Re: Scales of "Diversity"

Rachel Heckert (heckertkrs who-is-at juno.com)
Thu, 23 Apr 1998 06:00:37 -0400

Hi listers

On Tue, 21 Apr 1998 21:06:46 -0600 (MDT) Phillip Allen White wrote
>Eva - here's my reading of 'diversity' from my own experience here in
Colorado.
>(cut)
>Yes, Diversity is a pretty word to cover up a very messy social
struggle.
>
Indeed it is. My friends from the former Soviet Union call this maneuver
"pokazukha" and credit it with being one of the main factors in bringing
the Soviet Union down. Simply put, you can't fix something if you won't
admit that it's broken. We in the United States are willing to admit
that our educational system is "malfunctioning" and describe it in
various non-threatening ways, but anyone in public life who dares to
point out what the basic problems really are must spell out the social
conflicts underlying the system's problems, most of which involve
un-American type attitudes such as racism.

We are seeing this problem in New York right now with the attempts to cut
remediation classes from the City University system, even though the very
people who want to do the cutting will admit that the public school
system here is abominable and does not equip a large percentage of
students for reading a newspaper, much less college. Part of it is due
to what Redfield called the "peasant mentality," the idea of a "limited
good." The peasant is interested in keeping others down because his only
resource is land, and that is finite in amount. " The more the other one
has, the less is available for me and my children." However, one of the
basic principles of the USA was, I was taught, that wealth is produced by
people, and that the more people are working, the more wealth is
produced.

So since when has the USA become a peasant society? It certainly wasn't
like that in the fifties when I was growing up. IMHO we will have a hard
time addressing issues like opposition to diversity unless we first get a
good grasp of what is going on with mainstream (and other) citizens to
fuel this fear-driven need to cut the other guy out. There is a basic
insecurity in people this days which seems directly related to economic
issues and indirectly related to other anxieties about crime and general
survival. While we can't cure it directly - maybe only time and history
will do that - we have to be aware of it, and maybe use a touch of
Machiavellian-type strategy to get around it. After all, the politicians
make wonderful capital out of aggravating it, so it might not be out of
line for us to be a little savvy about defusing it.

Just a thought by an Ohio state politician's granddaughter.

Rachel Heckert

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