THE DIVERS SIDES OF DIVERSITY
Getting beyond gridlock in the multicultural debate
By Charles Coe
Cultural Diversity Fieldbook: Fresh Visions and Breakthrough Strategies for Revitalizing the Workplace, edited by George F. Simons, Bob Abramms, and L. Ann Hopkins, with Diane J. Johnson, Peterson's/Pacesetter Books, 283 pages, $26.95
How would you react to an announcement that your employer was starting a campaign to diversify the workplace? Would you be pleased? Anxious? Somewhere in between? Diversity efforts can have very different implications for different individuals. For people of color, women, immigrants, and others traditionally kept "out of the loop," it can mean a chance to get inside. To white men, a diversity campaign can bring fears of being labeled "the problem," accused of holding patriarchal attitudes, and challenged to surrender their alleged monopoly on power.
Whatever one's feelings on the subject, it's impossible to avoid. Social scientists predict that, if current trends continue, the nonwhite population of the United States will exceed fifty percent by 2010. Our workplaces-and society as a whole-need to examine seriously the questions raised by the diversity issue if we are to adjust to the extraordinary changes taking place.
One excellent source of clear thinking on the matter is the Cultural Diversity Fieldbook, edited by Bob Abramms, E'73, and three colleagues. (Abramms is founder of ODT, an Amherst, Massachusetts, publisher of materials on cultural sensitivity.) The book consists of more than 150 articles, interviews, essays, and activities examining the diversity issue from every side. In addition, it lists and reviews hundreds of additional resources. What immediately sets the Fieldbook apart, though, is its inclusion of politically and socially conservative viewpoints. It's no surprise a collection on diversity would include the thoughts of well-known liberals such as Jeremy Rifkin, Bell Hooks, and Lani Guinier. But rarely do prominent conservatives like Doug Bandow, Lance Morrow, and Walter E. Williams get the chance to air their views in such a setting. The editors' introduction states their intention to "honestly address both the value added by diversity initiatives and the real problems that can result from those efforts."
The book establishes the need for diversity campaigns today by highlighting the culture clashes that can occur as work forces change. Joy Bodzioch's essay dramatically illustrates this point with the example of Anh, a recent immigrant from Vietnam who worked for an electronics firm. One day, Anh's supervisor, in an effort to be friendly, greeted him with the cowboy "pistol" salute (a cocked thumb and extended forefinger). But in Anh's culture, gestures were interpreted literally, so he brought a gun to work the next day in the belief that his supervisor intended to kill him. A potential tragedy was averted only because a coworker saw Anh put the pistol in his locker and reported it to the supervisor.
The Fieldbook does a particularly good job of addressing race-one of the more problematic issues in the diversity discussion and a source of growing frustration in this country. According to a study by the Topsfield Foundation that the editors quote, many Americans believe "racism has become a crippling fixation for minorities" and "many of the problems of poor minorities are due to a dysfunctional culture that fails to emphasize education and hard work." Other contributors, while acknowledging that white America is not entirely responsible for the troubles besetting minority communities, reject analyses that blame the victim. Jeremy Rifkin points out, "Automation and suburban relocation created a crisis of tragic dimensions for unskilled black workers in the inner cities."
Not all racial issues can be viewed in black and white. The book addresses the frustration of Asian Americans, who often feel left out of the conversation. Benjamin Pimental writes, "Many Asian Americans feel they are becoming a 'racial bourgeoisie'-a buffer class between the white majority, which has most of the power, and the minorities, who have less." While Asian Americans are stereotyped as more competent and reliable than Hispanics or blacks, they also are written off as "unassertive nerds and poor communicators" and excluded from upper-management positions.
The Fieldbook also examines the common assumption in the diversity camp-seldom openly expressed-that the only appropriate role for European American males in this discussion is to admit they are "the problem" and defer solutions to other parties. Coeditor George F. Simons offers a strong challenge to this notion, insisting, "Multiculturalism that does not hear, or dismisses the male voice out of hand, sabotages itself by excluding an important part of the reality with which it wants to come to terms." Simons points out some positive aspects of the "code" forming the European American male's foundation of socialized behavior: imperatives like "defend your honor," "care for women and children," "play fair," and "be an adventurer."
Simons asserts that writing off this code as patriarchal and dysfunctional would be a serious mistake, and furthermore that "when men's values are taken seriously and honored, they can serve to enable the men who hold them to adapt their roles to an increasingly diverse culture." Conversely, he suggests that if white men are demonized by diversity supporters and denied opportunities to participate in the debate, they'll be more inclined to dismiss talk of diversity as political correctness and to see programs like affirmative action as the cause of their growing economic hardship.
Affirmative action is the most controversial item on the diversity agenda, of course, and no work of this sort would be complete without an examination of it. On this issue, like the others, the Fieldbook is well-balanced. Doug Bandow calls affirmative action "a vision betrayed," writing that "affirmative action for qualified minorities has turned into affirmative discrimination against qualified minorities and majorities." He supports his case with assertions such as "Asian Americans are denied entrance to the University of California because of their ethnicity" and "a high school in Piscataway, New Jersey, fired one teacher because she was white in order to make room for a black teacher."
Lani Guinier argues an opposing position in her essay. Guinier believes that "if you look at the big picture, you can see a fundamental fairness, but if you're looking at the small picture, you see unfairness." She goes on to say, "The great tragedy of the current debate is that it takes place in a win/lose context. Both the terms and the substance of the debate need to be changed so that there are no inevitable losers."
Unfortunately, in today's uncertain economic climate, many Americans do fear the prospect of becoming losers in the job market. Jeremy Rifkin, in another article, offers some sobering observations: "More than one-fifth of the work force is trapped in temporary assignments or works only part-time. Millions of others have slipped quietly out of the economy and into an underclass no longer counted in the official unemployment figures. A staggering fifteen percent of the population now lives below the official poverty line." With downsizing rampant, manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas, and the virtual disappearance of entire job categories, how can people be convinced to share a shrinking pie?
Colin Powell's contribution to the book suggests part of the problem is the growing tendency in this country for people to focus more on their ethnic or racial identity than their common identity as Americans. "We have to start thinking of America as a family," he writes. "We have to stop screeching at each other, stop hurting each other, and start caring for, sacrificing for, and sharing with each other." The problem is that so many people are deaf to Powell's plea. People who long for a return to more harmonious times overlook that women, immigrants, and people of color accepted subordinate roles in the workplace and the culture itself. At the other extreme are those who demand that white men walk meekly to the back of the line and give somebody else a chance to run the world. Neither fantasy is likely to come true.
This book offers the hope that most Americans are basically fair-minded people who believe everyone should have the opportunity to succeed. The Cultural Diversity Fieldbook is proof that we can have honest, if sometimes heated, disagreements on exactly how America can best provide those opportunities. But it also encourages the reader to step back, take a deep breath, and engage in long-overdue self-examination. And it shows a way for Americans to abandon the left/right ideological gridlock and seek new paths toward a workable future.
As Guillermo Gómez-Peña says in his article, we must "educate our children and teenagers about the dangers of racism and the complexities of living in a multiracial borderless society, the inevitable society of the next century." We really have no choice. The problems our country faces-lagging income and unemployment, poor housing and homelessness, inadequate health care-cut across all ethnic and racial groups. We will solve them together, or we will see the American dream become a memory. In the words of Gómez-Peña, "We are all here to stay. For better or worse, our destinies and aspirations are in one another's hands."
