“It’s Only Natural”
The natural world loves diversity. Plants, animals and microbes of different species grow together creating bio-diversity. The planet we live on thrives on diversity. The country we live in is diverse and our pluralism, historically, has been a sign of our strength and our greatness.
Reduce diversity in any given system, and the system grows weaker.
Despite these proven norms, the concept of diversity has been under attack. The idea that homogeneity is preferable, that specific cultures, ethnicities and theologies should not only dominate an ecosystem but attempt to exclude all others, is being promoted widely and recklessly.
But here’s another related problem: those who espouse social and racial diversity are often drawn to sameness themselves, iron-clad agreement, homogeneity. They too gather in what might be called ideological silos.
Orthodoxy has many shades… but a landscape of silos is not diverse.
For there to be diversity, there needs to be inter-connection, not silos. Many who talk about “building community” (an overused catchword)… actually are retreating into their groups, curating their friends and followers, looking for safety in sameness. Today the creation of silos has become the specialty of too many…
And something unnatural is happening on a scale that is alarming… we are being taught to fear and dislike difference. And the mechanisms of connection in our digital age – which efficiently link people from different places and backgrounds — are being contorted into tools of division.
By teaching our kids and ourselves to not fear differences, to know that diversity is not only reality but a function of community health, we are teaching effective negotiation of shared public space… in our cities and on our planet.