Talking about Diversity

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Talking about Diversity

• john a. powell
• Williams Chair in Civil Rights Civil Liberties,
  Moritz College of Law
• Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race
  and Ethnicity

Moritz College of Law Orientation August 13, 2009
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Presentation Overview

• What Is Diversity Important?
• Colorblindness Versus Color-Consciousness
• Implicit Bias
• Logic and Benefits of Diversity
• Challenges to Diversity
• Individual Versus Democratic Merit
• Moving Forward

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Why Is Diversity Important?
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What Is Diversity?

• Diversity
• versus
• Multiculturalism
• versus
• Racial Justice
• versus
• Post Racialism
• versus
• Colorblind Racialization

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Colorblindness

• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
  (1978)
• The Court ruled 5-4 that race could be one of
  numerous factors used by admissions boards in
  order to have a holistic review of the applicants
• Justice Powell believed quotas were an unfair
  advantage for minority applicants and found it
  unconstitutional because they discriminated
  against non-minority applicants

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Colorblindness

• In Bakke, the Court debated whether the
  Fourteenth Amendment was a colorblind principle.
  
• The Court has struggled with this question ever
  since.
• Is the Fourteenth Amendment an substantive
  equality principle or merely an
  anti-discrimination principle?

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Regents v. Bakke

• JUSTICE POWELL
• Race-conscious measures must be precisely
  tailored to serve a compelling governmental
  interest
• Rejects societal discrimination as a rationale
  because its too amorphous
• Diversity can be a compelling interest
• Using race as a plus-factor is okay, but quotas
  and set-asides arent

Source Dan Tokaji
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Justice Marshalls Bakke Dissent

• Had the Court been willing in 1896, in Plessy v.
  Ferguson, to hold that the Equal Protection
  Clause forbids differences in treatment based on
  race, we would not be faced with this dilemma in
  1978.
• We must remember, however, that the principle
  that the "Constitution is colorblind" appeared
  only in the opinion of the lone dissenter. 163
  U.S. at 559. The majority of the Court rejected
  the principle of color blindness, and for the
  next 60 years, from Plessy to Brown v. Board of
  Education, ours was a Nation where, by law, an
  individual could be given "special" treatment
  based on the color of his skin.
• It is because of a legacy of unequal treatment
  that we now must permit the institutions of this
  society to give consideration to race in making
  decisions about who will hold the positions of
  influence, affluence, and prestige in America.

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Analyzing How We Talk About Race

• False dichotomies as frames
• 1) Black / White
• A racial continuum has yet to be accepted by most
  people
• 2) Civil Rights / Post-Racialism
• Older Americans Civil Rights angle
• Younger Americans a post-racial perspective
• Whites tend to be absent from this discussion
• 3) Race is not important / Race is important
• Not important colorblind
• Is important color-conscious

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Colorblindness v. Color-Consciousness

• Colorblindness
• The logic Since we know race is socially
  constructed (not scientific), we should eliminate
  racial categories
• This perspective assumes that the major race
  problem in our society is race itself, rather
  than racism.
• Attempting to ignore race is not the same as
  creating equality

Is colorblindness an appropriate shift in how we
perceive race? NO. Colorblindness will not end
racism.
john a. powell. The Colorblind Multiracial
Dilemma Racial Categories Reconsidered. (1997)
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Colorblindness v. Color-Consciousness

• Color-Consciousness
• This perspective acknowledges that race can be a
  divisive issue in our society
• Policies and interventions need to address race
  otherwise they will only provide partial
  solutions to problems that are grounded in race
• Acknowledging race through a multicultural frame
  can reduce prejudice
• Color-consciousness fosters an appreciation of
  each groups contributions to society

Philip Mazzocco. The Dangers of Not Speaking
About Race. 2006
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Implicit Bias

• People have multiple networks that may be
  activated without our awareness
• Depending on the situation, one network becomes
  dominant over the others
• Even though we may fight them, implicit biases
  reside within us

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?

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Our Unconscious Networks

• What colors are the following lines of text?

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Implicit Bias The Shooter Game

• In a video-game experiment, images of suspects -
  both armed and unarmed, black and white flash
  rapidly on a monitor. Within a split-second,
  subjects must decide whether to shoot.
• Participants must assess whether the man in each
  picture is carrying a gun. Within 850
  milliseconds they must press one key to shoot or
  another to leave the figure unharmed.
• After repeated experimentation, peoples
  mistakes, although rare, follow a pattern
• They shoot more unarmed blacks than unarmed
  whites
• They fail to shoot more whites than blacks are
  holding weapons.

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What Would You Do?
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Implicit Association Test
https//implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
http//thesituationist.wordpress.com/2007/08/19/
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Implicit Bias Unconscious Modeling
The Kanizsa Triangle
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Priming

• Our environment affects our unconscious networks
• Priming activates mental associations
• Telling someone a scary story activates a frame
  of fear
• Claude Steeles stereotype threat
• For example, tell students about to take a test
  that Asian students tend to do better than
  whites, and the whites will perform significantly
  worse than if they had not been primed to think
  of themselves as less capable than Asians.

http//www.eaop.ucla.edu/0405/Ed18520-Spring05/We
ek_6_May9_2005.pdf
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Race-Neutrality?

• Given the forces of implicit bias, framing, and
  priming, race neutrality is not a reasonable or
  effective goal
• We need a new paradigm
• Targeted policies alone are not desirable because
  they appear to show favoritism toward a certain
  group, thus stigmatizing them
• Universal policies alone are not useful they
  fail to account for the fact that people are
  situated differently in the economic and social
  landscape of society
• So Targeted Universalism

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Targeted Universalism

• Targeted universalism is an approach that
  supports the needs of the particular while
  reminding us that we are all part of the same
  social fabric
• Universal, yet captures how people are
  differently situated
• Targets those who are most marginalized
• Targeted universalism is a common framework
  through which to pursue justice
• A model which recognizes our linked fate
• A model where we all grow together
• A model where we embrace collective solutions

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Targeted Universalism

• Targeted Universalism recognizes racial
  disparities and the importance of eradicating
  them, while acknowledging their presence within a
  larger inequitable, institutional framework
• Targeted interventions must recognize the
  interconnected nature of our structures
• Attempts to address singular issues in isolated
  ways will ultimately fail

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The Logic and Benefits of Diversity
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The Logic of Diversity

Diversity of Identity, Beliefs, Experiences
Diverse Perspectives
Better Outcomes
Source Scott Page, A Logic of Diversity II
(available online)
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The Logic of Diversity

• According to Page, problem solving and prediction
  relies on two explanatory conceptsperspectives
  and heuristics
• The more diverse the causal perspectives, the
  wider the range of potentially viable solutions
• Heuristics are problem-solving tactics that tell
  problem-solvers working within a perspective how
  to search for potential improvements on solutions

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Diversity or Ability A Test

• Group 1 Best 20 individual problem-solvers
• Group 2 Random 20 problem-solvers
• Have each group work collectively when one
  person gets stuck, another group member tries to
  find a further improvement
• Group stops when no one can find a better solution

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Toolbox View
ABD
ABC
ACD
AEG
AHK
FD
BCD
ADE
BCD
BCD
EZ
IL
Alpha Group Diverse Group
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Multidisciplinary View
Econ
Econ
Econ
Polisci
Math
Hist
Econ
Econ
Econ
Econ
Soc
Bio
Alpha Group Diverse Group
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Logic of Diversity

• Most of the time the diverse group outperforms
  the group of the most talented individuals by a
  substantial margin
• Whether in a laboratory or a democracy, diversity
  benefits everyone

Source Lu Hong and Scott Page, Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences (2002)
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Benefits of Diversity

• Education for all students
• More tolerant and inclusive viewpoints
• Reduced intergroup prejudice
• Improved intercultural competence
• Enhanced critical thinking and integrative
  complexity
• More creativity and intellectual confidence
• Higher levels of parental involvement
• More productive workplace relationships with
  other-race people
• Less residential segregation

Source Brief of 553 Social Scientists, Parents
Involved
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Benefits of Diversity

• Education for non-White students
• Modest positive achievement gains for Black and
  Latino students (no negative impact on test
  scores of White students)
• Higher-quality resources (funding, class size,
  rigorous coursework, teachers)
• More qualified teachers and less teacher turnover
• Higher HS graduation rates
• Richer social and professional networks
• Higher income for African Americans

Source Brief of 553 Social Scientists, Parents
Involved
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Benefits of Diversity

• Daryl Smith et al. also found that institutional
  and structural diversity initiatives have
  numerous education and social benefits for all
  students
• Access and success
• Larger numbers of diverse people lend to fewer
  stereotypes perceived intuitional commitment to
  diversity
• Campus climate and intergroup relations
• Opportunities for interaction perceived
  institutional commitment to diversity equals more
  positive student climate views
• Education and scholarship
• Enhanced cognitive development more positive
  effect on attitudes toward racial issues
• Institutional viability

Source Smith, Daryl and Natalie B. Schonfeld.
2000. The Benefits of Diversity What the
Research Tells Us. About Campus.
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Challenges to Diversity
Individual Versus Democratic Merit
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Challenges to Diversity

• Diversity often comes under attack as an assault
  on merit
• Merit is usually thought of in individualistic
  terms, meaning that achievements and accolades
  are considered the product of individual effort
• Individual merit focuses on using these past
  achievements as predictors of future success

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Merit

• Limitations of individualistic merit
• Reinforces myth of the American dream (hard
  work ? success) stigmatizes those who do not
  succeed
• Marginalized groups do not benefit from a few
  members being given preferenceneed interventions
  that lift up group collectively

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Merit

• As Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers points
  out
• People dont rise from nothing. We do owe
  something to parentage and patronage. The people
  who stand before kings may look like they did it
  all by themselves. But in fact they are
  invariably the beneficiaries of hidden
  advantages and extraordinary opportunities and
  cultural legacies that allow them to learn and
  work hard and make sense of the world in ways
  others cannot.

Source Gladwell, Malcolm. 2008. Outliers The
Story of Success
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Merit

• Knowing what successful individuals are like
  tells us nothing about their success
• When and where we came from makes a difference
• The cultures we belong to and legacies that were
  passed down to us shape our patterns of
  achievement
• Extraordinary achievement is less about talent
  than it is about opportunity

Source Gladwell, Malcolm. 2008. Outliers The
Story of Success
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Individual Versus Democratic Merit

• Individual Merit
• Focuses on past achievement
• Relies on objective measures (GPA, ACT/SAT
  scores, etc.)
• Fails to account for external constraints, such
  as structural racialization

• Democratic Merit
• Invests in democratic potential
• Considers how students may contribute to society
• Group-level focus

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Individual Versus Democratic Merit

• Merit, however, is often poorly conceived of and
  fails to allocate scarce educational
  opportunities in a manner that is consistent with
  democratic values
• Our assumptions about merit hinge on decisions we
  have made about what the measuring stick should
  be
• As Amartya Sen points out, merit is an incentive
  system used to reward those actions that society
  has reason to value

Source Guinier, Lani. 2003. Admissions Rituals
as Political Acts Guardians at the Gate of our
Democratic Ideals. Harvard Law Review. 113.
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Democratic Merit

• The U.S. Supreme Court has identified the
  objectives of public education as the
  inculcation of fundamental values necessary for
  the maintenance of a democratic political system
• Preparing students for citizenship has been a
  stated goal of American education throughout
  history
• Instill fundamental values and transmit knowledge
  necessary to partake in our democracy
• In 2002, the Supreme Court in Grutter
  acknowledged the importance of preparing students
  for citizenship

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Democratic Merit

• Non-traditional measures of merit
• Identify strivers
• These students exceed expectations given the
  quality of their high school and their
  socioeconomic status
• Strivers should be considered in light of their
  peers at the same or similar schools
• They may perform better in college than their
  academic record indicates

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Democratic Merit

• Non-traditional measures of merit
• Diversity capital
• This refers to the unique interests, life
  experiences, and/or family backgrounds that
  students possess that enrich the academic
  atmosphere
• Students who possess diversity capital create the
  opportunity to engage a variety of perspectives,
  thus creating a dynamic learning atmosphere

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Democratic Merit

• Non-traditional measures of merit
• Create an assessment tool that measures
• Academic preparation and potential
• Cultural competence
• Other competencies related to success in college
  and democratic participation
• The assessment tool should be institution-specific
  , non-standardized, and free of bias

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Democratic Merit

• Aligning Missions and Admissions
• Institutions should consider what they hope to
  accomplish in society and admit students who will
  help make those goals a reality
• Institutions need to discern what they truly
  value
• Strong test scores, or a strong democracy?
• Extensive extracurricular activities, or
  investments in the wellbeing of a community?

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Democratic Merit

• At selective institutions of higher education,
  admissions decisions have a special political
  impact rationing access to societal influence
  and power, and training leaders for public office
  and public life. Those admitted as students then
  graduate to become citizens who shape business,
  education, the arts, and the law for the next
  generation. Admissions decisions affect the
  individuals who apply, the institutional
  environments that greet those who enroll, and the
  stability and legitimacy of our democracy.

Source Guinier, Lani. 2003. Admissions Rituals
as Political Acts Guardians at the Gate of our
Democratic Ideals. Harvard Law Review. 113.
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Moving Forward
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Moving Forward

• A new conception of race needs to emerge
• The conversation about race needs to move forward
  in different direction
• There is a need for a racially literate
  conversation about the social purposes that
  universities fulfill.
• Democratic merit
• It invests in democratic potential
• It shifts the focus away from a standardized
  test-based view of higher education admissions
• It aligns well with the broader goals of education

Source Guinier, Lani. 2003. Admissions Rituals
as Political Acts Guardians at the Gate of our
Democratic Ideals. Harvard Law Review. 113.
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Moving Forward

• Universities need to do more about the
  achievement gap, the environmental gap that
  isolates Whites from students of color, and the
  teaching and learning gaps of professors
• Coalitions need to be built between working-class
  and poor Whites who would benefit from
  acknowledging that they too are underrepresented
  on college campuses

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Achieving Transformative Change

• Transformative change in the racial paradigm in
  the U.S. requires substantive efforts in three
  areas
• Acting Linking these understandings to the way
  that we act on race and how we arrange our
  institutions and policies
• Talking Understanding how language and messages
  shape reality and the perception of reality
• Thinking Understanding how framing and priming
  impact information processing in both the
  explicit and the implicit mind

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Moving Forward

• Whether in a laboratory or a democracy, diversity
  benefits everyone

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www.KirwanInstitute.org
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Links

• http//americansforamericanvalues.org/
• https//implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/