Harvard prof says diversity not an unqualified good
posted at 4:29 pm on October 10, 2006 by Allahpundit
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Not just any Harvard prof. Robert Putnam, who argued famously in “Bowling Alone” that Americans’ participation in civic groups and other community social structures had declined dramatically over the past 50 years. Is he preparing to tie that phenomenon somehow to ethnic diversity? Maybe so:
A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists…
The core message of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.”…
When the data were adjusted for class, income and other factors, they showed that the more people of different races lived in the same community, the greater the loss of trust. “They don’t trust the local mayor, they don’t trust the local paper, they don’t trust other people and they don’t trust institutions,” said Prof Putnam. “The only thing there’s more of is protest marches and TV watching.”
Lucky for you you’ve got tenure, son. Or else it’d be Summerstime.
Eh, it’s not that big a deal. It could be that a dip in social capital is simply the toll you have to pay for greater tolerance. Having a lot of cultures bump up against each other is a good way to grind the edges off their mutual xenophobia. It may simply be that you can’t wear them away altogether.
Which might not be an entirely bad thing. I was born, raised, and currently reside in the most ethnically diverse county in America (and, therefore, probably the world) — a county known for its “incredibly low crime rate.” Better living through pandemic suspicion!
Not sure why this would bleed over into mistrust of one’s own community, though. We’ll have to wait for Putnam’s book. And for the thousand studies that follow it asserting that diversity is, absolutely, one hundred percent an unalloyed social good at all times and in every situation.
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I’ve recently joined the Freemasons.
At least now I know who really runs the Hollow Earth.
Mortis on October 10, 2006 at 4:56 PM
Let’s see…an academic crackback on diversity, a clever use of “bump and grind”, and a Queens plug (a subtle shout out to those who play there). Excellently played, Sir.
Kid from Brooklyn on October 10, 2006 at 4:58 PM
I expect a similar reaction to this as Charles Murray received for ‘The Bell Curve’.
thirteen28 on October 10, 2006 at 5:26 PM
I wouldn’t count on it, thirteen28… I bet I know one of his “policy recs” as a result of this will be we should all be getting busy with these other ethnicities/cultures and make one huge biological as well as cultural melting pot…. (and then we’d all be family and really have a reason to distrust each other.)
That said, I live in Queens and have enjoyed it pretty much. Lots of people have their own groups around here (for example, the large number of Orthodox Jews near where I live don’t mix at all), but no big deal. There’s enough of a group for anybody around here. Interestingly, I’ve got all this stuff going on in my own church down the street; we’ve got Indians, Philipinos, Africans, Hispanics, Eastern Europeans, old school Queens types… yeah, it can be interesting being Catholic.
meep on October 10, 2006 at 5:48 PM
Meep raises an interesting point.
In locales where a number of races are represented, do the races really intermingle, or do they just isolate themselves into a greater number of segregated racial groups?
I suppose its the latter.
Labamigo on October 10, 2006 at 6:31 PM
Memo from the Harvard Diversity Task Force
DATE: October 10, 2006
TO: Harvard President
FROM: Jane Winterstime, for the Diversity Task Force
RE: Diversity Plan for Harvard
The Diversity Task Force is pleased to present this Diversity Plan for the Harvard University community. The Plan is the result of the efforts of the members of this Task Force and many others who have contributed through the process we established to collect feedback and comments. We are grateful to all who participated.
In the Diversity Plan we propose main areas and specific actions for the campus to work on, with the opportunity for every unit to contribute.
Even though some of the feedback received by the Task Force was less than reassuring and showed continued resistance to implementing changes, we were reaffirmed by many that we are taking the right approach.
The Task Force also heard many of the good things that many individuals and groups are already doing on our campus and we hope this Diversity Plan will encourage them to continue and others to join in implementing it.
Specifically, the Task Force received clear support for the following:
- Adopting an expanded definition of diversity
- Establishing a Diversity Commission
- Conducting a Campus Climate Survey
- Continuing diverse representation in campus groups and committees
- Creating a Diversity Orientation Program for all faculty, including tenured, and staff
- Funding diversity initiatives appropriately, with special emphasis on 10 actions proposed for strategic priority funding
In light of the comments and feedback received, the Diversity Task Force established priorities for immediate action and for implementation in the spring of 2007 and beyond.
Entelechy on October 10, 2006 at 6:44 PM
Will he get shouted down in his classroom?
SouthernGent on October 10, 2006 at 6:53 PM
diversity has always equalled ‘african-americans only’
diversity has created the ‘tokens’ within the workforce – did they get the job because of their qualtifications or skin color?
Marvin on October 10, 2006 at 7:56 PM
It’s a fear of Filipina firecrackers… err, Filipina-American firecrackers… umm, Fox News firecrackers causing all this.
Seriously, there are so many social variables at play here. In general, I think we have lost that sense of social interaction and interdependence because we no longer need it to survive.
With the advent of the nanny state and associated institutions in the 20th Century, neighbors no longer needed to rely on neighbors for basic support, mutual defense, child care, etc.
We no longer have the need to cling to each other as a safety net to solve problems because we expect the government to remedy those problems for us now.
Look back at the timeline. There have always been various ethnic groups intermingled here. I’m not discounting the diversity factor completely. But, the notion that we are socially isolating ourselves is relatively recent. Why help the guy next door when I can just watch cable and let the government help him for me? I wouldn’t expect him to help me for the same reason. We don’t need what a basic social fabric offers because the government now fills that need.
Just a theory… fueled by two Heinekens.
SailorDave on October 10, 2006 at 8:27 PM
Do you mean you think it will be read and quietly appreciated by thousands of intelligent people, whose understanding and politics it will continue to inform, thereafter?
Kralizec on October 10, 2006 at 9:20 PM
Sounds a lot like a soliloquy from the movie Bulworth. Something about if everyone keeps —-ing each other eventually we’ll all look the same.
mikeyboss on October 10, 2006 at 9:23 PM
Here’s a follow-up. His prescriptions are pretty wooly-headed.
Alex K on October 10, 2006 at 9:54 PM
Look for petitions to get rid of his tenure.
Harvard students respond: “We can learn from Columbia University!”
hadsil on October 11, 2006 at 2:53 AM
Meep, I don’t think what you describe in Queens is the kind of multicultural diversity that is the issue here.
What the multiculturalists seem to want is the sublimation of the common “American Culture” — the output of the “Melting Pot” in favor of the individual cultures that our immigrants bring with them.
To them, all cultures are equal, that no culture is better than any other and that the “American culture” is absolutely evil and to be resisted, if not destroyed.
Everything they do, to bilingual education, “English as a second language”, multilingual official signs and ballots, are EMPHASIS ON WHAT THEY LEFT instead of what they find here, and is designed to eliminate the common bond that makes Americans American.
And this is a deliberate thing that they do. It is part of an agenda.
We do not do enough to counter the ‘multiculturists’ as they work to bring societal anarchy (and that is EXACTLY what they want to impose). Michelle was right Monday night on O’Reilly when she referred to the leftist anarchy on the stage at Columbia to be the end result of multiculturalism in our schools and colleges.
Why?
Because there is recipe for overcoming a capitalist country and economy and instituting Socialist/Communist/Marxist rule.
The game plan was formalized by an Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci whose works were translated into English in the late 50’s.
To take down capitalism and democracy, you need to peel the layers that act as societal glue holding it together.
Religion, the schools, the “cultural values” are all part of the societal glue.
Gramsci postulated that if you destroy the cultural glue that religion is, AND if you destroy the cultural glue of a COMMON AMERICAN culture, you lay the groundwork for a quiet SOCIALIST REVOLUTION with the new common culture being “Marxism” or a derivative.
If this book exposes the fraud that multiculturalism is and the dangers that it imposes, then good for the Professor. And I hope he watches his back and has someone else start his car up every morning.
georgej on October 11, 2006 at 5:20 AM
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