If there was ever any doubt that the cult of diversity was, in fact, a cult, this should dispel those doubts.
A popular gifted program will get the axe after Ditmas Park school officials chose diversity over exclusivity.
Citing a lack of diversity, PS 139 Principal Mary McDonald informed parents in a letter that the Students of Academic Rigor and two other in-house programs would no longer accept applications for incoming kindergartners.
“Our Kindergarten classes will be heterogeneously grouped to reflect the diversity of our student body and the community we live in,” McDonald told parents in a letter posted on the photo-sharing site flickr and obtained by Ditmas Park Corner.
The benefit of diversity, however it is defined, has never been established, beyond some wild claims by people in the diversity rackets. History, on the other hand, shows humans have been against diversity since the dawn of time. In fact, diversity is most likely bad for human communities. The evidence thus far shows that the greater the diversity, the weaker the community, as fewer people volunteer and participate in the running of the community.
We are tribal animals and that means being around people like us. 100,000 years or so of evolution is not going to yield to wishful thinking from people who tend not to live the diverse lifestyle. That’s the thing with the cult of diversity. The preachers tend to live in homogeneous communities, which means white communities. You never hear black people in the ghetto talking about diversity. The only time blacks use the word is as code to mean lots of black people, which is how white people are now using it.
This particular school is in a gentrifying neighborhood, which means loads of middle-class white women pretending to be artists as they live like June Cleaver. That’s the other thing about the diversity cult. The women all pretend to be artsy feminists, but they live like a 1950’s house wife, including the husband with the good job. All of their progressive posturing is intended to conceal the very real fact they live a very homogeneous life. Multiculturalism is a burka they throw over their life.
Firstly: “Harrison Bergeron” is by far the dumbest thing Vonnegut ever wrote, and really bizzarely and confoundingly dumb given what smart, sharp, incisive writer he was in literally everything else he ever wrote, ever. Seriously, “Anthem” is better didactic dystopian blather than “Harrison Bergeron.”
Secondly: I live in a neighborhood that is, and has been for decades, a racially, religiously, and economically diverse community, admittedly a rarity, but there it is. It is pretty great. People seem to really like it.
Thirdly: I am extremely skeptical of Putnam’s work on this, for about a bajillion reasons, +/- 2.7 gazillion.
Fourthly: I am a member of a “tribal group.” In my broader area, not just my neighborhood but my city, there are many people belonging to my group. They do not all live near each other, though. So we go to events and gatherings specifically for that group, and do a lot of our activism, giving, and communal etc through institutions affiliated with that group. So, tribal! But – we also spend time with my coworkers. And my wife’s coworkers. And my wife’s friends from high school. And our friends from our various undergraduate and graduate schools. And people we meet through other communal activities. And those groups are often “diverse.” So there’s no big mutual exclusion between diversity and tribalism, per se.