Government Executive
email ‘Diversity’ Is Too Shallow for Real Racial Justice
Diversity ideology lets whites superficially commit to achieving social justice, but isn t enough to advance equity or inclusion, research shows.
What do Americans, particularly white Americans, mean by the term diversity?
For much of the past two decades, associate professor of sociology Sarah Mayorga has worked to find out.
For her book,
She came away with the conclusion that diversity was an ideology that enabled whites to only superficially commit to achieving social justice. “Diversity ideology dictates that intentions, as opposed to outcomes, are what truly matter,” she writes. It “does not demand that individuals take specific actions to promote inclusion or equity.”
Here she speaks about diversity and what she sees as a better alternative for achieving racial justice:
Q
A
When we talk about diversity, it often becomes this performance of being “the good type of white person.” We hyperfocus on the person’s intentions. We stay in that first step of proving we’re committed to diversity and never really follow through with the commitment. We don’t ever really get to the conversation, “Okay, are our measures to promote diversity effective or not?”
Q
A
Yes. Diversity becomes about inclusion and tolerance including everybody at the table but without ever really talking about why the table looked that way in the first place. In other words, there’s no discussion about how one group of people has been systemically privileged over others.
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