...but they're supposed to differ from one community to another.
Is diversity valuable because the attachments we bring -- 'a wise Latina' -- alter our perspectives? Or is it to be feared, precisely because it makes it hard to detach yourself from the interests of your particular group? Apparently for UCLA, the answer is, "it depends on the question of to what groups you belong." Wise Latinas are welcome. Jews, not so much.
Christians of the wrong stripe probably don't come out all that well either.
I believe it was the diplomat George Kennan who would not distract himself by learning the personalities of ambassadors, advisors, and other diplomats from other countries. He thought it best to regard them as variants of their national type, which should be understood first. I don't know how far back he would trace that, or how quickly it changes. But perhaps even in America we are not much able to be more than variants of our tribes. My Puritan/Scots-Irish strains have been in North America a long time, and even the Swedish additions came 120-150 years ago. All of it is New England plus Nova Scotia. At some point it becomes "generic coastal northern New England," and I am a mere variant of that tribe.
ReplyDeleteAssume then, that the tribal wars we see elsewhere in America are the same. If we assume that nothing that people say has any meaning, and only their tribal affiliation explains their behavior, I'll bet we understand 80% of them. So "diversity" is mere air, mere incantation - a cover for one's actual motives. That's why the door never seems to swing both ways.