s sexual orientation before, so why does it matter now?

Diversity.

You see, Bob is a straight white male. By virtue of his skin color, gender and sexual preference, he’s the being who has traditionally had power in the western world. Despite the fact that he has never judged anyone by anything other than the content of their character, people choose to tar him with the sins of his ancestry. Sally wants recognition that she is different from the barbaric Bob. She demands to be recognized that she is a woman rather than just another part of the team. Joe feels that, by virtue of being straight, both Bob and Sally are guilty of ignoring the plight of those who aren’t, so he wants to be recognized.

Diversity.

The three of them attend a class on diversity. It is drilled into their heads that one must be careful to consider the differences of others. Instead of being blind to those differences, we have to celebrate them. Bob is supposed to be respectful of Sally and Joe. However, there is no reciprocal notion that Sally and Joe must still be respectful of Bob for he is the majority, the long time oppressor, even if they were good friends just a week ago.

Diversity.

It comes time that the team has to expand and hire someone else. Back in the old day, the most important thing was to find the candidate that would best complement the existing players. However, after diversity training, that need is secondary to making sure we maintain our diversity. After all, diversity is a wonderful thing. It turns out that they hire Stephanie, formerly Steve, who was formerly living as a gay male but decided that he was really a woman and had a sex change. They turned down Tom, even though he was more talented, because Tom was just another white male and we wouldn’t want too many of those around.

Diversity.

It turns out that, under the guise of strengthening the team, diversity has made it weaker. Stephanie’s work isn’t as good as Tom’s would have been and it shows. Bob is really struggling to not hate himself after constantly being put down by the other members of the team. Meanwhile, both Sally and Joe are upset because a new, more favored minority has taken both of their positions as most oppressed by Bob. In the end, everyone begins to resent each other, tensions grow and output slowly trickles to a stop. The business folds since revenue no longer exceeds expenses, so everyone is now out of a job.

Diversely.

Cynthia Elliot, a member of the Rochester City School District’s Board of Education believes the race of the teacher is the determining factor in the successful education of students. Black students fail because they have white teachers. White students fail because of the same white teachers. The solution is to hire blacks even if it means turning away good white teachers. That flies in the face of the real factors and in the face of wonderful leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. who fought to end that very notion of segregation and judging other people based on the color of their skin. You see, diversity, in her eyes, means re-segregation; But that’s what happens when, instead of focusing on diversity of ideas, you focus on diversity of things that can’t be changed. e unum pluribus. From one, we become many. United we stand, divided, we fall.

Diversity of meaningless minutia is failure.

PL