Diversity as a value, and the economic value of diversity
Growing up in Brooklyn in the late 1960s, I was a high school student rights advocate protesting integration in New York City schools and opposing the Vietnam War. At one point, I was the head of what we called the James Madison High School Coalition to End the War. We haven’t ended wars, and we certainly haven’t ended racism, but I’ve found comfort at times with Dr. King’s speech, “The arc of the moral universe is long but tilts toward justice.” I take that long view, although I see A culture tends to be tolerant but it would be foolish to ignore that hate speech, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and xenophobia exist in our country and are legitimized by social media. This hatred has always been there, but over the past decade it has emerged from under the rocks it used to hide from.
Growing up in Brooklyn, I knew I lived in a potentially unique place, and after attending college in Indiana, I began to wonder if I didn’t have a typical American education. The 1960s challenged the reflexive racism of our culture, and the 1970s began a sustained assault on sexism and homophobia. Those of us who grew up during that time learned a lot and had to deal with the attitudes we were raised to be who we wanted to be. Sometimes it’s painful, and often embarrassing, when we’re confronted with attitudes we’re not always aware of. Today, in 2023, I find it a never-ending job. But in the end, when I take my five-year-old granddaughter to Morningside Park and see her play with kids of different races and nationalities, I am thrilled by the diversity of the city I live in. I know segregation and income inequality characterize my hometown city, but these kids and their families seem to exist in another universe. I’m happy to live in that universe.
That said, for me, diversity is an ethical value, indeed a moral value. This is a principle I firmly believe in. We learn a lot when we interact with each other and share our different cultures and life experiences. In New York City, 40 percent of residents were born in other countries. Like my grandparents, they had the courage to travel far and wide to make a better life for themselves and their children. Like many Jewish New Yorkers, I was not fully aware of being part of a minority group growing up. But then learned about the Holocaust by asking my grandmother about the tattoos on some elderly people on Brighton Beach. Newcomers to New York interact with those of us who grew up in the “city” in countless ways and in countless places. In many parts of the world, you can never be a “local”. In New York, I think it takes about ten years. Of course, not more than one generation. In New York City, where 2 million people speak Spanish as their first language, my oldest granddaughter attends a public school that alternates English and Spanish classes. Thousands of immigrant children, herded from Texas by their pompous governor, are already enrolled in New York City public schools while their parents wait for the federal government to allow them to work. New York was built on the labor and energy of people who came here from elsewhere. Many African Americans came to New York City from the American South, and while some are now returning to the South, neighborhoods from Harlem to Bed-Stuy, and of course, the entire city have been influenced by their work, culture, and politics .
But diversity is not just a principle, it also has economic value. The American economy is dominated by our service economy. Joe Biden may want to bring manufacturing back to America, automation is already doing some of that, but 80% of our GDP is in the service economy. Software is more profitable than hardware these days. People in business know this. In 1950, when 95% of America’s clothing was produced in New York City, 500,000 people worked in the clothing industry, or what we used to call the used cloth industry. Today, almost no clothing other than samples is made here, but about 100,000 people in the New York fashion industry work to design, display and sell clothing. We are in what I often call a “brain-based economy.” The high value-added parts of the economy are creative, analytical, technical and strategic. That takes talent. It requires brainpower and creativity.
If I can recruit my people from all over the world, people from every country, race and ethnicity, regardless of gender or sexual preference, then by definition I am recruiting as much talent as possible. By excluding any group or individual, I’m essentially reducing the talents I can use. In a competitive global economy, diversity strengthens my organization and enables me to out-compete my competitors.
I know Joe Biden is trying to appeal to American workers who have been left behind by our politics, and in doing so he is promoting an America First economy, but he is swimming against the tide of technology and economic history. Worse, like Donald Trump, his views on manufacturing are outdated. A modern car plant employs hundreds, not thousands. Most of the labor is automated, and robots will take on more physical labor in the future. The construction industry is seeing the same trend. Buildings used to be constructed on site. Today, they are prefabricated in automated factories and assembled on site. Tomorrow’s work is different from yesterday’s work. Nostalgia has its value, but the idea of workers being unemployed due to immigration or export industries is outdated. Worse than faulty economic analysis is that it reinforces pathological thinking that leads to ridiculous concepts like white supremacist “alternative theory.” This is dangerous territory for President Biden to tread, and he would do a better job of trying to explain the modern economy to American workers.
Technology has led to automation, globalization, and a brain-based economy. It makes diversity both valuable and necessary. Inexpensive communications, computing and transportation are based on a wide range of new technologies, from mobile phones to the Internet to barcodes to container shipping. Our planet is shrinking as it gets more crowded. Inventions like FaceTime and Zoom have allowed families to live on different continents and stay connected. Remittances from immigrants in rich countries support household and capital formation in developing countries. It is important that people understand and understand that the interdependence of the global economy is now permanent and that no amount of nationalist threats of force will turn back the economic clock.
New York City’s resilience and strong economy stem directly from its diverse people and communities. People come here from all over the United States and the world, and they know they’ll find other folks from home who got here before them. It can be controversial, and all is not peace and love, but it is remarkable in how it works and thrives. I am thrilled as I learn about different cultures, histories, foods, and arts, and never take the amazing complexity of human communities for granted. New York’s energy comes from its people and its diverse friendships, workplaces and relationships. This engagement is active, productive, and worth maintaining and protecting.
