The downside of diversity
IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger.
But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam -- famous for "Bowling Alone," his 2000 book on declining civic engagement -- has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings. The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.
"The extent of the effect is shocking," says Scott Page, a University of Michigan political scientist.
Wow. I'm not quite sure what I think about this.
His findings on the downsides of diversity have also posed a challenge for Putnam, a liberal academic whose own values put him squarely in the pro-diversity camp. Suddenly finding himself the bearer of bad news, Putnam has struggled with how to present his work. He gathered the initial raw data in 2000 and issued a press release the following year outlining the results. He then spent several years testing other possible explanations.
More unexpected results:
"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.
"Diversity, at least in the short run," he writes, "seems to bring out the turtle in all of us."
Social networks are important.
Putnam claims the US has experienced a pronounced decline in "social capital," a term he helped popularize. Social capital refers to the social networks -- whether friendships or religious congregations or neighborhood associations -- that he says are key indicators of civic well-being. When social capital is high, says Putnam, communities are better places to live. Neighborhoods are safer; people are healthier; and more citizens vote.
One of the things I like about homeschooling is the network of friends I've developed over the years. It sort of duplicates the small town experience. This is one of the reasons we would be reluctance to move. It takes years to build a network.
A downside to my homeschool network is that it covers a large geographic area. I am within walking distance to only a few homeschool friends. Most are a 20 minute drive or more away. Internet friends are states away. Because we live in different venues, we can't build much influence in our local communities.
The homeschool network is not free from the "diversity effect" as evidenced by the conflicts between various camps who have participated in the Carnival of Homeschooling. This is a weakness of the homeschool movement in general. There is so much in-fighting and back biting between various homeschooling factions that it can discourage potential homeschoolers and wastes resources. It is hard to fight a common foe while watching for an attack from your supposed allies.
I like many things about living in a diverse society but I long for the community feeling I grew up with in a small town.
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9 comments:
If you take a fan of American sci-fi novels, a fan British comedy television, and a fan of Japanese high school romance comics, and put the three into a room together, what kind of conversation do you get? Let's assume none of these three has any experience with what the other two like, and have no interest in it, either.
No matter how much these three talk about their entertainment media and genre of choice, they all come from different backgrounds. One reads and imagines the characters and setting and action. Another reads with pictures. The final doesn't need to read at all, instead listening. One likes time travel; another likes humor; another likes innocent love and the related trials of youth. They come from different backgrounds, they have different cultures, and they don't or have interest in the cultures of the others. They can't understand the cultures they haven't grown up in, or tried to learn about.
This is how I imagine a lot of diversity to be. On one hand, everyone brings to the table a different experience. On the other hand, they bring a lack of understanding of where each other is coming from. Maybe these three do have something in common, however. Perhaps they all enjoy taking care of animals. Put the three of them in a vet, and they might be the strongest animal doctor trio in the country.
Where I work, there's a good deal of racial and ethnic diversity. In the job we do, this doesn't come up. Often times someone will make lunch for everyone in the area, and here is where different ethnic dishes may come up. When it's back to patient and insurance billing and payment processing for a chain of hospitals, our ethnic backgrounds don't come into play. For me, it's my technological background that counts, as I write programs to automate the work I do.
If a white German family and black African family both move to the USA, and their third generation American children grow up in the same environment, learn the same values, like the same things, do the same things, use the same vocabulary, attend the same schools, and work at the same company, they I have to ask: where is the strength in racial diversity? Why is race a factor in peoples' believe that diversity strengthens? I can understand ethnic diversity, as this is people with different life experiences. However, skin color should not be suggesting of how one has lived their life.
I should wrap this up in some way that ties in the opening with the ending, but I have to get ready for work now!
I don't quite know what to think about this study and these concepts.
I do like what you said at the end of the piece about in-fighting between homeschoolers. I probably am not aware of everything you speak about regarding CoH participants but I have many examples of in-fighting within homeschoolers in our state. I think one reason for this is that we homeschoolers have to be so passionate and firm in our ideas and opinions that often it is very easy to see where we don't agree. Sadly, not everyone is in the "agree to disagree" camp and instead, is in the "if you don't agree with everything or most of what I believe then you are not in my little clique". The divisions in my state are in various ways, some are religious beliefs, method of homeschooling (unschoolers especially seem to want to only be with other unschoolers), if the kids are in the camp of "pro Harry Potter" vs. "banned Harry Potter" and on and on.
One more thing, in my own life and with other homeschooling friends of mine I have noticed when we feel attacked or criticized, we then retreat back from the larger community in an effort of self-protection.
I don't think that is what the study is talking about but I could be wrong.
One example is my friend who got mad about a policy at a homeschool park day so she decided to not attend any more for the rest of that season. She ended up just staying home and her kids missed out on seeing their friends.
Another example I've seen is when a person wants to feel accepted for their method of homeschooling avoids going to a certain support group meeting for homeschoolers to avoid a certain strong-willed personality who often speaks out in ways that make that other mom feel inadequate or judged.
>Why is race a factor in peoples' believe that diversity strengthens? I can understand ethnic diversity, as this is people with different life experiences. However, skin color should not be suggesting of how one has lived their life.
I worked with a woman who had an interesting experience along those lines. She is a black woman from South America. Her husband is a white American. The hospital wanted her to pick a race to put on the birth certificate. She could choose Black, Hispanic or White. It kind of annoyed her. Two criteria was based on her skin tone. Another criteria was based on her country of origin, not her son's birth country. Since her son would not grow up immersed in the Hispanic culture, it seemed strange to use it as designation. She was culturally "Hispanic," not "African American" so choosing "black" as the race seemed odd. In the end, she choose "white" because it would describe her son's cultural experience regardless of his skin tone.
>Sadly, not everyone is in the "agree to disagree" camp and instead, is in the "if you don't agree with everything or most of what I believe then you are not in my little clique".
Sadly, that is true. Dealing with homeschoolers in groups sometimes feels like being back in Jr. High.
The community I live in has the small town feel. And I'll be honest the majority of people in the community are white middle class and share the same values and culture. We all have a lot in common.
And numerous people have commented on how our community was the only one around that had a political forum. We had folks from surrounding cities come to our political forum because it was the only chance they had to meet the candidates. We have a high voter turn out and the poll workers usually know us by name and we generally run into friends when we go vote. And during Katrina we all pulled together and helped one another.
But we also have African American families in our community and they also take part and feel welcomed, because they share our values and our culture.
I think by being allowed to congregate with those like us we are more willing to be open to those different from us as we don't feel besieged.
>I think by being allowed to congregate with those like us we are more willing to be open to those different from us as we don't feel besieged.
Good point.
Two things:
I have been thinking about this study for a while and I think that what is happening here is a form of self-selection. Communities which are more diverse probably attract people who don't see what their neighbors have to do with them anyhow and therefor don't worry about whether their neighborhoods are filled with people who look like them. People who are seeking communities with real neighbors tend to avoid areas where there is likely to be conflict, which unfortunately in many people's exoeriences means places where different groups come into contact with eachother.
As for chris's comment about race and diversity. I am married to a black man who would cut off his right arm and pluck out an eye ball to live in a world where racial differences don't actually mean anything. The fact of the matter is that they do. Your example of people 3 generations out being the same would be all well and fine if we were actually 3 generations out from forcing people of color to live different lives than white folks. The woman who raised my husband taught him about avoiding lynching since it was a danger her own generation lived with. My husband still views hiking in the woods as foolishly dangerous. One of the things I have learned in being in an inter-racial relationship is that we whites often see bigotry as being almost a victemless crime since it is so obviously wrong that it should be easily brushed off by the people it is directed towards. Unfortunately this is not the case.
We should all deal with people respectfully as they are, but if we insist on denying that a major part of their life's experience even exists, we disrespect them as people.
>My husband still views hiking in the woods as foolishly dangerous.
Wow! What can you say to that. It's true that even if our society was 98% good and decent, the remaining 2% could do incredibly awful things.
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