Acording to Harvard University sociologist Robert Putnam there are short term problems with making a community diverse. Having read his paper, I disagree, I think the problems are long term based upon the xenophobia intoduced in this country in the early 20th and late 19th centuries.
On that idea, I have to ask a few questions: Do you socialize with you neighbors who either can not or will not speak your primary language in public? Do you vote when the ballot is primarily issues that do not concern your ethnic or socio-economic group? Do you volunteer in areas where the main beneficiaries are not of your ethnic or socio-economic group? Do you feel you have a say in government when your representative is of a different ethnic group than your own? I personally can only answer yes to two of these questions. I think all of these issues are long term problems as opposed to short term problems. I suspect everyone here has had exposure to other cultures in grammar, middle and high school and especially college. I suspect we were greatly idealistic in school, but the real world has changed us, for the worse. It strikes me that forced diversity leads to a backlash and xenophobia. I don't think it leads to racism in the "separate but equal" mode. It is just a "birds of a feather" thing, IMO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| ColdFusion is delivering applications solutions at at top companies around the world in government. Find out how and where now http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=finder&productID=1522&loc=en_us Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:240502 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
