by Tom Pantera
Columnist

Since I’ve been applying for college teaching jobs, I’ve been introduced to a new and unfamiliar animal: the diversity statement.

Many of the schools I’ve applied to have asked for such a statement, presumably to determine how I’d react to and fit in with any initiatives the school has to encourage people of different backgrounds to come there.

Diversity often gets something of a bad rap, which is really kind of silly when you think about it. I mean, what possible harm could come of encouraging mixing of people with different backgrounds? For anybody who has lived in a diverse environment, the benefits are so obvious as to be beyond question. Besides the material benefits, it simply makes life more interesting.

Unfortunately – in yet another case where we’ve let right-wingers define the terms of the debate – diversity is often portrayed as a “liberal” exercise aimed at making Birkenstock-wearing, ponytailed socialists feel good about themselves. The very word “diversity” seems to set some peoples’ teeth on edge. It probably gives Rush Limbaugh heart palpitations, or at least would if he had a heart.

Obviously, those who are most irritated by the concept are those who have the most to lose. Especially in our sick society, where success is measured largely financially, it’s seen as something of a zero-sum game. If you win, I lose. And having those people with a different skin color or sexual orientation or bodily ability come into the workforce means I have more competition for that job I want.

And it’s been fascinating, although deeply disturbing, to watch people twist themselves into knots fighting the tide of diversity. I am absolutely astonished how easy it is for people to get away with saying incredibly bigoted things about Muslims. Perhaps the most sickening aspect of the whole “Ground Zero mosque” controversy was how it gave free rein to naked bigotry. The controversy was ginned up by bigots in the first place (it was neither a mosque nor located at Ground Zero), but they managed to suck in more than a few people who weren’t bigots, but were simply scared.

Diversity is a particular concern at universities. It’s one of those things that has both educational and practical benefits. On an educational level, the whole point of a university education is to expand students’ frames of reference. Especially in states where a lot of the student population comes from small towns, it’s a good and very educational thing for them to encounter people with different experiences and backgrounds. From a practical standpoint, it has the potential to put more butts in desks, which brings in tuition money. And it’s easier for a university, for example, to do that, than it is for a private business. A private business’ first concern is to turn a profit; if it can do that with a diverse workforce, great, but its first priority is to hire people who can help it make money. That’s not a bad thing, by the way; it simply is what it is.

For somebody my age, the march of diversity has been interesting to watch. After all, I can remember a time not very long ago when the word wasn’t heard much in public discussion. Hell, I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis and until I left for college, I had one – one – black classmate in all my public school years and she only went to my school for about a year and a half. I never actually got to know a black person well until I roomed with one my sophomore year at Wisconsin-Eau Claire. And my most important experience with anything like diversity came my junior year, when I was an exchange student in Japan. Not only did I attend an international campus with people from all over the world (one of my best friends was a Muslim from Kenya), but in that relatively homogenous society, I was a big contributor to what diversity there was. Believe me, it was educational.

I also lived in Fargo-Moorhead at a time when it became much more diverse, largely due to Lutheran Social Service using it as a refugee dumping ground. LSS didn’t do that in a very effective way, but the end result was a happy one: People in FM finally got to meet folks who didn’t know what lutefisk is. Let’s face it, anything that can lessen the pernicious influence of lutefisk is a good thing.

From a purely practical standpoint, even those who don’t like diversity, for whatever reason, are going to have to simply suck it up and deal with it. We’re not a white country any more. Everybody’s heard the predictions about the growth of the Hispanic population, for example. That alone is going to greatly change this country and, from what I’ve seen of Hispanics – my son married one – it’s going to be for the better.

But come on, how hard should it be for America to open its arms to the rest of the world? A lot of the people who worked hard and fought and died for this country weren’t born here. Had my grandfather not rolled the dice and come over, I’d probably be a Sicilian dirt farmer. And believe me, from what I know of his upbringing in the old country, I wouldn’t have enjoyed life as much.

Yes, growing diversity causes some dislocations, social, financial and governmental. It’s painful. But growth always is. In the end, this country will be a much better place.