Brace Yourselves

Because as soon as the anti-multiculturalism contingent gets their hands on this, it’s gonna get ugly:

A bleak picture of the corrosive effects of ethnic diversity has been revealed in research by Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists.

His research shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone – from their next-door neighbour to the mayor.

…The core message of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.”

This is certainly not my experience. I lived in Chicago’s most ethnically diverse neighborhood, Rogers Park, for a decade, the last two years of which were spent as part of a condo association that looked like a mini-UN—whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, Jews, mixed-race individuals and couples, straight people, gay people. We were, collectively, desk jockies, teachers, nurses, actors, writers, hairstylists. Parents and not, religious and not. And we used to regularly hang out on each other’s back decks with a couple of beers and a grill going, talking about everything under the sun. We had each other’s spare keys. We fed each other’s pets during out-of-town holidays. We accepted each other’s packages. And I would find it simply astounding if we were some sort of crazy aberration.

Thusly, I’m suspicious of Putnam’s research. Also because I found his Bowling Alone to be to cultural anthropology what Dr. Phil is to psychiatry. (Putnam is not a cultural anthropologist, but a political scientist who addresses issues I would suggest are better left to cultural anthropologists.) My being suspicious shouldn’t be misconstrued as my suggesting I reject his conclusions outright; I don’t know enough about them from one article to draw any kind of informed opinion. But it’s this kind of stuff that raises my antennae:

Prof Putnam found trust was lowest in Los Angeles, “the most diverse human habitation in human history”, but his findings also held for rural South Dakota, where “diversity means inviting Swedes to a Norwegians’ picnic”.

Los Angeles has a whole slew of concerns attached to multiculturalism that other places might not, primarily immigration, which goes beyond people just not “looking alike.” And reducing diversity in South Dakota to “inviting Swedes to a Norwegians’ picnic” is ridiculous, considering its history with regard to Native Americans.

I’d love to go take a look at Putnam’s research, but he has delayed publishing it “until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity, saying it ‘would have been irresponsible to publish without that’.” Mmm, yes. It’s much more responsible to announce it, so we can get some good controversy going first. After all, without a big splash, he might not find his name in another one of President Bush’s speeches.

(Via.)