Frederick R. Lynch - The Diversity Machine: The Drive to Change the white Male Workplace

Lynch shows that the diversity machine-with its underlying ideology of ethnic-gender proportionalism, cultural relativism, and identity politics-can only foment social acrimony. -Brad Stetson, First Things Frederick Lynch has opened up the curtain and shown how large organizations-not only universities but major corporations-have used affirmative action programs to create a new form of racial and gender discrimination. -Michael Barone, U.S. News & World Report Diversity has become the turn-of-the-century buzzword. Republican and Democratic leaders ritually chant diversity is our strength and corporate CEOs talk about the need to create a workforce that looks like America. Most corporate mission statements now contain a clause on valuing differences and millions of employees have completed-or soon will undergo-some sort of diversity training. Where did all this come from -and why? Who created diversity programs? How do they differ? How effective are these policies? Can they do more harm than good in organizations and in the wider society? During the past decade, sociologist Frederick R. Lynch studied the rise of a social policy movement that has successfully moved multiculturalism from universities and foundations into the courts, mass media, and the American workplace. The new diversity policies are future-oriented and market-driven, eclipsing old affirmative action debates about overcoming past discrimination against blacks. Based on more than six years of field research and hundreds of interviews, Lynch tracks the development and impact of different forms of diversity policies at dozens of consultant gatherings, in the business and professional literature and through in-depth case studies such as the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He profiles the major consultants who have powered the diversity machine, analyzes the benefits and drawbacks of various approaches to workplace diversity and provides numerous you-are-there samples of workshops, seminars, and conferences. The book is written for the general reader interested in public-policy issues, social scientists, and others interested in the origins and consequences of workplace diversity policies. Frederick R. Lynch is associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. He is author of Invisible Victims: White Males and the Crisis of Affirmative Action and dozens of articles in professional journals as well as the Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, and Commentary. He has been profiled in Forbes Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and on national newscasts and television programs.