Wednesday, April 30, 2003

I should like to make a brief commentary in response to the article entitled "'Diversity' is racism's logical pinnacle," by Peter Schwartz.

Mr. Schwartz misses one simple reality, and draws an erroneous assumption as a result. He assumes that the desire to bring people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds for the sake of broadening the perspectives represented in a social space are rooted in a belief in biologically determined, racially distinct behavior. Rightly rejecting the notion that biology determines thought, he wrongly rejects the notion that race corresponds to thought.

To the contrary, race is a complex phenomenon. The biological nature of race truly is skin deep as scientists have decided to confirm (as compared to two centuries ago, when scientists confirmed the biological basis of behavior). However, because so many facets of peoples' lives have been strongly influenced by how others responded to their "skin deep" features, distinct life experiences often correspond to what we call race. And as a result, distinct perspectives often correspond to what we call race.

I completely agree with Mr. Schwartz that one "black" person in the classroom is not going to adequately represent everyone in the world who is of African descent. Because there is so much variation within what people call "the black community," you actually need many "black" people in that classroom, and you need to ensure that they represent different walks of black life. This is crucial to note because there are many ways of being black that are very similar to many ways of being white.

To adequately deal with today's racial situation, one's mind must think in terms of probabilities and tendencies, not absolute universals. There are many things about my experiences in life, and my corresponding interpretations of those experiences, that make me more distinct from most "white people" that I meet and less distinct from most "black" people that I meet.

You must appreciate that we have degrees of similarity and degrees of difference that often are influenced by similar and dissimilar life experiences. The life experiences we live through are strongly influenced by the social categories that we put ourselves into and that others put us in, not just in the present, but over generations.

I hope that the author, and others, can benefit from my "different" perspective.

Mark A. King

kingmark@jhu.edu