don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

For over 200 years, there has been strong support in America for certain ideals and entitlements of citizenship, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now comes another notion that some see as equally worthy as these tried, true, tested and universally-celebrated standards. Meet diversity.

Diversity is a sound ideal. While the U.S. may be more diverse today than ever, diversity is hardly a new idea for a country populated and nurtured almost entirely by immigrants. However, not everyone is now, or ever was, enamored by all the manifestations of diversity. Consider, for instance, the unpleasantries attributed to conflicts racial in nature (the war between the states and the extended battles for civil rights for a century or more AFTER the Civil War ended) as well as the current strife between secular democrats and religious fundamentalists. Diversity can take divisive forms. Yet, all citizens have equal rights and should expect fair opportunities. So, while diversity is a sound ideal, the "melting pot" notion of society is not universally embraced. Not everyone wants to be melted into some type of blend, as was once the case with immigrants, but everyone wants equal opportunity and nearly everyone seems to support the merits of diversity.

Diversity becomes contentious when government edicts are used to promote workplace and other entitlements associated with competing interest groups based on race and ethnicity. While most people have no problems with diversity as a general idea, reasonable and decent people can and do hold varying perspectives about the details of promoting it. In particular, details or rules as to when, how, for whom and under what conditions diversity is necessary or desirable are the kinds of specifics that are divisive, which is not the same as diverse!

A contemporary danger is that all of this might be seen in the extreme annoyances of the politically correct movement. This hazard is wickedly captured in a Gary Larson "Far Side" cartoon in which a part-frog/part-man (seated before wine glasses at an elegant table set in a bog) says to his girlfriend, "Well, actually Doreen, I rather resent being called a `swamp thing.' I prefer the term `wetlands challenged mutant.' "

Potential problems with workplace diversity arise when jobs are scarce and resources are limited. This might prompt some groups to make Orwellian claims to being "more equally" diverse or impaired than some other group. We see this when one group demands entitlements at the expense of another group. We see it when government-initiated and sponsored accommodations for one interest group discriminate against some other, and when "numerical goals" (quotas) and other compensations for past injustices prove injurious to inter-group harmony. In my view, "affirmative action" programs are government-enforced generators of racial and ethnic tensions that could Balkanize the country. Under such conditions, fair-minded men and women, themselves of "diverse" backgrounds, sometimes find the details of a good concept hard to take.

These kinds of broad civil contentions have had little or no impact on self-management or health promotion programming, even at the corporate level. A few years ago, a health promotion organization named WELCOA commissioned a publication entitled "Health Promotion for All" by a friend of mine named Stephen Ramirez. It was designed to advance the goal of full inclusion for all groups in health promotion, a goal nobody opposed. However, it did address another matter related to diversity, which was and remains controversial, namely, the just-mentioned diversity in hiring and advancement via affirmative action programs.

The Ramirez book listed some of the issues that had to be overcome if diversification efforts were to succeed. It was intended to encourage a transition from government-enforced quota systems that generated racial and ethnic tensions toward more cooperative, tolerant and ethnic/racially-blind conditions at the organizational and social levels of society.

Anyone who cares about personal excellence should be interested in ways to bring people together, identify our connections, celebrate tolerance and inculcate responsibility. There is a need to reach those at highest risk of illness due to self-destructive lifestyles with health promotion messages, and many in this category are in the sub-cultures targeted by diversification efforts. It is important to forthrightly address barriers to diversity acceptance and to avoid platitudes of cultural sensitivity. There truly is value in promoting tolerance and concrete ideas for responsibility and cost constraints. However, these outcomes are not likely given preferential treatments, incentives for some and not others, multiple language requirements or other actions that divide rather than unite divergent groups of people.

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, whose rulings are more often than not aligned with the right wing zealot minority of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia, pointed out that by focusing so passionately on the differences among us, we overlook much that we have in common. Let's respect our differences while doing what we can to defuse tensions and build on commonalities.

That's my take on this issue. What do YOU think? Cheers.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of stress management. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

 Send e-mail to Don Ardell