An Analysis Of Walter Benn Michaels's The Trouble With Diversity

As George Bernard Shaw declared, “We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.” Specifically, the United States incessantly falls back into the routine of allowing the gap between the rich and the poor to expand. As if the Great Depression wasn’t sufficient warning, American society’s structure continues to allow the rich to advance into loftier margins of wealth and gain greater monopolies. Meanwhile, the status of the poor remains stagnant, depleting them into a lower quality of life as the powers over them rise. Resultantly, Walter Benn Michaels wrote “The Trouble with Diversity” to address the increasing range in income amongst Americans, which he finds entirely loathsome. Citing examples primarily in connection with academia,

Through media portrayals, school education, and specific days and months dedicated to celebrating diversity, Americans have learned that racial variety possesses life-enhancing qualities and therefore is worthy of an optimistic perception. Due to the notably substantial efforts towards resolving shrewd racism, “diversity has become a virtually sacred concept in American life today. No one’s really against it” (Michaels 678). Although American society undeniably contained a horrifying period during which minorities experienced unqualified maltreatment, such issues have been largely remedied, allowing for new issues to arise, specifically that of economic

Michaels implores his fellow citizens to abhor from demeaning associations, contending that the poor are simply “people who have too little respect [and] it is our attitude toward the poor, not their poverty, that becomes the problem to be solved” (681). In order to procure an authentic and lasting change in the economic disparity, an equally compelling effort from policy makers and citizens in their treatment towards the poor must be implemented with relentless diligence. Without dual efforts, the changes plausible are meager at best due to the active opposition; thus it is vital that the citizens present a willingness to adopt new mentalities in tandem with the adjustment of the legal framework surrounding the