Debating Diversity

Description

In the nineteenth century Herman Melville wrote, "America was settled by peoples of all nations....You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world. We are not a narrow tribe." At the beginning of the twenty-first century, America is more ethnically diverse than ever before. Will we fear this expanding diversity as the disuniting of America, or will we embrace a more inclusive re-definition of our national identity?
As the nation's preeminent scholar of multicultural studies, Ronald Takaki invites us to address this question by "debating diversity." The overarching theme of his new anthology is the clash of perspectives over the master narrative of American history--the powerful but mistaken story that this country was settled by European immigrants and that Americans are white.
The collection opens with the lively intellectual exchange between Nathan Glazer and Ronald Takaki on ethnicity versus race; it then turns to the contrasting interpretations of the frontier by Frederick Jackson Turner and Takaki. Other debates include: Samuel P. Huntington and Elizabeth Martínez on the diversity of civilizations; Irving Kristol and William Julius Wilson on inner-city blacks; Robert J. Samuelson and Gregory Defreitas on Mexican immigration; Governor Pete Wilson and Chancellor Chang-lin Tien on affirmative action; and James Q. Wilson and Elliott Currie on crime and punishment. The anthology closes with a debate between Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Takaki on whether we as Americans should pursue a vision of our society as a melting pot or as a multicultural democracy. Embedded in all of the essays is the question: "Originating from different shores, can we become one people of the United States of America?" An ideal text for diversity courses in Ethnic Studies, Political Science, American Studies, History, Sociology, Anthropology, and Education, Debating Diversity will stir students to think critically about who we have been and who we are as Americans.

Table of Contents

The Twenty-first Century: We Will All Be Minorities
I. Patterns: Ethnicity versus Race
The Emergence of an American Ethnic Pattern, Nathan Glazer
Reflections on Racial Patterns in America, Ronald Takaki
II. National Identity: The Master Narrative of American History and Its Discontents
The Significance of the Frontier in American History, Frederick Jackson Turner
The Significance of the Frontier in Native American History, Ronald Takaki
The Clash of Civilizations: In the World and the U.S., Samuel P. Huntington
Reinventing "America": Call for a New National Identity, Elizabeth Martínez
III. Class: Below the Deck of the Pequod
Origins of the Southern Labor System, Oscar and Mary F. Handlin
Why the Switch to Slavery: Fears of Rebellious White Workers, Ronald Takaki
The Paradoxical Tragedy of White and Black Laborers in the South, W.E.B. DuBois
Organize Labor and Civil Rights, Harvard Sitkoff
Racial Domination and Class Conflict in Capitalist Agriculture: The Oxnard Sugar Beet Workers' Strike of 1903, Tomás Almaguer
Immigrants and Workfare Workers, Grace Chang
IV. Diversities Within: Gender and Other Differences
A Bridge to College for Jewish Sons: Daughters in the Sweatshops, Susan A. Glenn
Double Discrimination for Puerto Rican Women, Lourdes Miranda King
Race, Class, and Gender: Prospects for an All-Inclusive Sisterhood, Bonnie Thorton Dill
Stories from the Homefront: Perspectives of Asian American Parents with Lesbian Daughters and Gay Sons, Alice Y. Hom
Voices from the Movement: Approaches to Multiraciality, Cynthia L. Nakashima
V. Policies: Strategies and Solutions
The Negro Today Is Like the Immigrant Yesterday, Irving Kristol
The Black Community: Race and Class, William Julius Wilson
The Limits of Immigration, Robert J. Samuelson
Fear of Foreigners: Immigrants as Scapegoats for Domestic Woes, Gregory Defreitas
What to Do About Crime, James Q. Wilson
What to Do and Not To Do About Crime, Elliott Currie
Ending Affirmative Action, Pete Wilson
Defending Affirmative Action, Chang-Lin Tien
American Blacks, It Turned Out, Are Not Like the Immigrants of Yesterday, Nathan Glazer
VI. Prospects: E Pluribus Unum?
The Return to the Melting Pot, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
A Different Mirror: Multicultural Ties That Bind America, Ronald Takaki