tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post8789821787547198802..comments2024-03-18T22:21:33.261-07:00Comments on The Debate Link: The Putnam StudyDavid Schraubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-30459443872075323722007-08-29T10:34:00.000-07:002007-08-29T10:34:00.000-07:00Mary: The problem is that our current segregated e...Mary: The problem is that our current segregated existence isn't a product of "natural" human instincts either. It is the result of a variety of heavily subsidized governmental programs and policies all of which either were designed to or had the effect of creating and maintaining a segregated sphere (See Sheryll Cashin, <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Failures-Integration-Class-Undermining-American/dp/1586483390/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-5344344-1602412?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188408332&sr=8-1" REL="nofollow">The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream</A> (New York: PublicAffairs, 2004), Chap.3, pp. 83-124). She concludes the chapter: "Individuals acting on their personal prejudices and preferences might have chosen, in the absence of exclusionary public and private policies, to cluster among their own race and economic class. But it would not have been possible for millions of individuals acting independently to create the regime of systematic stratification and exclusion that reigns today." (123)<BR/><BR/>But aside from that, I'd note that your first and second argument seem to be at odds with each other. The "melting pot," at the very least, implies that various different groups and races do, in fact, melt together. A segregated social sphere is the exact opposite of this--nothing could stand in further opposition to assimilation than having a Black neighborhood, a White neighborhood, Chinatown, a Latino block, etc.. But, most demographers have found that the primary barrier to integration has been "White flight"--Black people start to move in and integrate an area, White people pull up stakes and flee (the tipping point is usually a Black population of 20% or higher), and thus the neighborhood--instead of integrating and facilitating assimilation, simply switches from White to Black. The implication is that, insofar as assimilation is not happening, it's because of White reticence--they don't want to "melt" their culture into those of Blacks, or Asians, or Latinos, or anybody else--and they will move to avoid it.<BR/><BR/>Ergo, regardless of whether one wants assimilation (like you) or a "salsa bowl" (like me), one has to support efforts to integrate American society--and since White people have been the overwhelming barrier to that end, they're the one's we need to focus on.David Schraubhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-41987482390007848382007-08-29T06:48:00.000-07:002007-08-29T06:48:00.000-07:00If diversity was consistent with human nature you ...If diversity was consistent with human nature you wouldn't need to come up with all kinds of "interventionist" plans to force it on people. Trying to force changes in human nature has never really worked out all that well. <BR/><BR/>Also, in advocating his "solution" to diversity's ill effects of "constructing a new us" -- it seems to me that Putnam is all but admitting that the old "melting pot" model of assimilation that served the US well for 200 years was actually a good thing -- contrary to what "progressives" have been preaching for 40-plus years now. There's no doubt that we will reap the whirlwind from the foolish notion of encouraging immigrants to "keep" their culture instead of encouraging assimilation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-19379473240739098642007-07-02T09:38:00.000-07:002007-07-02T09:38:00.000-07:00A very good point about the potential difference b...A very good point about the potential difference between growing up in versus moving into diversity. I grew up in a racially diverse area (about half white, a little more than a quarter black, a little less than a quarter Latino) where I wasn't part of any of the major racial groups, and I think I'm reasonably comfortable with diversity and feel a sense of social responsibility. Now that I think of it, I actually have engaged in more volunteer activity in situations where my fellow volunteers are likely to be different from me -- in high school, after college and while living in NYC -- than in college, where there was a higher level of both racial and socioeconomic homogeneity.<BR/><BR/>My parents, on the other hand, obviously lived in that same area for the whole time I did growing up, but are less involved with that diverse community than with their own ethnic community, despite its limited scope in proximity to them. Having moved to the U.S. as adults, they will forever think of themselves and their offspring, and of others as "Americans."<BR/><BR/>I'd also be curious about the effect of religion on happiness and social cohesion and community. Although my own communities are built mostly on secular bases because I am not religious, most of the people I know have had religion-based community at some point in their lives. I'd want to disaggregate the greater sense of coheshion and happiness that may derive from religion from the effects of racial diversity. (Even if there is some correlation between particular ethnicities and particular religions...)PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.com