Diversity in Everyday Discourse: The Cultural Ambiguities and Consequences of “Happy Talk”

Abstract

Few words in the current American lexicon are as ubiquitous and ostensibly uplifting as diversity. The actual meanings and functions of the term, however, are difficult to pinpoint. In this article we use in-depth interviews conducted in four major metropolitan areas to explore popular conceptions of diversity. Although most Americans respond positively at first, our interviews reveal that their actual understandings are undeveloped and often contradictory. We highlight tensions between idealized conceptions and complicated realities of difference in social life, as well as the challenge of balancing group-based commitments against traditional individualist values. Respondents, we find, define diversity in abstract, universal terms even though most of their concrete references and experiences involve interactions with racial others. Even the most articulate and politically engaged respondents find it difficult to talk about inequality in the context of a conversation focused on diversity. Informed by critical theory, we situate these findings in the context of unseen privileges and normative presumptions of whiteness in mainstream U.S. culture. We use these findings and interpretations to elaborate on theories of the intersection of racism and colorblindness in the new millennium.

Discursive Fault Lines: Reproducing White Habitus in a Racially Diverse Community

“…Primarily because diversity is seen (a) as something extra -racial, and (b) as a positive add-on to a white normative center, residents' concrete experiences around 'diversity' are individually focused and consumption-driven. Much like in the national study by Bell and Hartmann (2007), diversity is perceived as something extra rather than integrated into the core of a community, making diversity particularly appealing to whites who are looking to spice up or add flavor to an otherwise unchecked white normative life. Ironically, diversity may then have special appeal for whites.…”

Discursive managerial practices of diversity and homogeneity

“…In other words, 'difference' may be welcomed and valued on the work floor but not at the managerial level. In this study, the use of the diversity discourse enabled these managers to exercise power by avoiding discussions of their own unmarked ethnic majority heteronormative position (see also Bell and Hartmann 2007). This avoidance suggests that they did not value difference at the managerial level and that their rhetoric served more as window dressing or as support of a management fashion than an organizational discursive practice (see also Heres and Benschop 2010).…”

Unexpected Narratives from Multicultural Policies: Translations of Affirmative Action in Brazil

“…Students often interpret these experiences as class diversity. This is different from how diversity is commonly viewed in the 20 United States, where social inequality is mostly ignored and racial differences are essentialized (Bell and Hartmann, 2007). Affirmative action has an impact on students' discourse about race and inequality and the language of diversity helps to modify this discourse, but this transformation happens in previously unintended ways.…”

“…In everyday talk, however, diversity in the United States is understood as referring to the tolerance and consumption of racial and ethnic cultural difference by whites. In this discourse, racial and ethnic differences are essentialized, and the relationship between diversity and inequality is rarely articulated (Bell and Hartmann 2007). Although much contested within the United States, this diversity framework in affirmative action has generated a network of experts, foundations and policy prescriptions that now travel around the world.…”