The Trouble With Diversity Analysis

Diversity in America: Two Perspectives

American society today is comprised of a rainbow of different people with varying ethnicities, cultural practices, and religious beliefs; there is no wonder we pride ourselves on being an exceedingly diverse country. However, this assumption has been proven false. In the traditional idea of diversity, it can be defined as the integration of various races, cultures and ethnicities, but as authors Brooks and Michaels have acclaimed, diversity includes much more.

In the article, “ The trouble With Diversity” author Stephen Michaels argues that Americans are focused on diversity by integrating race and cultural equalities and are distracted from acknowledging more important inequalities such as social status

or class. While author David Brooks explains that while we may be an integrating society with race and culture, we surround ourselves with others who share the same likes and dislikes, in his article “ People Like Us”. Although both Michaels and Brooks argue that diversity is just a topic for conversation, both authors have a differencing of opinion on diversity in our university system, the importance or lack there of on racial diversity, and the effects of a non-diverse social class.
Evidently, Michaels and Brooks have different views on the issue of diversity in America. While Brooks states that Americans do not care about diversity, Micheals argues that diversity is an escape used to evade economic problems. Brooks, in his essay, ‘People like us,’ proves that as much as Americans claim to embrace diversity, they do not practice it, especially in learning institutions. To demonstrate, Brooks states “It's striking that the institutions that talk the most about diversity often practice it the least. For example, no group of people sings the diversity anthem more frequently and fervently than the administrators of elite universities.” (360) Correspondingly, Michaels argues that Americans use campaigns against racism as a distraction to the real issue, poverty. In his article, he says that “So for 30 years, while the gap between the rich and the poor has grown larger, we've only been urged to respect people's identities.” (676) Evidently, while Brooks thinks that Americans despise diversity, Michaels believes that Americans overemphasize on ethnicity to escape addressing poverty.
While Brooks views racism as a concern worth tackling, Michaels thinks that racism is insignificant.

In his article, David Brooks challenges the reader to embrace different cultural groups as a way of appreciating ethnicity. The persuasion is evident in the conclusion where the author ends his article with two rhetorical questions: “Are you really in touch with the broad diversity of American life? Do you care?” (361) On the other hand, Michaels argues that there is enough cultural diversity in America and racism is just a minor issue and an excuse for failing to focus on the poor. Concerning this argument, he asserts, “Diversity of skin color is something we should happily take for granted, the way we do the diversity of hair color. No issue of social justice hangs on appreciating hair color diversity...” (681) While Michaels finds racism to be a non-issue in America, but Brooks thinks it

is.
There are also contrasting opnions on who is to blame for the lack of diversity. Brooks blames human nature whereas Michaels blames irresponsibility. Brooks states that the division in America is evident in residential areas whereby people move to different towns because the residents are like them. In his essay, David cites an example of two neighborhoods with similar economic standards, yet people of the same class cannot move there because a different ethnic group is living there. He states that people do so out of human nature, which derives comfort and happiness from geographical familiarity. Alternately, Michaels wants Americans to focus on economically challenged citizens, as poverty is the real divider of the people. To emphasize his argument, Michaels says that in the last thirty years, the gap between the rich and the poor has increased. According to him, the gap portrays racism as irrelevant and as a way for people to dodge their responsibility to help the underprivileged. In brief, the two authors also disagree on the causes of racism in America.
Similar to their arguments, the authors had different conclusions. While Brooks tells the reader about the essence of embracing diversity, Michaels persuades the reader to advocate for the impoverished. Besides, Michaels criticizes people of just ‘respecting' the poor instead of solving their problem. They claim that if the government were serious enough, the widening poverty gap would not be in existence. Conversely, David agrees that America is already a culturally diverse society that values other ethnicities. Hence, racism is not an issue for him.
To conclude, the most informative article is the “People like Us” by David Brooks.

First, the article informs the reader about the Americans’ inability to embrace diversity and afterward, the author states that as much as America is full of different people, it remains a homogenous country due to the institution-by-institution division. For an article to be informative, the reader’s critical thinking ought to be challenged, as David did in the conclusion of his article. On the other hand, the most authentic piece of the two books is “The Trouble with Diversity.” In this article, Michaels Benn understands that he may be addressing the same person he criticizes, so he chooses his words keenly. Correspondingly, the author states his opinion and supports it with statistical evidence. To sway the reader, Michaels presents opposite sides of his arguments by quoting other professionals in the issue he addressed. At the same time, he respectfully discusses other points of view on his argument. Moreover, Michaels shows credibility by using statistical evidence to support his claims and by quoting

professionals.