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Book Argues Race Issues Obscure Nation's Economic Divide
Newswise — A new book by a University of Illinois at Chicago literary theorist explores American society's emphasis on cultural differences and the resulting lack of attention devoted to economic inequality.
"The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality" (Metropolitan Books, 2006) by Walter Benn Michaels, UIC professor and head of English, examines diversity in America, the growing divide between rich and poor, and the need for genuine social justice.
"We love race -- we love identity -- because we don't love class," Michaels writes. "We love thinking that the differences that divide us are not the differences between those of us who have money and those who don't but are instead the differences between those of us who are black and those who are white or Asian or Latino or whatever."
Michaels contends that the prevailing commitment to race and anti-racism initiatives associated with affirmative action, university enrollment, and corporate training allows society to overlook the need for economic equality.
"Classes are not like races and cultures, and treating them as if they were -- different but equal -- is one of our strategies for managing inequality rather than minimizing it or eliminating it."
One example of the economic imbalance is the country's education system, where Michaels maintains the rich have a built-in competitive advantage over the poor.
"The kinds of solutions that might actually make a difference -- financing every school district equally, abolishing private schools, making high-quality child care available to every family -- are treated as if they were positively un-American," he explains in the book's introduction.
While Michaels spreads blame across both sides of the political spectrum for economic inequality, he believes liberalism has become "the accomplice rather than the opponent of the right" in this matter.
He urges the Left to change its course.
"We must shift our focus from cultural diversity to economic equality to help alter the political terrain of contemporary American life," he writes.
Michaels, a UIC faculty member since 2001, is considered one of the country's leading literary theorists. Much of his work examines American literature and inequality, specifically issues of race and class.
He is the author of "The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History" (2004); "Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism" (1995); and "The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism: American Literature at the Turn of the Century" (1987).
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.
For more information about UIC, please visit http://www.uic.edu
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