It's rich vs. poor, stupid - by David Truer
Cultural diversity, we are told, is good for us. It represents the true contours of the country and experiencing it -- through text, cuisine and cultural activities -- is seen as a good thing. But in his daring new book "THE TROUBLE WITH DIVERSITY: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality",Walter Benn Michaels argues that cultural diversity obscures the more radical problem of economic inequality.
He writes that ``almost 75 percent of Harvard students come from families with incomes over $100,000 per year, although only a little over 20 percent of American families have incomes that high. . . . It's no wonder that rich white kids and their parents aren't complaining about diversity.''
As convincing as Michaels' conclusion is, his arguments sometimes falter.Michaels is right, however, in his analysis of how culture and race have been used as branches for the rich to hide their tracks. He convincingly argues that the emphasis on diversity often obscures dangerous economic inequalities. His conclusions are valuable and impossible to disagree with: ``The trouble with diversity, then, is not just that it won't solve the problem of economic inequality; it's that it makes it hard for us even to see the problem.''
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