A study on integration gives progressives a chance to offer a better vision for racial harmony.

[marmar]

from Open Left:


Curing 'Diversity Malaise'
by: Jenifer Fernandez Ancona
Thu Aug 16, 2007 at 19:00:00 PM EDT

Welcome Tom Paine readers. You can see more of Open Left's discussion on diversity here, and you can also read the entire Putnam study here, which is not nearly the right-wing piece others make it out to be. Also, check out the front-page of Open Left for more of our content--Chris Bowers

Robert Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone," released a new study this week on the effect of diversity on civic engagement, and the headlines in a Google news search are a uniform proclamation of Welcome to Doomsville:
"Greater Diversity Equals More Misery"

"The Case Against Multiculturalism"

"Diversity may not be the answer"

"The Downside of Diversity"

It goes on. The right-wingers have taken this and run with it, and they are unlikely to stop, especially as they continue to push an anti-immigrant and nativist agenda - at the federal level, but also in more and more states throughout the country.

My take: Putnam's research shows that just throwing people from different races together, with structural racism still very much intact, and without a stronger national anti-racist movement to counteract it, doesn't lead to automatic racial harmony. Here's how the Boston Globe (which by the way is the best straight-up read on the study thus far), puts it:


"People living in ethnically diverse settings appear to 'hunker down' - that is, to pull in like a turtle," Putnam writes.
In documenting that hunkering down, Putnam challenged the two dominant schools of thought on ethnic and racial diversity, the "contact" theory and the "conflict" theory. Under the contact theory, more time spent with those of other backgrounds leads to greater understanding and harmony between groups. Under the conflict theory, that proximity produces tension and discord.

Putnam's findings reject both theories. In more diverse communities, he says, there were neither great bonds formed across group lines nor heightened ethnic tensions, but a general civic malaise. And in perhaps the most surprising result of all, levels of trust were not only lower between groups in more diverse settings, but even among members of the same group.

Call me overly optimistic, but I just can't buy that this data means we are all headed for segregated homogeneous doom. This study is important, I'm glad Putnam did it and got it out there, and I think ignoring these findings would be a huge mistake. We can't move people if we don't truly understand what's going on with them, and these findings give a clearer picture.

To me this research points to an enormous opportunity. A progressive view of diversity means that serious, pro-active organizing across race and ethnic lines is necessary to achieve social change. In our own political realm, we can look to the concept of community organizing as one obvious solution to the civic malaise Putnam's research describes. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=826

[NC_Nurse]

1. I think the malaise is coming from

a general decline of our culture. How much reality TV can you watch before you lose all inspiration?
Not to mention the powerlessness in the face of a govt. that doesn't give a shit about those of us who aren't the "have-mores".