Book Argues Race Issues Obscure Nation’s Economic Divide

“A new book by a University of Illinois at Chicago literary theorist explores American society’s emphasis on cultural differences and the resulting lack of attention devoted to economic inequality.

“The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality” (Metropolitan Books, 2006) by Walter Benn Michaels, UIC professor and head of English, examines diversity in America, the growing divide between rich and poor, and the need for genuine social justice.

“We love race — we love identity — because we don’t love class,” Michaels writes. “We love thinking that the differences that divide us are not the differences between those of us who have money and those who don’t but are instead the differences between those of us who are black and those who are white or Asian or Latino or whatever.”

Michaels contends that the prevailing commitment to race and anti-racism initiatives associated with affirmative action, university enrollment, and corporate training allows society to overlook the need for economic equality.”

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