Late last year, NBP ran monthly themes on immigration (October) and religious pluralism (December) in which we celebrated the great cultural and religious variety in American society. Our coverage of immigration and pluralism was rooted in our traditional understanding of “diversity” as a celebration of various ethnic and religious traditions within the context of our greater American culture — as part of the concept of e pluribus unum (out of many one). This month, we explore today’s fashionable conception of “diversity” as a buzz-word for the prioritization of group identity.
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison explained how the existence of “factions,” or groups of people with particular shared interests, can devolve into “mutual animosity” that renders people “much more disposed to vex and oppress each other, than to co-operate for their common good.” This month, the NewBostonPost will consider whether the concept of “diversity” – as currently understood – exacerbates our tendency to split into faction, thereby splintering the American polity.
The month of May will provide readers in-depth analysis of the modern concept of “diversity.” Here, you will find stories about the prevalence of interest groups competing for national attention and articles about the many ways in which affinity group politics today shape our public policy and cultural discourse.
The NewBostonPost will investigate how the celebration of our differences rather than our commonalities has affected institutions of learning, the work place, and politics. We intend to highlight situations in which artificial concepts of identity and the idea of America as a “salad bowl,” rather than as a “melting pot,” have contributed to a culture of grievance. We will show how American college campuses have become a stage for artificially created identities and unrealistic views of life beyond the dorm, and how the college campuses that so often preach “diversity” are often ideologically monolithic.
Our content this month will shine a positive light on the many places where true diversity thrives organically and the way in which economic liberty facilitates its colorful manifestations in the marketplace. We will point to the many ways in which cultural variety, tolerance, and acceptance of genuine difference have enriched American life. In this country, an individual can be nourished by the tapestry of diverse cultures and traditions while freely forging a true personal identity that is also fully American.
Diversity is, indeed, a fact of modern life. The question today is, how can we live with it, benefit from it, tame it? And how can national unity and individual liberty be protected, in spite of it?
The NewBostonPost hopes to shed light on both the dangers of contrived diversity and the healthy diversity that lies at the root of our American experience and is ultimately superseded by it.
(Adobe stock photo) 
