The article “The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality” is an excerpt from the book of the same title by Walter Benn Michaels and published by Henry Hodan Company in 2006. The author wrote this in response to what was happening at the time, which was the mandating of institution policies for diversity and the problems that were faced with them. He argues in this excerpt that diversity is based solely on culture, but that we should shift our focus to equality. It is important to examine a summary of the article, a discussion of the author’s thesis and supportive evidence, and a proposal to address the issue.
This book is divided into four sections. In the introduction, Michaels presents two different …show more content…
The only possible difference that he could provide was not what each one of them possessed but that he referred to them as a “glamourous race” (Michaels p.810). He said this to show a comparison between the rich and poor and the white and not so white. But to make the point clearer he provides the example of a book “The Great Gatsby” to show how race is still apparent in society. In the next section, the author presents the court case Bakke v Board of Regents which took place in 1978. A white student applied and was denied acceptance and he argued that it was a bias decision and that it was based on his race. But in this situation the court ruled in favor of this case because they brought up the point that if the university takes into consideration the race for diversity purposes only then there shouldn’t necessarily be an issue. Meanwhile this case was taking place, racism was prominent because many people did not associate race with diversity. The realization of this is that race has paved out ways for culture, religious, and medical reasons to be considered as diversity. In the third section, Michael explains how people ignore inequality because they are afraid to be labeled as lower …show more content…
This appeal appears in the introduction. Michaels gives an example about a man having a large amount of money but that no one “cares” about that, they care only about the fact that he is a “race conscious, little kike” (Michaels p.810). Another time this appeal appeared was towards the end of section two. The author uses the word “love” repeatedly throughout the article to emphasis the emotion we feel about whether it’s race, identity, or even class. He also uses it to show the difference between black and other