Diversity needs a broader definition and commitment
I did something interesting today. I typed the word "diversity" along with another word representing different races to see what the world is talking about when it comes to diversity.
The word diversity, alone, came up with about 90 million references. Wow. "Diversity" is a popular word.
Then I paired Diversity with other words and found: 18.2 million references to "Diversity" and "Black" (1.83 million if you use "Diversity" and "African American"); 1.8 million references to "Diversity" and "Hispanic"; 1.95 million references to "Diversity" and "Arab"; and 3.37 million references to "Diversity" and "Asian."
There were 2 million hits exactly for the phrase "cultural diversity," and 50 million hits for the words "cultural" and "diversity" used separately in the same document.
Searching through Google News, I found 646 references to Diversity and "African American" and 10 for Diversity and "Black"; 779 for Diversity and "Hispanic"; 858 for Diversity and "Asian"; and, 230 for Diversity and "Arab."
On Google News, there were 637 hits on articles that used "cultural diversity" as a phrase, and almost 3,000 hits for the two words used separately int he same document.
The word "diversity" alone will bring up 21,478 hits, which means that there are a lot of people writing things about diversity that are indexed on Google News that don't even mention Blacks, Hispanics, Asians or Arabs.
So what do all these statistics mean? Nothing, really. A search engine reflects the people using it and I think that the availability of computers to everyone is often skewered by societal parameters. The haves have and the havenots, well, have not.
But it did occur to me that maybe people like to discuss the topic of diversity without definining it. "Oh, we need diversity." Sounds good to hear it, but without the racial or ethnic partnership, maybe it's just meaningless.
As I looked more closely to the usage of the word diversity, I found that most of what is referenced has nothing to do with racial or ethnic diversity at all. (What? Did I expect the word "diversity" to be the domain only of Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Arabs?) Yes, there are lots of discussions about geographic diversity in terms of "products" and "services."
In 2004, a study was released by UNITY: Journalists of Color, which is not very diverse itself (as it excludes journalists of color who are not Black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American -- just ask them. I did.) Despite UNITY's failings as an organization, the study showed that only "one in 10 of the journalists covering the nation's capital for major newspapers and news groups are minorities."
Last week, Variety reported that the major television networks were becoming more diverse. Latinos have a higher representation in the television medium, although images of Asian and American Indians are "lagging behind." I know Saturday morning is filled with Hispanic themed cartoons for my kid, and George Lopez has his own comedy sitcom.
Our diversity as journalists is not diverse enough, apparently. And, clearly, we talk about diversity a lot.
But when it comes down to practicing diversity, well, that's another story, I guess.
So I shouldn't hold my breath that one day we'll have a TV sitcom featuring Arabs, nor will we have many newspapers that published columns by Arab Americans. God forbid a newspaper would be so unpatriotic.
Okay. I'll get off my "falafel box" (soapbox in Arabic) for the moment. But not long. :)
Ray Hanania
www.ArabWritersGroup.com