Member-only story
Bloodline Does Not Equal Ethnicity
The American media became obsessed with race and identity a decade ago. As the gap between the globe-trotting haves and the monocultural have-nots widened, cultural elites became more emboldened to flex their elitist bona-fides by dunking on the less fortunate — those uninterested in turning their communities into United Nations oases.
But since diversity remains such an explosive and controversial obsession in our American culture, it behooves us to talk about it.
What is diversity?
Let’s look at two aspects of diversity: cultural and ethnic.
Merriam-Webster defines culture as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.”
It defines ethnic as “of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background.”
The meanings of cultural and ethnic diversity, however, often elude people.
As an Uber driver in Washington, DC, I once drove a couple whose son attended one of the more elite private schools. They were discussing the new diversity officer the school had hired.
It was bizarre, to say the least. They talked about her as upper-middle-class early…
