Sunday, August 20, 2023

Diversity without Division

We can avoid creating new divisions and tensions as we seek the benefits and justice of greater diversity.

By Wayne Prins, Executive Director

HAVE YOU NOTICED THERE SEEMS to be anger everywhere around society these days? I sure have. Some of the anger is right and good. We should be angry when power is abused, people are harmed, or certain groups are oppressed.

Anger is the appropriate response to injustice and is often the first step toward positive change. At other times, however, anger is not helpful or healthy, like when it’s the product of the wrong approach to a problem.

You may also have noticed that society is swirling with talk of diversity, from political leaders declaring “diversity is our strength” to the widespread focus on diversity in public policy and workplace policy.

Anger and the pursuit of diversity have a complex relationship. Much of the current emphasis on diversity started with anger over the lack of it. When diversity is rooted in oppression or discrimination—a violation of human dignity—anger is the appropriate response, and it can lead to positive change.

Unfortunately, the modern push for diversity often unintentionally leads to new and heated division and conflict among people. The question we must ask is how can we avoid creating new divisions and tensions as we seek the benefits and justice of greater diversity?

I believe part of the answer can be drawn from CLAC’s approach to labour relations. The tensions that naturally exist within a work community are, in a way, representative of the tensions that exist in society. A workplace is full of varying roles and responsibilities, power is not equally distributed, interests among people are not perfectly aligned, and everyone has to find a way to coexist in some degree of harmony.

The traditional labour movement’s approach to these tensions is to view them all as the product of class struggle—an inherent and irreconcilable conflict between those with the power to control the workplace and those without. This is an identity-based approach to the tension, and their solution is to fight power with power. Inevitably, the result of their approach is division and conflict.

CLAC, on the other hand, says class and identity are subordinate to the inherent dignity and equality of all people, regardless of role and responsibility. The natural outcome of this way of viewing all people within the workplace is a pursuit of cooperation and respect, and good outcomes for everyone are achieved through dialogue and agreement, not by the exercise of power.

Now apply this model to society at large. When the pursuit of diversity is predicated on identity alone, division and conflict will always be the result, because it is fundamentally a power struggle between groups of people. But when the pursuit of diversity is predicated on the dignity and equality of everyone, justice and fairness can be achieved in a peaceful and unified manner.

Diversity is a vital and noble pursuit in our society, and so many systemic injustices can be addressed when the goals of diversity are achieved. But I believe the mainstream focus—dare I say obsession—on identity simply generates new division and conflict, replacing old wrongs with new ones.

Shifting our focus away from identity and toward dignity is the only way to achieve diversity, with all its benefits, without division.

Diversity without Division

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