Is diversity really good for us? An American professor's view

Maxime Bernier, a Conservative member of the Canadian Parliament, made this week's news bigtime by posting a series of six tweets in which he dared to suggest that the "diversity" preached incessantly by Canuck PM Just In Trudeau has gone far enough, even too far. Canada is diverse enough, said M Bernier, and more diversity will destroy what was a great country. "The Great White North"... no more.

That M Bernier dared to say what hundreds of thousands of Canadians are thinking has led to his being pilloried in the lamestream media, particularly the state-owned Canadian Broadcorping Castration. Just today they are seeking to connect him to the cutting down of a sign in a Winterpeg park which, for some bizarre reason, was renamed to honour the Pakistani leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who insisted on the partition of India, at the end of the British Raj, into separate Hindu and Muslim states, which resulted in a bloodbath in which millions were killed.

But I digress. Here are a couple of excerpts from the now-famous Bernier tweets.
Having people live among us who reject basic Western values such as freedom, equality, tolerance and openness doesn’t make us strong. People who refuse to integrate into our society and want to live apart in their ghetto don’t make our society strong....
Trudeau's extreme multiculturalism and cult of diversity will divide us into little tribes that have less and less in common, apart from their dependence on government....
More diversity will not be our strength, it will destroy what has made us such a great country.
Click here to read all six tweets, in their entirety.

Such views are not often aired in Canada, especially since the Liberal-majority House of Commons adopted bill M-103, which is a thinly veiled warning to anyone thinking of challenging the progressive narrative. Political incorrectness will be punished! In the USA, however the First Amendment to the Constitution still protects freedom of speech, although sometimes you really have to fight for it.

One person who has had the courage to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy is Edward J. Erler, Professor Emeritus of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and co-author of The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration: Principles and Challenges in America. On 11 April 2018, Prof. Erler delivered a speech to a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Colorado Springs. In it, he raised points very similar to those raised three months later by Maxime Bernier. Like these...

Our progressive politicians and opinion leaders proclaim their commitment to diversity almost daily, chanting the same refrain: "Diversity is our strength." This is the gospel according to political correctness. But how does diversity strengthen us? Is it a force for unity and cohesiveness? Or is it a source of division and contention? 

Does it promote the common good and the friendship that rests at the heart of citizenship? Or does it promote racial and ethnic division and something resembling the tribalism that prevents most of the world from making constitutional government a success? When is the last time we heard anyone in Washington talk about the common good? We are used to hearing talk about the various stakeholders and group interests, but not much about what the nation has in common.

This should not be surprising. Greater diversity means inevitably that we have less in common, and the more we encourage diversity the less we honor the common good. Any honest and clear-sighted observer should be able to see that diversity is a solvent that dissolves the unity and cohesiveness of a nation -- and we should not be deceived into believing that its proponents do not understand the full impact of their advocacy!

The emphasis is mine. For the full text (adapted for print) click here to read "Does Diversity Really Unite Us? Citizenship and Immigration", in Imprimis, July-August 2018.

Footnote: While researching this piece, Ed. stumbled (aided by Ma Nifkins' jellied gin, perhaps) on a truly ridiculous "Table of Diversity", devised by "diversity leaders" to help in "hiring, retaining, and developing diverse talent". Click on the link to evaluate how the intersectionality of your diversity qualifies you for a highly-paid position in the human rights industry... or welfare.... As long as you're not a straight, white, born-in-the-USA male, the choice is yours!