Shakil Choudhury - Deep Diversity: A Compassionate, Scientific Approach to Achieving Racial Justice

PRAISE FOR DEEP DIVERSITY

Everyone working on race issues should read this book. Even when you dont agree, you will be provoked to think harder about the enormity of our challenge, and how to generate the emotional, as well as intellectual, fortitude to meet that challenge. RINKU SEN, author of The Accidental American

Deep Diversity provides a panoramic view of our social landscape and a deep dive into issues of implicit bias, personal and systemic power dynamics, and the potential for healing and racial justice.

JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

Deep Diversity offers an important analysis to help us achieve the genuine reconciliation that we must achieve between Canadians and Indigenous Peoples in order to move forward.

ARTHUR MANUEL, Neskonlith, Secwepemc Nation, coauthor of Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call

Choudhury provides an open, honest, and plainspoken view of diversity issues. [His] approach provides a method by which both sides of any disagreement can be empowered to join the conversation and actually want change. CHOICE CONNECT

Deep Diversity... coherently presents scientific evidence, a systems thinking analysis of structural racism as well as mindfulness and self-care as much-needed and interconnected foundations for authentic personal and social change from within. GERY PAREDES VSQUEZ, race and gender equity director, YWCA Madison

Deep Diversity is a groundbreaking book taking a giant step towards overcoming pervasive racism in our society. JUDY REBICK, author of Heroes in My Head and Ten Thousand Roses

Scholarly, inspiring, and full of hope, this is a book full of wisdom of how to create a better world. PAUL GILBERT, author of The Compassionate Mind

Copyright 2021 by Shakil Choudhury

Published by Greystone Books in 2021

First edition published as Deep Diversity: Overcoming Us vs. Them in 2015 by Between the Lines

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright license, visit accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Some names have been changed to protect the identity of those involved. Every effort has been made to secure permission for all material quoted or recounted.

Greystone Books Ltd.

greystonebooks.com

Cataloging data available from Library and Archives Canada

ISBN 978-1-77164-901-8 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-77164-902-5 (epub)

Editing on first edition by Mary Newberry

Editing on second edition by Jennifer Croll

Copyediting by Jess Schulman

Proofreading by Meg Yamamoto

Indexing by Alison Strobel

Jacket and text design by Jessica Sullivan

Author photo by Darius Bashar

Greystone Books gratefully acknowledges the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples on whose land our office is located.

Greystone Books thanks the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit, and the Government of Canada for supporting our publishing activities.

To Arion, Koda, and the next generation...
May you Build on our successes and learn from our mistakes, Grow the Beloved Community to shelter from the storm, Use the sacred fire of hope to feed your courage.

DEEP DIVERSITY is an approach to identifying, understanding, and tackling the hidden and unconscious ways in which racism shows up in society today, including within ourselves. Deep Diversity is unusual as it blends the principles of compassion, justice, and psychology, like imagining a kitchen-table conversation where the Dalai Lama, Black Lives Matter, and Carl Jung find common ground.

Existing racial tensions and social divisions have only increased as a result of COVID-19, Donald Trump, and the George Floyd protests with global repercussions. We are in a post-pandemic world that has brought our health and international economy to its knees. Described by many as the most severe crisis since World War Two, the devastation includes a global death toll in the millions since the first cases of COVID-19 were detected at the end of 2019. Its remarkable to remember that early in the crisis, half the worlds populationover three billion peoplewas in extended lockdown or quarantine at the same timea uniquely singular moment in history. The damage to national economies has been extensive with major industries hard hit including tourism, airlines, travel, movie/TV production, sports, and arts, not to mention the millions of small businesses that struggled to survive or that shut down entirely.

But the coronavirus served to exacerbate problems that were already present.

It came on the coattails of an era politically defined by the emergence of right-wing populist leaders with nationalistic, protectionist, and authoritarian tendencies. The most successful and powerful was the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the United States presidency in 2016. Trump changed the rules of the game and altered all expectations of political leadership with his brash, media-savvy, take-no-prisoners style of communication and unpredictable decision-making. His Twitter tirades simultaneously delighted his base and enraged his opponents.

Although Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, the brazen mob attack by his supporters on the Capitol Building in Washington on January 6, 2021, as well as firm allegiance by almost all Republican leaders who continued to defend him publicly even at the time of this books completion, indicate we have not entered a Trump-free world.

It is safe to say that Trump divided the electorate into Us/Them like no prior U.S. president, damaging the social fabric of American democracy in the process. The rise of white nationalism and hate crimes, fake news, Russian interference, corruption, and impeachment were just a few of the polarizing hallmarks of his four years in office. More ominous were the countrys lurching leaps toward authoritarianism with Trumps contempt for the rule of law and democratic traditions, continual attacks on journalists, and open admiration of current-day dictators like Russias Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un of North Korea. Even following his defeat in the 2020 general election, he refused to concede to Joe Biden, aggressively spreading conspiracy theories that the election was rigged, in spite of the complete lack of evidence. With widespread documentation of his pathological lying, Trump greatly eroded the key ingredient for democracy