Diversity and Identity

Suppose you take a chocolate cake. If you cut it into four pieces, will it remain a chocolate cake, or will the slices become vanilla, butterscotch, strawberry and pineapple?

Humans divide themselves into groups and claim to be different because of those groups.

The idea of diversity recognizes and emphasizes differences in humans based on identity. Diversity is considered to be a positive aspect of societies, which protect and encourage the role of identity groups in order to show themselves as a ‘melting pot’ of diversity and pluralistic harmony.

Humans may be different for thousands of reasons, but identity is not the sole or direct reason for any of them. There might be some indirect social factors arising due to identity, but not enough to say that the imaginary divisions of identity make people inherently different. Yet the diversity ideal makes identity a very major, if not the most, distinguishing element of society. In such societies identities take the centre stage and become prominent in social processes and institutions. What matters is not who you are but which group you belong to.

Diversity is associated with a movement towards ‘representativeness’ which aims to create institutions that include all identities in proportion to their population. While this may seem right from an identity-centred standpoint, it has led to violations of the basic principles of justice. The notion of representativeness and promotion of diversity are ends to which means like discriminatory identity-based selections, reservations, unfair allocations, and arbitrarily increasing the numbers of some groups are used. The end does not justify the means, but the means justify the end. If diversity is achieved by committing injustice, then diversity is not a right objective.

There is nothing wrong in diversity, just as there is no fault in not having diversity, as identities do not make people different. Identity-based distinctions must give way to human unity. But this does not mean that everyone be homogenized-all the cultures, languages, religions, and ways of life can continue to thrive. What is needed is the realization that humans are made different not by the groups they identify with but by their character and thinking. It is far better to have diversity of thinking rather than diversity of identity.

Originally published at https://www.theextraterrestrial.blog on May 12, 2021.