Diversity 2.

0
A Framework for 21 st Century Canada

Duane Aubin
Revision C

Overview
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
DISCOVERING DIVERSITY ....................................................................................................................................... 6
CULTURE CONVERSATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 9
DIVERSITY 1.0 WE ARE DIVERSE ..................................................................................................................... 15
DIVERSITY 2.0 WE DO DIVERSE ...................................................................................................................... 22
DECONSTRUCTING AND REFRAMING DIVERSITY.................................................................................................. 26
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................................... 28

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Contents
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
DISCOVERING DIVERSITY ....................................................................................................................................... 6
COSMIC DIVERSITY .........................................................................................................................................................6
BIODIVERSITY ................................................................................................................................................................6
COMPLEMENTARY PRODUCTIVITY ......................................................................................................................................6
In sports ................................................................................................................................................................7
In engineering .......................................................................................................................................................7
CULTURE CONVERSATIONS .................................................................................................................................... 9
WHAT IS CULTURE? A WORKING DEFINITION .......................................................................................................................9
Hallmark of humanity ...........................................................................................................................................9
Biologically logical.................................................................................................................................................9
Connected ...........................................................................................................................................................10
Complicated ........................................................................................................................................................10
Is Culture obsolete? ............................................................................................................................................10
Black History Month is still important for Black people ......................................................................................11
Problem, Solution ............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Eliminated culture ............................................................................................................................................................ 11
Eliminated history ............................................................................................................................................................ 12
Restoring history, rebuilding culture ................................................................................................................................ 12

Black History Month is for everyone ...................................................................................................................12

URBAN CANADA TODAY ................................................................................................................................................13
The social process of Industrial Age diversity ......................................................................................................13
DIVERSITY 1.0 WE ARE DIVERSE ..................................................................................................................... 15
THE LIMITATIONS OF LAW ..............................................................................................................................................15
Ontario Human Rights Commission ....................................................................................................................15
Grounds and Social Areas ...................................................................................................................................15
Reasoned applications...................................................................................................................................................... 16
Competing grounds .......................................................................................................................................................... 16

The problem ........................................................................................................................................................16

READINGS ON EQUALITY ................................................................................................................................................17
We are the same .................................................................................................................................................17
Seeing individuals beyond stereotypes ............................................................................................................................ 17
Enfranchisement .............................................................................................................................................................. 18

We are not all the same...................................................................................................................................19

Differences do matter ...................................................................................................................................................... 19
Handicapped parking, Affirmative Action and leveling the playing field .......................................................................... 19
Who owns the discussion? Language matters ................................................................................................................. 21

DIVERSITY 2.0 WE DO DIVERSE ...................................................................................................................... 22

ACTIVE, OUTWARD, CONFIDENT ......................................................................................................................................22
RESPONSIBILITY............................................................................................................................................................22
Incumbents..........................................................................................................................................................22

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Diversity 2.0

Minorities ............................................................................................................................................................23
When in Rome .....................................................................................................................................................23
DECONSTRUCTING AND REFRAMING DIVERSITY.................................................................................................. 26
CULTURES IN CONTRAST ................................................................................................................................................26
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED.........................................................................................................................................26
Classics ................................................................................................................................................................26
Asch (1951) Conformity: Line Length ........................................................................................................................... 26
Milgram (1963) Obedience: Shock ............................................................................................................................... 26
Latane and Darley (1969) Diffusion: Smoke in the Room ............................................................................................ 26
Zimbardo (1971) Roles: Stanford Prison Experiment ................................................................................................... 27

The bright side ....................................................................................................................................................27

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................................... 28

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Diversity 2.0

Introduction
Canada is on the cusp of demographic shifts weve never seen before. Among other significant statistics
and trends, consider implications of the following highlights:

2011 81% of Canadians live in urban centres. 35% of all Canadians live in Toronto, Montreal
and Vancouver;
By 2015 there will be more seniors 65 years of age and older than children 13 and younger,
for the first time in the history of the country;
By 2017 53% of the populations of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver will be of visible
minority;
By 2030 all population growth in Canada will derive from immigration.

This new landscape will present new challenges. Meeting these challenges and capitalizing on the
opportunities inherent in these shifts will require a shift in how we think about diversity. The
assumptions underlying the world views that informed social policy and discourse to-date are outdated,
and need to be revisited; diversity to-date has manifested itself according to those outdated
worldviews, reinforcing divisive tendencies that weaken a broader social fabric; tomorrows Canada
requires a worldview that reflects modern realities.
Diversity 2.0 takes cues from the natural world, demonstrating the ubiquitous nature and mechanical
advantage of diversity, and presents diversity as a tool that, properly used, can meet the challenges of
an aging and diverse population.
In order to put diversity to good use; to maximize its strengths and minimize its potential to do harm, we
need to better understand it. I hope Martin Goldfarb is right when he says that Diversity 2.0 can be a
significant agent for change in Canada.

Duane Aubin
aubin@oughtthoughts.com

This framework is written from the individual perspective of a male Canadian of Jamaican, Scottish and
French descent/heritage, drawing from personal reflections, research in social psychology as well as
Canadian and American data and statistics. The principles are to be applied to the local circumstances of
each reader; while politics and world views differ from region to region around the globe, the
foundational aspects of diversity are universal.

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Diversity 2.0

when its hot, and motion we can move, we can get somewhere in a well-oiled machine of parts
working smoothly together.
Thus, its reasonably apparent that diversity

is natural,
is ubiquitous,
is a critical component of productivity, when different parts can complement each other and
work together towards win-win outcomes; and, most importantly,
can be leveraged by human beings; that human ingenuity and planning can devise complex
processes that are neither exploitative nor wasteful, but maximize potentials to integrate a wide
array of diverse social assets, towards increased productivity.

This concept, intelligently working together for mutual benefit or symbiosis, is the objective of the
Diversity 2.0 framework, and its important to remember that this is not a new concept rather, it is as
old as life itself, yet it has somehow managed to be forgotten, neglected, and even attacked in the
human experience. Diversity 2.0 seeks to rescue, and to reintroduce, productive diversity for its potency,
potential, logical value and necessity in 21st century Canada.
If this way of understanding diversity is true, why does it appear that we generally do not like our
differences? (a presumption? Perhaps it is. Defending it is beyond the scope of this paper, but I believe
that conclusion would emerge in the research of the average person).
In the context of demographic and socio-economic concerns, our differences are generally about
cultures and sub-cultures but, in order to understand that question, we need to better understand what
culture is. In so doing, well be able to see why, to a limited degree, it makes sense that we dont like
people who are different than we are; but, beyond that, well be able to see why we must lean on our
rational intellect to overcome the psychological conditioning of cultural reinforcement that can become
irrational and counter-productive all-too-quickly.

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Diversity 2.0

Urban Canada Today

Most countries are divided into two primary groups urban and rural. Countries are typically made up
of a relatively few commerce centres, urban centres of higher population density where diversity and
proximity are leveraged by movers and shakers to drive thought, commerce and progress. More people
come and go through these centres, which are strategically and liberally sprinkled amongst wider
patches of rural community, smaller populations that move a little slower and shake a little less, and
typically have a social fabric woven in homogeneity.

The social process of Industrial Age diversity

I roughly summarize the social cycle by which people come to and establish in another area as follows:
Identity Isolation Insulation Alienation Stigmatization Fortification Galvanization

Identity people seek out people who look like them, understand their struggles, can help them
get through. Theyll share resources, experiences, and generally support each other through a
shared language and world view. Further, to deal with the stress of relocation, customs, foods
and recreation from home provides comfort. Together they become an in-group.
Isolation people settle down amongst others who look like them. As a natural course, those
who do not identity with them tend not to stay amongst them. Thus, not only are people like us
moving in, but people who are not like us move out, and an enclave emerges.
Insulation for various reasons, the people in an enclave find less resistance to progress if they
develop services and commerce within their enclave and ingroup network. To increase their
own identity viability, they develop their enclaves independence from the wider society, and
become inward in focus. They may put their native language on street signs and shop signs,
displacing the national language(s) altogether; build their own schools; patronize shops and
services within the boundaries of their enclave; forge new relationships within the in-group
network, etc.
Alienation the lack of interaction, communication and new relationships outside the
enclave/in-group means other people do not get to learn about and get to know that in-group;
thus, ignorance can entrench. Thus, does stigmatization.
Stigmatization when the surrounding out-group creates slurs to label members of an in-group,
stigmatization is reinforced. When terms such as you people emerge, its an indication that
the person speaking is referring to the in-group and its members as different than themselves,
most often negatively.
Fortification circling the wagons to protect the in-group from the attacks of the out-group
include cultural celebration, as well as promotion of cultural expressions as better than that of
others. Its about the build-up of cultural expression that is then used as a counter-attack (preemption, the best defense is a good offence) of the expressions of the attackers.
Galvanization fortifying heightens the identity perception, and the cycle continues.

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Bibliography
Backhouse, Constance. (1999). Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 19001950. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press.
Goldfarb, Martin and Howard Aster. (2010). Affinity Beyond Branding. Toronto: McArthur & Co.
Gould, Stephen Jay. (1994). The Mismeasure of Man: Revised edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Grabb, Edward G. (1990). Theories of Social Inequality: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives (2nd ed).
Toronto: Harcourt Brace & Company.
Herrnstein, Richard J. and Charles Murray. (1994). The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in
American Life. New York: Free Press.
Hoffman, Lester and Skip Pettit. (2001). Moving Beyond Bias: Diversity & Inclusion Strategies.
Gaithersburg, MD: ITC Press International.
Murray, Charles. (1995). Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 19501980. New York: Basic Books.
Myers, David G. (1996). Social Psychology (5th ed.). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Ontario Human Rights Commission, http://www.ohrc.on.ca
Sampson, Edward E. (1991). Social Worlds, Personal Lives: An Introduction to Social Psychology. San
Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Tepperman, Lorne, and Susannah J. Wilson. (1996). Choices and Chances: Sociology for Everyday Life.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
The Human Behavior Experiments 2006 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YUMxsj6rl4)

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