As a professor of humanities and cultural studies—and as someone who engages in diversity and inclusion work—I see my own institution and many others struggling to confront thorny questions about what constitutes diversity. It is no easy task. Universities and businesses have to balance contrasting and competing visions of deeply ingrained — and often unconscious — beliefs about racism, sexism, colonialism, privilege and freedom of speech, among other volatile issues.
I praise and value these efforts, but I often find myself frustrated and disturbed by a growing trend: the dangerous and self-serving notion that diversity means variety and accommodating all differences, regardless of the ethical implications. This shift in rhetoric and practice has allowed those who (consciously or unconsciously) promote racist, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic ideas to appropriate diversity and demand that their perspectives be considered as equally valid. This is a false and dangerous analogy.
The pursuit of diversity goes hand in hand with the quest for justice. Therefore, we cannot move away from difficult conversations about the socio-historical aspects of the categories that constitute identity formations, and about the—gendered and racialized—dynamics that produce and continue to strengthen inequality in the name of emotional comfort, or a misguided notion of inclusion.
American society began fostering a watered-down notion of diversity many years ago, prior to the election of Donald Trump and before White supremacists became emboldened and stepped out of the fringe and into the mainstream.
As Jeff Chang reminds his readers in “We Gon’ Be Alright,” the word “diversity” did not acquire its current meaning until Justice Lewis Powell Jr. used it in his opinion in the 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case. In that landmark decision, Justice Powell presented “diversity” as an effective substitute for affirmative action, one that eased White anxiety about race by de-contextualizing and individualizing difference.
Diversity made difference palatable by moving away from the demands of structural change and reparation of affirmative action and focusing on individual narratives of success instead. Diversity also gave comfort to White guilt because it flattened and de-politicized difference and accommodated White resentment by including everyone in its narrative. This meant that Whites started using the language of diversity to define themselves. As a 2015 Deloitte survey showed, for millennials, the word diversity is now primarily associated with “cognitive diversity,” and it signifies everyone’s unique experiences and perspectives, which, of course, they believe is good for business.
The millennial perspective shows the trajectory—and failure—of diversity as a social justice term. From a concept meant to close the gap in achievement and opportunity produced by systemic, racially-based inequality, it has moved to a buzzword closer in meaning to “variety.” Furthermore, diversity has been commodified. Nancy Leong coined the term “racial capitalism” to describe the strategic use of diversity by predominantly White institutions to enhance their symbolic and economic power, instead of redressing socio-historical disadvantage.
