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In spite of decades of diversity policy and practice, America is in many ways more divided than ever when it comes to issues of identity. Critics from the political left argue that we simply need more diversity to overcome the division, while critics from the political right argue that diversity has devolved into an unworkable set of unfair entitlements that are themselves the cause of the division. Understanding the Misunderstanding, the first part of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, explains the sources and causes of the social divide in America, and also shows how neither the political left nor the political right have understood the problem or offered meaningful solutions. As this book shows, the short answer is that we've been doing diversity wrong all along. What is needed is not more diversity, but rather a different diversity, one that works fairly and equally for all of us. According to the US Supreme Court, the primary function of diversity is to provide a "robust exchange of ideas" among different identity groups to facilitate the creation of an integrated American society. But rather than a robust exchange of ideas, we more often have rancorous shouting matches, or even worse, long periods of resentful silence. And rather than an integrated society, we have one that seems to be disintegrating right before our eyes. Understanding the Misunderstanding is a lively, accessible, and provocative read that speaks to both the political left and the political right. It says what needs to be said, what others have been afraid to say, and offers bold solutions for vexatious problems. Anyone with an interest in race relations, identity politics, social justice, or the current state of American democracy will want to read this book.

One of the unfortunate by-products of our current approach to diversity has been the creation of an enclave society. Since the benefits of diversity are apportioned by group identity, diversity encourages us to find our own group and then "stick with our own kind." The result is inter-group rivalry and a deeply-divided society, one based on separate enclaves of identity that rarely if ever interact. If diversity is supposed to provide a way for us to understand each other, then the rise of an enclave society is perhaps the central example of the extravagant failure of diversity in America. Liberating the Enclave, which is Part 2 of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, offers a critical tour of several of these enclaves and also provides a different version of diversity that helps lead us out of our enclaves rather than, as we currently have it, sheltering within them. Diversity is the most important social issue of our time. The rise of identity-based enclaves represents the biggest threat to the success of diversity, since those enclaves in essence institutionalize the divisions that exist along the fault-lines of things like race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and so other forms of identity. Diversity is supposed to create an understanding of others that tears down the walls that divide us. What we have instead is a diversity that builds ever stronger and ever higher walls between the enclaves that separate us. Liberating the Enclave presents an unflinching look at the construction of these enclaves and the divisive politics that created them and that they in turn have exacerbated and entrenched. This is a book that breaks through the silence and breaks down the walls. Getting diversity right and creating a social justice that works for us all will not be an easy task, but this book has the grit and ambition to show how it is possible and how to get it done right.

Although most people think first of politics when they think of diversity, history plays a surprisingly powerful and influential role in the creation of diversity as well. Identity is to a certain extent a narrative we tell about who we are and where we came from, and since diversity is primarily a group-based competitive process, group-based historical narratives become expressive claims to the spoils of diversity. This has lamentably created a debilitating sensitivity to any outside criticism of these group-based historical narratives, as any criticism is interpreted as a denial of all of part of the group's identity. Writing the Past Imperfect, which is Part 3 of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, shows how the rejection of critical perspectives on the past works to create a form of collective censorship in the present. Diversity is supposed to allow us to talk about and ask questions of our identities, in the hope of fostering inter-cultural understanding, but the excessive sensitivity toward the recounting of the past has made this all but impossible. The social justice component of diversity is supposed to offer a diversity that applies to and works for all of us equally, which in the case of identity-based historical narratives, would require equal scrutiny of and equally critical perspectives toward the writing of these historical narratives. But given that these historical narratives are used to stake a claim for diversity in the present, what has happened instead is a form of historical protectionism, in which identity-groups strive to put their narratives beyond question, offering criticism of other group-based histories while rejecting and deflecting criticism of their own. Writing the Past Imperfect argues that the only way for diversity to create equality and social justice in the present is to create an equally critical perspective on the past, not just our own past, but the pasts of others as well. Without the ability to ask questions of the many pasts that led us all to the present, we have no way to create mutual understanding. And without mutual understanding, we have only separation and division, the opposite of what diversity is supposed to provide.

Diversity was supposed to offer us respect and understanding. Yet somehow we ended up with so much resentment and confusion, so much division and discord, that for many, the project is ruined. The well of diversity has been poisoned. With a bit of effort and introspection, however, there is still great hope to pull off the impossible and unpoison the well and let diversity do the wonderful things it was supposed to do in the first place. Unpoisoning the Well, which is Part 4 of the four-part series Ourselves Among Others: The Extravagant Failure of Diversity in America and An Epic Plan to Make It Work, offers a game-changing plan to do exactly that. Drawing on real-world scenarios and offering a set of rules and guidelines that can be applied equally and fairly to ourselves and to others, this book concludes the series by offering an epic plan to reset diversity and push it in the direction it was always meant to go. Whether in the workplace or in the classroom, or in any place where diversity might be an issue, Unpoisoning the Well offers a constructive vision of how to recalibrate and re-craft diversity in productive and creative ways. Whether you are a business manager or a CEO, a new employee or a seasoned worker, a teacher or a student, this book offers something new for everyone in a field where almost nothing new has been offered in such a long time. Simply doing more and more of what we have been doing for so long, in the name of diversity and inclusion and equity, won't get us where we need to be. It isn't more diversity that we need. What we need is a better and different diversity, one that unpoisons the well, and one that works equally for all of us, whether among ourselves or among others.