Publisher Comments:
A brilliant assault on our obsession with every difference except the one that really matters—the difference between rich and poor
If there’s one thing Americans agree on, it’s the value of diversity. Our corporations vie for slots in the Diversity Top 50, our universities brag about minority recruiting, and every month is Somebody’s History Month. But in this provocative new book, Walter Benn Michaels argues that our enthusiastic celebration of “difference” masks our neglect of America’s vast and growing economic divide. Affirmative action in schools has not made them more open, it’s just guaranteed that the rich kids come in the appropriate colors. Diversity training in the workplace has not raised anybody’s salary (except maybe the diversity trainers’) but it has guaranteed that when your job is outsourced, your culture will be treated with respect.
With lacerating prose and exhilarating wit, Michaels takes on the many manifestations of our devotion to diversity, from companies apologizing for slavery, to a college president explaining why there aren’t more women math professors, to the codes of conduct in the new “humane corporations.” Looking at the books we read, the TV shows we watch, and the lawsuits we bring, Michaels shows that diversity has become everyone’s sacred cow precisely because it offers a false vision of social justice, one that conveniently costs us nothing. The Trouble with Diversity urges us to start thinking about real justice, about equality instead of diversity. Attacking both the right and the left, it will be the most controversial political book of the year.
Good book. I read it about a year ago. He makes points I make often. Sadly the intellectual climate in which he resides makes his critique of “diversity" and affirmative action unpalatable to many (most?) people in academic and political settings. I can't imagine he'd be very popular with other academics at his college or university.
I feel that the fundamental themes of this book are timely and well put.
The author begins by engaging in a lively deconstruction of race, followed by a complementary rebuke of our complacency regarding social inequality in the broader sense. He eloquently ties these two concepts together, making a powerful point about how we, in the US, hold identity to such high a regard as to actually prioritize it above social justice. Indeed, we cling to our identities even when they are, themselves, the sources of injustice.
The concluding section was a bit too c'est la vie for my liking. I would have liked to see more constructive thoughts on improving the situation.
An interesting interview with Walter Benn Michaels on the topic of diversity over at Le Monde Diplomatique, entitled Walter Benn Michaels: diversity is insufficient.
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